August 30th - Slating and a run

Work seems to be picking up again, and I had to knock off a couple of orders before I could head to the plot this morning. Neck, back and shoulders giving me terrible gyp, but not too bad once I got into the swing of it.
Retrieved the last of the roof brackets from the back pitch, which was a bit hairy from the ladder at full extension, and deployed it round the front. Moved the whole platform further up the roof and got cracking. Steady progress, although once again I was plagued by breaking slates (one of which took about 20 minutes to remove and replace, as it was several rows down from the top).
Called it a day at 5:30 and went for a run up Hownam Law - the prominent bump visible in lots of blog photos (see below).
Nice to see the house from the top of the hill. It's such a gorgeous view from up there that I'm glad we're not throwing up an ugly pebble-dash monstrosity to blight it.
Quote came in from Howdens for the kitchen, internal and external doors and stair parts. Kitchen, with solid oak doors, solid oak worktops and including hob and double oven was £4700-odd. Seemed quite reasonable, and I'm about to compare it like for like with Ikea.
Tom Wilkinson rang from Hawick in the evening to say the straw is now baled and will be delivered tomorrow, so the roof will have to wait a few days while I concentrate on getting the house ready for the bales, as I want to get them in while the air still has some warmth about it. We've already had a couple of morning mists, and the season is about to change.
Had an exchange of emails with Eco-build guru Nick Grant, the result of which is that I'm not going to render the straw before installing the membrane and cladding. Big relief, as it was going to be massively labour-intensive, time-consuming and pricey.

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