Looking down the Ob towards the Applecross Peninsula

As we are heading rapidly towards Christmas and the New Year, I wanted to look back on what we achieved in 2019. We managed to complete the upstairs bathroom – still with its wonderful views towards the Applecross Peninsula; we started the re-furbishing of the downstairs bathroom – extending the tiling (and we have more planned for 2020; acting on requests from some of our guests we have added a freezer to the list of equipment, allowing guests to make better use of the fresh food available and our wonderful new eco-friendly cooker, to prepare and freeze food for later use – this has also necessitated putting in additional storage in the form of a small cupboard in the utility room; we have increased the number and type of bird feeders; we have started replacing the rather tired splash-back in the utility with some much brighter hand-painted tiles; we have built a new wood store, closer to the house; the heating in the utility room is being upgraded as I write this; we now have phone charging points in different locations in the kitchen, and a boosted signal to the downstairs bedroom for the broadband Wifi; we have added a grid for using disposable barbecues to the driftwood garden; we have upgraded some of the soft furnishings in the sitting room (although one guests request that we replace the leather sofas with fabric covered ones has been dismissed on grounds of practicality. We have a wonderful new cleaner and she and our laundry lady have kept the interior beautifully presented throughout the year – they, along with our gardener, make the difference between a holiday house and a holiday home.

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Upstairs Bathroom – a mix of re-cycled and new

We have managed to use the house ourselves – though not as much as in previous years – combining holidays, with working from home, thanks to the good Wifi connection, and doing some of the upgrades – while still getting out to do some of the lovely low level walks in the foothills of the Cuillin, as well as the odd bit of paddling. We have tidied the kayak/boat store to the back of the driftwood garden in which we are also gradually re-claiming more usable grass area – this should make the whole experience much more pleasant for guests as the boat store is no longer the potential eye-sore it was becoming. The upper garden has benefited hugely from the discovery and mending of a substantial leak in the mains water system, so it should much more usable in future and provides an alternate suntrap sitting area to escape the midges when the wind changes direction.

I am in the process of getting some of the glitches sorted out in our website – we will be adding an accessibility statement, the terms and conditions will become active once more and you will be able to see the Home Report as required by the government (although I am not sure why as it does not affect the amount you pay as our prices include all electricity, heating and water – but one must comply)

Heading towards 2020