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00:02Currently, we have to go to another island to have a shower.
00:07Yeah.
00:11How much do you have?
00:12A pound?
00:12A pound?
00:13Did you bring any?
00:14No.
00:15That would buy us three minutes.
00:16Yeah.
00:17I think it's a rip-off, personally.
00:19Hurry up then.
00:20That's 90 seconds.
00:22And I need two minutes.
00:24Oh!
00:25There we go.
00:26There we go.
00:26Oh, my God.
00:28You promised me when we moved in that I'd have running water.
00:32One bit of running water.
00:34I'm not asking for the world.
00:37I haven't got a bath.
00:38I haven't got light.
00:40I haven't got windows.
00:42Good things come to those who wait.
00:53I don't know how we're going to live here through all of this.
00:55No power, no water.
00:56This is the time we're going to look back on and think,
00:59ah, yes, those were the days.
01:02Remember when we didn't shower for three weeks?
01:06Our toilet didn't flush.
01:07These are the good old days.
01:10These are the good old days.
01:50We're going to be in the middle days.
01:54We're going to have to go.
01:56Our house is going to have to go.
01:58We've got to go.
02:02We've got to go.
02:05It's got to go.
02:07people but I try to keep it to a minimum the last time I was in all the house it
02:14was covered and moved the roof leaks all the windows are rotten for the electrical
02:19wire and needs replacing all the plumbing problem needs replaced the whole house
02:26needs to be gutted down to the stonework and rebuilt despite having no water no
02:32electricity and a somewhat leaky roof Banjo and Ro have moved into over house and
02:38begun this major undertaking so this is our current bedroom it's been pretty grim
02:45in here I've also got a leak in the cupboard I woke up to the sound of
02:48dripping and bits of plaster falling into a sink I think some of the hardest
02:52parts about like squatting in this place is keeping things clean and keeping
02:57things dry everything takes about three days to dry so everything's damp dusty
03:02moldy but it's the nature of the beast come away with the whiskey library no
03:10complete attention turns to the hotel lobby I want to fuse like our antipodean
03:18influences with that quintessential Scottish experience so a mural that
03:24starts off at the bottom of the staircase with some tropical motifs a little bit of
03:30an ocean as you kind of crawl up the stairs the landscape morphs into a kind of more
03:36moody Scottish landscape it's going to be tropical at the bottom moody and stormy at the top
03:44do I get a palm tree no palm trees anything I request nada I've got zero every request
03:52I listen a palm tree one little palm tree you've got meters and meters and meters of
03:57mural space we can do better
04:01the entrance to Ulva house is to be reimagined as an evocative reception hall at its heart a hand-painted
04:09mural will chart the improbable voyage from Australia to Ulva lush greenery will spill from corners and
04:16shelves and an arrival desk will welcome any weary travelers looking for somewhere to lay their head
04:25I want this mural to be a mashup of Scotland and Australia because people are coming to enjoy
04:31Scotland and the landscape here but they're also in our home and we're Aussie and I'm a little bit
04:37homesick as well so I want to have a little bit of us in it and a little bit of
04:41Scotland but after
04:43years of neglect the walls of Ulva house tell a story of damp winters peeling paint and ruin this needs
04:50to
04:51be kind of brought into shape before we can do anything yeah I haven't seen this much moles ever
04:58in my life like if we had to get someone in here to clean who one who would to we
05:04kind of thought we
05:04kind of thought that the reality is like the first thing really needs to be done is the cleaning molds
05:14on
05:14every service Ben just over there making some phone calls for our cleaning party on Monday
05:24it's a hard sell Monday morning come clean my house for me hopefully some people will come
05:32hello how are you if we can get 15 people in there to give us a hand to get it
05:36clean to get it done that'll
05:37be great putting on a bit of grab bit of a barbecue and then just do some like cleaning at
05:43our house
05:45I'll take three I'll be honest when you see yeah come over to over and just like you know wash
05:54a few
05:54walls all right well thanks thanks for nothing appreciate it I think we're gonna have to call in
06:06favors from everyone we know a mull everyone on the island to come and help us with this place
06:13I'm too worried to do it Nicholas has got a dodgy hip Phil's the former's busy with a farm
06:22Rurie's on so there's nobody here to help them
06:31this is the true test of friendship it's make or break from my friendship circle
06:37no this anyone that turns up has gone above and beyond if you're not there you're dead to me
06:46hello oh the cavalry oh no you're a lifesaver
06:55well it's a beautiful day for it you guys need to soar out
07:01we've got buckets we've got heaps of cleaning stuff we'll start filling things up and just give it a go
07:11i kind of miss the old crumbly walls you're doing amazing sweetie just the last bit it's honestly
07:19the last bit usher wow it's so light isn't it brand new house thank you everyone thank you
07:31who wants to drink yeah let's get a wine
07:37i guess phase two is plastering i think with this mural idea what i really like is the story of
07:44sort
07:44of us traveling from australia to here that was our journey ro and i met at the pub and it
07:52was love
07:52at first sight i had tunnel vision for it it was just this vision with a ponytail and a couple
07:57of weeks
07:57after we met we bought a one-way ticket to sri lanka we were only dating for a tiny bit
08:02and then
08:03we're on this adventure and that adventure led us to mo yeah it was just such a joyous time
08:15when i say palm trees um it's got a really special place in my heart like um it was when
08:21we went on
08:22holidays and were traveling together our first home had palm trees in the back garden it's so evocative of
08:28all of those memories like it just takes me straight back to those times yeah that's why it was important
08:35to me to have it on the mural i think i've been converted to the palm tree
08:45i'm up to the painting now which is the fun part of it all it's been a few late nights
08:50sanding a few
08:52late nights scraping just trying to stay on schedule the mural artist who's coming there is a bit of
08:58pressure uh to get everything done that needs to be done before they get here you can get quite
09:03overwhelming when you walk around the house and see all the work that needs to be done and all the
09:07wall
09:07space that needs to be prepared and prepped and painted banjo has enlisted a mural artist from
09:15bristol to bring the tropics of australia to the hebridean walls of alva house
09:21we're doing a mural on the staircase okay so is there going to be figures a rugged fatty man maybe
09:29in the back yeah and a rugged fairy
09:37here we are it's not too scary it looks bigger though now in the white doesn't it yeah yeah yeah
09:45it
09:45looks massive honestly kid i know well done you've painted that this looked very different 48 hours
09:52ago so it's representing our journey we reached scotland upstairs but this is all about australia
09:59down here i would love a palm tree the palm tree and the thistle the classic combo we'll marry it
10:06together with colors even if it seems like a pretty random combination okay can we leave you to it i
10:12guess
10:12all right you get yourself sorted so i've got to leave the island that means leaving ro to do the
10:23work here on the ground and leaving him a really long to-do list what do i need to do
10:28while you're
10:29away we need to patch the outside any water coming in so we need to make sure the roof's not
10:35leaking
10:35you need to investigate the plumbing if it's leaking and it damages anything that's not damaged now that's
10:41what we need to discover if it goes wrong it'll go really wrong we'll have more water damage in
10:45walls and ceilings than we already have
10:49are you okay no i'm not okay it's daunting look around this room this is where we're living at the
10:54moment i don't know where anything is oh where's the wrench like where's my where's my undies but
11:00i don't know where anything is at this point it's really daunting on how to
11:06one renovate the place and then one how to live in it yeah i'm terrified
11:12it's all gonna be okay yeah i know it's just when you start i guess putting things down on paper
11:18and realizing and it's there's so much as lots it's lots and so much is out of our control
11:23i know how overwhelming it is it's a lot but if we're moving in the right direction and we do
11:30one
11:31thing that's one less thing we have to do tomorrow we got this kid i love you i love you
11:38too
11:42while the mural slowly begins to emerge banjo departs for mull on a mission to procure interior
11:50treasures leaving roe to hold the fort at the homestead
11:54i love you my grandpa oh man perfect timing since when all the work has to begin
12:04yeah you're smarter than you would i know thanks all right just meeting you buddy first mystery to
12:10solve the leaky roof andy has gone up and had a look for us howdy andy how do you all
12:19right yeah
12:19going all right so this is towards the apex of the roof and just see where you should have mortar
12:25it's all gone so they're big slabs and the water's running down the slab and falling into the joint
12:31yeah yeah i suspect we'll just need to remortar them yeah so you should be fine yeah yeah next
12:36enigma to crack the ancient water system around the house this is john this is the rule right
12:43nice to meet you so you're the plumber so yeah i'll try and give you as much information i can
12:46you're probably better at the discovery than what i'll be able to tell you anyway
12:52so john's going around and he's checking all the water pipes some of them are probably not
12:56in use because it's been upgraded at some point ah okay this would be the cold water storage tank
13:02for the house that would supply the the water that would have came up with the taps okay so this
13:05is
13:05where the drinking water would come from is it i'm not sure you could class it as proper drinking
13:10water so i mean you can see the amount of rust that's inside of it until it obviously failed and
13:16somebody has isolated it that's the truth that's wild but there is a more recent pipe system to explore
13:24so i haven't been down here before right i'm just assuming we'll left it and see yeah it's the only
13:31one
13:32i think it's good it's accessible i need to go under and check
13:43are you all right john yeah well good all right okay from the tiny little bit i can see down
13:49there
13:49it looks dry so i think that's good oh john's come back it's actually looking okay yeah so the older
13:56bigger
13:56stuff that we can see is probably not in use anymore brilliant we need to test it but if there
14:00is any
14:00problems then we can fix it okay cool thanks john while the plumbers prepare to test the cold running
14:08water through the pipes banjo has arrived on mull in pursuit of a critical item for the lobby and naturally
14:16any other treasures that might present themselves i've got collections and piles of junk in all
14:23corners of mull um i've got everything i could ever need to pull a scheme together i don't even know
14:30what's in there and i forget even buying half of it but i know that i'm always going to find
14:35something
14:35in there and spin it into gold that's a lovely thing it's a potential bedroom piece actually a headboard
14:44with a skull on it when i was a little boy all i ever wanted to be was an old
14:57man i think i just love
15:00old things i love patina i love the story that these pieces bring and i want people to feel that
15:07when they walk in the door i want them to switch off their phone and their worries and just step
15:11back
15:12into a time that was maybe a little bit simpler oh that could be good frames they could come in
15:19handy
15:23back at the house andy has remortared the roof and melissa is making steady progress on the mural i'm
15:30kind of building up the layers of the background get kind of lots of color washes in and kind of
15:36go
15:36from there build things gradually i am trying to get some dark kind of contrasting tones in and then i'm
15:45going to soften it all and kind of bring it together again afterwards i think it'll become clear later
15:50on where this is i'm just kind of trying to build up a lot of different areas at once and
15:55then i'm
15:56going to kind of fine-tune them and bring them together
16:07gary how are you getting on yeah you're getting on not too bad not too bad upstairs for roe it's
16:13the
16:13moment of truth it's time to test the pipes if everything goes as planned you'll have water
16:19throughout the house it means you get the the stench of pee from the toilets away as well yeah if
16:26there's a leak if anything does go i can turn it off it shouldn't leak right we'll put it on
16:30and we'll
16:31see what happens that's there okay okay chris you got people stationed around the house
16:37all right they're both upstairs all right that's fine you're downstairs all right let's let's do it
16:41you ready for it yeah yeah i'm gonna put the water on now right right let's go on chris let
16:48me know if
16:48you hear anything
17:12okay grim but working
17:18okay that's good oh
17:25so far so good so far so good all right
17:31hello hello they've just turned on the cold water and we have cold water and toilets and showers
17:39yeah boy yes that's good i want hot water look i'm gonna have a cold shower tonight do you know
17:48we can just have i know it's not hot oh my god i never wanted a cold shower more i
17:53know all right
17:54bye bye love you love you without a connection to the mainland system the water on ulva is naturally
18:01filtered through a peat bog picking up the color of amber and the smell of rain before finding its way
18:07to
18:14the taps
18:16so look it's got a bit of discoloration through it when you do compare it like what you would expect
18:21water the color becomes a bit more noticeable it's fine there's no nasties in it it's mineral rich
18:28is the way i would look at it we're just going to call it petered mineral rich water so
18:49i got this car off janet so it's it's more or less a community vehicle and we get water any
18:58heavy
18:59mail that comes big parcels there was opposition to me bringing this on to the island by certain people
19:10but it's here now anyway so it doesn't really matter because of the quality of the water
19:18i have to go down once a week to fill up water bottles for drinking and cooking
19:52i never felt magic crazy
19:59it's doing this restoration it's hard it's way harder than i ever could have anticipated
20:07it's hard getting things sorted without bench here i miss it i miss having my rock and yeah having
20:12that person to to be there but also help you know sometimes i do miss australia you know there's so
20:26many happy memories and then we've come here and it feels completely different and i don't understand
20:32just yet why i love it so much it's like a magnet
20:38that i don't know why i feel so connected to but i do
20:46i love it i really really love it they're perfect i really really really love it okay i'm almost
20:54emotional no yeah because it doesn't it does remind me it does remind me of home that's really
20:59sweet and i don't get homesick often but yeah it's gonna make you feel more that doesn't make me feel
21:05more it does it does i don't i don't even know why i'm quick let's call in grandpa yeah i'm
21:11not
21:11homesick it's just it's perfect you've just captured scenes and visions in in this really yeah i'm really
21:20i love it thanks melissa i'll stop crying now i promise crying no thanks
21:33all that remains now is to fill the hotel lobby with banjo's carefully acquired treasures
21:40ding welcome to the grand island hotel do you have a reservation yeah booking for two oh easy
21:49where on earth did you find that barbara barbara in the borders barbara's had it for years
21:55husband wanted to get rid of it said you'd be doing us a favor to get rid of it you
22:00did good yeah
22:04should we get it over howdy rory what have you got this thing oh uh reception desk oh thanks mate
22:14i think it sits nice with the palm trees no i think it's great i've invited the cleaning party
22:19back i think they'll love it oh i hope i hope they do gosh imagine if they don't no this
22:26is our first
22:27first guests i think the magic's in the mix when you pull a space together like this
22:33texture natural materials crack paint all of that adds up to that lovely warm feeling guests are
22:41going to get when they walk in i don't know how it's all going to go together but that's where
22:45so i'm thinking the original inspiration board what if we put them kind of suspend them in the frame on
22:54the wall do we have more frames well we need to scrub the bird poo off that for starters
23:04oh that's a moment i do love it i think that looks good because the mural is the backdrop
23:11to everything else
23:14your eye has somewhere to land otherwise you're staring off into yonder
23:19confused why there's a palm tree in a hotel in scotland
23:34not cleaning the door
23:42hello welcome to the grand island hotel wow
24:09do you like it yeah wow do you like the mural i love the palm trees
24:16well it's meant to be like a bit of a story of our travel here picture this bro and i
24:23a couple of young
24:24whippersnappers we're in australia we've got a big dream just a couple of dollars in our pocket we leave
24:29australia we buy a one-way ticket to sri lanka then we arrive in like the misty moors of scotland
24:35we land on mull and we've arrived you did help us get to this point and clean it up
24:41yeah we're very grateful incredibly grateful yeah it's incredible you're amazing no one else could
24:47have done this
24:49they created something quite magically you can really tell it's benjo and roe
24:54well sometimes it really fits into the house it's lovely it's a real homage to their journey
25:04our romantic explorers have successfully transformed the entrance to ulva house
25:10the stored cold running water to its ancient pipes and begun to repair the various leaks to the roof
25:17all achievements worthy of celebration
25:35like what a treat you know oh yeah it's just nice to be out here and like
25:40remind yourself why we fell in love with the place yeah we can get caught up in it all can't
25:45we yeah
25:48we're a man who can still be free or a woman if you are white i like swinging in the
25:56sea
25:59oh my oh my oh my it's a beautiful world
26:04time for a puffin picnic
26:10with a little bit of love
26:17i don't know if we have properly stopped it's been a lot yeah i know well you've struggled
26:25yeah i struggled the other day life just found it really tough it's all worth it that's the thing if
26:30we keep our eyes on the prize yeah we're here to kind of build a life for ourselves and how
26:35did we end up
26:36yeah yeah yeah i don't know it's wild isn't it so far away from where we grew up like the
26:42middle of
26:42nowhere the bush oh yeah we weren't we weren't surrounded by sea not at all i've always loved
26:47the sea that's why i'm so glad we've moved to this place and we're surrounded by it remember that time
26:52you died at sea i was a fisherman and i was out working you thought i tied that's what the
27:00mail i got
27:01was like two blokes on this boat have died so i went down to the pier i was there with
27:07the other
27:08fisherman's wife he had a cry and then i was like all right well he's gone i had the most
27:14beautiful
27:14service arranged for you honestly i'm glad i didn't die me too i'm glad you didn't die you've done a
27:21lot
27:21of jobs yeah we've done what we've needed to do to get by yeah cheers to us cheers to us
27:26no place
27:27that are out of the bay
27:33yeah this is as good as it gets
27:39so my my my it's a beautiful world
27:44i like swimming in the sea
27:57so
27:57so
27:57You
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