Transcript for:
Restoration and Life on Remote Scottish Island

[Music] during the summer of 2023 we moved to a remote Scottish hean Island to be its only two residents along with our two pet sheep and pair of cats these remote Islands seem to retain an old-fashioned Rhythm and a charm which we find encouraging us to live a more frugal and simple life the way man was perhaps more intended to we have an ancient Stone Cottage to restore veggies to grow livestock to build up fish to catch and smoke a boat to buy and much more step back in time with us at the Scottish [Music] aisle we need to film well I need to film a formal declaration thank you for being elected as the Member of Parliament for the Scottish a I wouldn't vote for you you did and I'm the only one in your constituency no well I got to vote for myself and I and I pulled two votes what yeah that's fraud well you got to win aren't you so I'm now your standing MP so uh well I'd like to complain well I'm your MP so you complain to me rather vehemently yeah well put it in writing uh I have a clinic every Friday I don't think this is a democracy it isn't right in front of you yeah now look at the size of those two three yeah we only need several dozen more yeah and we have them where but look we need to explain I think where we're figuring out how we want to finish the floor in the cottage ideally Flags right but these are beasts Scot yeah and how do we get them down there that's what you're thinking are you well we can get them down there on the trolley they just need lifting up putting on the trolley and then taking down there but that's there's only three well there's only there's only three B ones here yeah and then in all these like this this this has been built up recently yeah look at look at the size of some of those over there yeah there's that one there that's on top the other one it's next to it on the right there's another one there so we're starting to build up a collection yeah you don't look so exasperated yeah because you're not going to be the one that's going to be lifting them down there it's going to be me so these are beasts think about these yeah being centered in the middle of the room immediately so the so the bigger they are they go in the center of the room and then we build out from the center of the room yeah she doesn't look very impressed it's just so much work so much so you're standing on more these can just be replaced we'll be taking the bigger ones to use down at the house and we'll replace all this with smaller ones and we'll cement them into place and that's not that that's a job that doesn't have to be done immediately it's a lot easier to replace these it is to cart new ones down to the cottage here we have several more humongous flag stones in the buyer obviously using these we will cover the floor in the living room with six seven flag stones and then like I said if we work if we work with these from the middle of the room and then spread outwards and laying them out what do you B them into sand I have no idea I've never laid flag STS in my life so doesn't that mean left in the concrete well I don't I don't know what your uh your major concern is that we might have to lift the concrete and how far do we go well these are all going to be different thicknesses right yeah well they they're going to have to be laid on a bed of sand it's going to be a lot of cow poo under these in between these that's what we got jet wash for it's the the amount of effort and work I mean it would look a amazing but how far do we go it's you know it's it's scaring me the thought of doing this and and you know pushing having that room finished further and further and further back I I really don't think I think in this instance you're the one that's been the pessimist I really don't think that this is that big the biggest job is getting them up and getting them down there you've got the measurements of the K of the living room it's almost a perfect square it is yeah which is strange cuz it looks rectangular on you it so what we need to do is cuz I forgot to bring it with me even though I put it out specifically for this purpose take measure to measure all these Stones it's about 16 M Square including all the doorways and alcoves I'll uh just do the old fashioned way one two 3 4 uh 12 [Applause] 12T seven what does that mean I now have to convert that into meters that in my head well I think it's a good idea and yes look you know what I'm like about doing excessive work but I just think if you're going to do it do it right and these are all going to come up if they don't then there you go there's the answer if we can't shift these if we can't move any of them then it's not going to get done and it's going to go back to the whatever floorboards carpet who know we're not having floorboards floorboards is is not happening so we can scratch that one off the list okay well I need to going to have a lie down in a Gonic now that you've foed this on me I don't like it when you come up with ideas why my ideas are amazing your ideas make me feel like I'm a thousand years old what my this flagstone idea can we get like a can some of your mates come and help us look at them all these are not really been used are they it's just me it's just me and you how many times are these flagstones walked or driven upon I mean throughout the year hardly any it's just a look at the size of them look at this one look we'll take that one down that is that's bigger than me oh Scott I don't know why you so um I'm tired that's why what you you're tired today yeah it's just there's a lot to do maybe I'm hitting that that stage the renovation stage where people that they hit that strange noise then yeah it's like a dog wasn't it like a dog get when it gets his paw trapped or something hey we've got a big bar but we can get like one of those big don't know like tipping pivoting bars yeah we've got big crowbars what we got to do is get it under we've only got to lift it off the floor as high as the trolley yeah and then rope it to the trolley off we go and and then no no no no no up the hills we're just going to tie the trolley to the back of the quad and we'll just pull it up by the toe bar again but we're not going to need that many of them this is the whole how do we get them from the foreshore up to the cottage that is that is going to be a problem if if if that area had been left how it always had been for years and years and years which was just a gradual gradient going up to the we could have just quad them up there yeah but we can't do that now no because of the Great Wall I heard it again I'm going to go and see what that is you need to get the Merin app out [Applause] Shauna is now technically an outdoor sheep last night she spent her first night in the stable with her two big friends who they're all bonding well um I'll allow her inside from time and when Scott goes to bed in the evening she'll be allowed a few minutes of lap time with me on the couch before I give her her final feed and put her in the stable she's only 2 months old so she still needs mom time but she's too big to be in the house anymore she can just jump over this now it's easy peasy so we're removing your pain aren't we cuz it's no longer needed you want some he you you cool [Music] a [Music] the next stage is going to be to move the couch here and the TV to here and then we can crack on with the living room isn't one of them already done yeah are you excited about doing this well oh is that screw threaded happens to be it finally get to see exactly what was going on here I think this one's already could look at all the bloody sheep at Sher I'm taking these out as as we move them so you just to out the window no choice cuz I can't get out the door can I watch crowdy absolutely crap of pants no little sheep around [Applause] well Los are in well aren't they CR is like what is going on know what really doing yeah we don't know the screwdrivers really doing the other way they just screwed them so again we've got more evidence in fire here we've got to move these quick because uh sheep feet all these screws this chipboard is just disintegrating money this is this is archaeological evidence look underneath the floorboards what's the date on it I can't see that glasses it doesn't even look like it's uh I can't see it either British going see 2010 what was it 2p yeah God Dam this is that's we're going to have to uh we going to be rotten when we've done all this and it's all cleaned up and I mean completely cleaned up we're going to have to bring some heaters in here and close it off see how quickly we can dry it all off uh I would rather put all these in bin bags that's all right what a ice slot all manner of creatures are going to be under here it's disgusting is it really is thanks do you remember when the world went mad I certainly do you remember when I got ban from ssb's Forever a lifetime ban from ssb's yep for for [Music] than [Music] [Music] hello did you like my dramatic entance but was was startling so this is several days later after we finish this Tada well as we figured it is all concrete and this was laid at the same time that all the work in here was done yeah is that what we were assuming well actually I think I'm not sure I cuz it looks over here right it looks like this is different or I don't know if they've just like painted it with a betum in or and maybe just missed that corner I don't know some of this concrete does go up the walls he checked off um well that's my thinking around the whole uh of the edge the concrete actually goes up onto the walls so therefore this concrete was laid at the same time that they did all all the uh stud work on the walls and the ceiling and the big hole here to my yes the monstrosity it's it's quite it's quite pitted um it's not terribly damaged um depending on what we decide to do with the floor we're either going to rip it out or repair it um the skirting boards are coming off next got handy tool these pipes are just getting cut right back to the wall I mean have you seen in this corner haven't really talked about that we why they made the pipe go up like that through the wall rather than continuing on their course along the floor well uh having fitted many kitchens back in my younger days I can tell you exactly why they did that why because it's easy to knock a hole there you've got no idea bent over like that because I've done it numerous times knocking holes through stone walls so they I mean they their entire remit when whatever they were doing to this was just get it done as fast as possible and as lazy as possible well that is born out with what we see with our eyes I'm just going to cut either side of the skirting board on that power socket the same over there and take the skiron boards away well as you can see we removed the radiator with no problem uh we didn't include that in the footage because you just don't need to see over 10 minutes of us uh clearing this room out really to get the gist of what's going on but I mean it's we're both extremely happy that it's done but again another messy job I went over the whole thing with vinegar white vinegar smell like a fishing chip shoing two days but that that would have killed all the mold um it doesn't smell moldy in here it doesn't actually smell damp um even though underneath the chipboard was really rotten and moldy really not the most ideal thing to be loving with but it's gone now so the situation with the floor as you saw earlier is we're debating the flag stones and it's just the whole thing about the flag stands is whether we can move them or not and it is 7525 against us been able to move the massive ones because it's not getting them down here that's the problem it's getting them up here as in you know up up the uh from the shore line to the cottage uphill yeah um I'm kind of I'm more on board with the idea now and I'm kind of thinking of splitting Stone there's lots of stone lying around that I could see we could split into slabs big Square bits so it is doable that means lifting this floor it I mean it's it's it's thin anyway it's coming apart it's it's it's that thick it's an inch thick it's an inch thick pretty much all over it so knocking this floor out and it's a very small surface area it's going to take a morning to do it's in fact it's going to take longer to wheelbarrow it out then it is to get it up if we were to lay Flags in a Heritage building like this we have to be very careful about how we're laying them you can't lay them on concrete because you're they can't breathe then just like just like the walls it needs to breathe so to do it properly you have to put them on something natural you have to put them on Earth sand lime chalk all all of the above mixed together and you have to bed them in and then point them with the same lime that we're putting on the walls you you can insulate underneath them using lime creete um which we probably should do lay them onto lime creete and that that is effectively your your insulative layer but still it needs to be on earth um well before any of those decisions are made we've got to get a few of them down here or just got to see how it goes and uh we'll be doing that I don't know it'll probably be next week sometime but we'll get we'll pick one we'll see how it goes uh and if it's too then we're not going to do it but then there's there's another route as you say there's splitting smaller Flags if you want Flags then then we'll do Flags where did they go where's the hearth [Music] on [Music] [Laughter] [Music] kicking the stones well no this we we should uh there's several of these there's this one there's this one there's this one and there's one over here which is really loose this one here and we should we should uh we should cement them in yeah they do need cemented in it's not going to take two minutes to do that is it not with all the cement and things we've got well lime mortar there another one here look this is all very interesting there's but there's loads of them isn't there it's well it's it's indicative of the potholes on the roads got friend behind you um I'm going to be dual wielding my uh strummers today you're going to be helping me strm again never ending isn't it this time of year constant constant getting on top of it do you want to come and get cuted up no oh [Music] [Music] on [Music] a [Music] [Music] for for for should really speak some words shouldn't I well you know how many times I've tried to get this off the satisfaction the cabin is no longer the cabin um please follow me has to be a ritual ceremony what we're going to call C the bunker call it the fur bunker I need to come a bit closer can you see me through the smoke not really can you hurry up we'll come back later and we'll have a look at how how that's burning what are you replacing it with uh we're going to put the we're going to put the uh I feel like um feel like de leopard on stage in the 1980s um Jims carving of the Viking ship well let's do that then which could I just say I uh was quite a surprise that nobody commented on [Laughter] you know what I'm like regarding having things in the middle but just so everybody knows this string is obviously not going to stay it's just to put it up for now [Music] I I think we're going to have to go with uh my uh plan what's that it's going to have to be screwed to it or in my sense nailed to it and before anybody panics I'm going to put the nails in this screwed to it not nailed to it I'm not going to screw it on I'm going to nail it I'm going to obviously I'm going to put it where I want it I'll mark it out then I'll uh Hammer the nails in and then I'll put it over the nails cuz it's just going to the wind's just going to yeah I don't think you should leave that like that to be honest it's Bish SLE so it's uh brittle anyway you get the idea [Music] what are you doing dropping the quad off for her brakes we don't have any microone so it's going to be a bit windy last time we tied it we could get it off could we [Applause] I must have pulled it off the end it wasn't attached to him that was seriously it wasn't attached to anything that was your strap it was it was my fault oh well would have be great if it C was this eye Big B you know caros Fango in super wide wheels Tower tires [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] let's go back to the island [Music] [Music]