Selling houses.

Advice from Penny at pennyshenhouse.blogspot.co.uk 
to stay calm.  Well, I am at the moment.  APART FROM when you try to view our particulars they do not come up....so how a prospective purchaser finds us aaargh. Plus its the bank holiday weekend so I am unable to rectify.

We had another viewing today.


 

Quite a  difference from our current home.  Village life as opposed to

 
But round the corner is this.

 
Rosehearty is on the Moray Coast.  Left a bit from Fraserburgh.  Fishing village.  It has a proper butcher, a shop, a hairdresser, a post office, a library, a school, two pubs.  (Whooooo I could take up darts again.)

The Dawn Patroller is cramming as much in as possible here.

Our bird count consists of the above plus  blue tit, great tit, coal tit, chaffinch, robin, blackbird, goldfinch,  dunnock, crow, starling, jackdaw, greenfinch, rook, et al.

However at Rosehearty there are 

Sea Otters.  


Right - back to selling houses.   The house we viewed today, as we were leaving I turned and saw this

Ye Gods, tis one of mine.  Thats how you sell a house.  Have a painting on display done by the potential purchaser.  Now how weird is that!.
 

Friends.

What a day weather wise!  As I was performing my morning ablutions there were loud bangs and rumblings.  Concerned about central heating and plumbing, the house ones not mine, I staggered through to the kitchen.  I then saw out of the window flashes of lightning and the rumblings and bangs were explained.  This on a day that was grey and very misty.  So, rather strange to be in the middle of a thunderstorm.

Some time ago I had agreed to have a stall to raise money for Pitsligo Castle.

 
Rosehearty (Scottish Gaelic: Ros Abhartaich) is a settlement on the Moray Firth coast, four miles west of the town Fraserburgh, in the historical county of Aberdeenshire in Scotland.
The burgh has a population of approximately 1,300 with about 25 per cent of pensionable age. There is one shop, a butcher, a hairdresser and three hotels in the village.
The settlement which is now Rosehearty was founded by a group of shipwrecked Danes in the 14th century^{[citation needed]}. In 1424 the Fraser family built Pitsligo Castle a few hundred yards inland; the castle was enlarged by the Forbes family in 1570. The remains of the Castle are visible from Rosehearty.
Rosehearty didn't officially exist until it was granted a charter in the 1680s by King Charles II.

Wikepedia.

 Pitsligo Castle as you can see is a ruin.  But one still worth halting the ruin.

So The Friends of Pitsligo Castle was formed and it was they who were on a fund raising two days which was to be just up the road in Peathill Church.

Peathill is now decomissioned as a place of worship but apart from that it is still a kirk.  Pews, pulpit and the unique Pitsligo Pew.

I assume that is where the Laird sat.

Lots of history round this and the Kirk which I may tell you about one day.  But for today I was there to sell pictures.  11 til 4.

My stall.  

 
  Interior of the church.

A pleasant surprise was that the other stall holders were my friends.

 
The other surprise was there was no heating, no refreshments and NO LOOS.

At one point I went out, into the car, heater on full blast and found the public loo in Rosehearty.

Sadly by 1.30 I could take no more  I was frozen solid.  But I am back tomorrow...... with friends.


 

Home Report.

In Scotland it is still a legal requirement to have a Home Report done by a surveyor before putting your home on the market.

And you have to pay for it before it is carried out.  Over £500 this time.  Three years ago we paid just over £200 for our previous 7 bedroomed half an acre garden property.  Hey ho.

What you get is really quite hysterically funny.

The chimneys and the roof and the gutters are examined with binoculars.  (I have yet to see any surveyor with a pair ....)  There is a lot of "Unable to view due to floorcoverings"  "Furniture"  and "Loft insulation."  Oh really?

Then there are the scary HINTS.  Possible woodworm activity.  i.e. the staircase in this house is the same age as the house built in 1870 so it is bound to have wood worm.  

It really is money for old rope.  

Fortunately, having gone through all this with our previous home we are quite good at seeing through all the doom and gloom on prospective properties.  Flat roofs are prone to collapsing without warning.  Apparently. Even when they have just been put there.....

Then you get the energy report.  Which tells you about loft insulation (got) thermostats in radiators (got) etc. etc. how much you could save on your energy bills if you did .  Havent actually noticed to be honest.

The biggie is that the surveyor values your house.  At which point you kill him.

Sooooooooooooooooooooo.  
Deep breaths, not easy with shot lungs.  

And a partner with an infected throat,  he is banished to the spare room.  

We look round and see what needs doing to present our house in its best possible light.  Well, I have wafted a paint brush round.

On the left behind the fireside tools, is where the plumber made a very large hole.  Now boarded back up and after much scrambling round in the garage I found the tin of paint which matched!!!!  Why do I never write on 'kitchen', 'sitting room' et al?  Also covered up all fat splashes round cooker and skid marks from cats sliding down from windowsills.

Pristine.

Then one looks at the potential future home.

Front.

 
Rear.

Sod the HOME REPORT.


 

Lighthouse Keepers Cottage, part 2.

The Northern Lighthouse Board not only had to provide their keepers with cottages in which to house their families, but also land on which to graze a cow and grow their own food.

The (empty) greenhouse is , of course, a fairly modern addition.   These photographs show the 'garden' area as it is today.

  Some of the garden is under cultivation.  Thanks to the local Banff and Buchan College, based in Fraserburgh, which sends along a team of young adults with special needs to cultivate it.  They appear every Friday in term time along with their tutors and plant seeds, weed, and cultivate.

During the school holidays, well, back to nature.

Some things survive.  The rhubarb crop is amazing.  And I am sure that they all get a great deal of satisfaction from watching seeds germinate, flowers appearing.  But I have a sneaking suspicion that they get far more enjoyment from going berserk in the Museum shop and buying far too much rock than is good for them, and spending a lot of time sitting on our cannons outside having a fag.  And, sadly, we do not have a cow.

So second plan for me is to, whilst working alongside the local college, to involve volunteers, either retired folk in sheltered housing  who miss their garden and still have the knowledge, bit of energy, delight in gardening to join in with the young adults.  Or anyone else I can drag in!

Who knows, we might then get a cow!  No, even I am not that daft.

Produce from the garden would supply the restaurant at the Lighthouse Museum, we are already using the rhubarb.  Aaaah Rhubarb Crumble with our wonderful chef's artistic twists.  To die for.

So, there you go.

Now in between all the planning and plotting for the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses to make it more user friendly and such a wonderful place to visit!!!!  I did manage something I have never done before.

Art 'En Plein Air'.  This is just a posh way of saying, "Get outside, draw, paint, but get outside.!"

The Art groups I belong to have all been booted out of Dalrymple Hall this week as it is the Junior Arts Summer Show.  They take over the whole building.  For a week. Their Summer Show is based on the Ugly Duckling......

So our Wednesday Art Group went to St Combs.  Plonked ourselves on the beach, or in my case on a grit store box, quite comfortable actually.  And painted, drew, sat and just looked.  It was overcast, but it was warm and no wind, which is heaven up here. After two hours we moved to the Community run cafe and had lunch.

Then today - well it was like being in the Med.  Our Thursday Art Group started with lunch, much more civilised.  And then moved on to Rosehearty Harbour.

I sat on the floor here and drew some of the boats, pen and ink.

Did a lovely study of the lobster pots.

Watched the other lot, across the harbour, with deck chairs, paints, water, creating a finished picture. I really must get more organised for this 'En Plain Air' activity.

And then just looked at the amazing view.  Life in the North East of Scotland, you cannot beat it.  When it isnt windy, raining, misty.  Just wonderful.  

Ey up, I havent finished.  Last night whilst lighting the wood burner I hear a dull thud.  On looking out of the window I saw that the front garden wall was now laying on the lawn.

And a Land Rover with a trailer pulling away.  I shot out. Apparently the bloke in the landrover had stopped to have a chat to the farmer examining his Neeps (Swedes/big turnips) in the field opposite and wanting to chat face to face had reversed his landrover so to do, his trailer then did a sharp left wheely and demolished our wall, "I forgot I had the bloody trailer on!"

Anyroads, demolisher and friend are currently rebuilding wall.  While the DP  and I mutter about should have demolished the lot and then we could have a nice picket fence, as really the wall is an abomination......made of breeze blocks and some sort of ghastly 'dressing' which wouldnt be allowed on any self respecting DIY tele programme.  

Ah to be in a Lighthouse Keepers Cottage. With a lovely white wall, or a harbour wall, such artistry.....