Jonathan: Today, as we made the final finishing touches to the re-surfaced drive down to the house, we also finished – after 4½ years of worry and hard work – the renovation of An Gàrradh Mòr – house, drainage, outbuildings, drive – everything!  Well, there’s odd jobs to finish, and a few refinements to make, but nothing requiring the help of anyone else, and only the sort of thing one might tackle when the mood takes one, and ticked off after an hour or two – or perhaps a couple of afternoons – of pleasant busy-ness. (Well to be truthful I’m kidding myself – some tasks will take quite a bit more than that!) As anyone with building experience would know – the drive is the first thing to get messed up and the last to be put right (or should be): so now, after pick-axing away the 4-year high mound of cement where the mixer stood, laying drainage, regulating the old beach-gravel surface, and finally dressing with 17 tonnes of 20mm-size crushed gneiss (and all that by hand I have to say!), we can now arrive at our own house, or invite others in, with style and satisfaction. We no longer live on – or in – a building site! We no longer have any building work -anywhere, not even for clients!  Here’s some photos of the drive taken over the years: January 2003 – a few weeks after moving in ; 2004, re-tiling the roof (we broke up all the old tiles, by hand, with hammers, to form soakaways and the base layers for paths and parking) ; 2009 – when we were busy building Carrick, in Eriskay ; 2011 when we’d nearly finished the extension and just started the renovation ; 2013 during a lull in renovation work (look – no mixer!) ; 2015 – the final phase, completing the new front ‘sun-room’ and finally the work on the drive itself.  Goodness, it almost makes me feel nostalgic!