The path to nowhere, a complete bay, and a bill for £15,000

At long last the remaining window for the bay arrived on Monday, so following a couple of coats of stain, the installation was started on Wednesday by Bob the chippy. As you can see, by the end of the week he had all the windows and the bay doors fitted, together with the window cill which Bob had cut and shaped to fit the angles of the bay. We've still got a gap above the windows which will be filled with tongued and grooved boarding which I will be staining on Monday as I have a week's leave (end of year rush to use all all remaining leave). The second photograph shows the view from inside the house and if you look through the window where the sun is glinting you'll see the gap in the hedgerow where the thieves who stole the excavator pushed down a tree to make off across the field.

>

Which leads us nicely on to the saga of the stolen digger. An invoice arrived on Monday from the hire firm. In between items for charges for the chemical loo, scaffold tower and so on, was an invoice for nearly £15,000 for the digger and associated shovel. I've not yet had confirmation that a valid hire contract is in place, but I do now know that the digger in question was not new but a 2006 model. The fact that I'm expected to replace a secondhand digger with a new one seems a tad cheeky, to say the least, but it appears that this may be a starting point for negotiation. I've now placed the whole matter in the hands of my insurance company who advise that a loss adjuster will probably want to visit site to see what happened. We discovered too that on the same night the digger was stolen, there was a break-in at a farm nearby and rolls of copper wire were stolen from a factory storage unit. Busy boys that night weren't they?

>

And so to progress elsewhere. Gary and Matt have been busy laying the bricks for the path round the house, the edging for which you can see in the photo of the bay window. I would expect them to finish the path in the week ahead, depending on the amount of rain we have! Matt has also built the little pier around the porch support post which can be seen in the second photo above.

>

Murphys were back on Thursday to connect the gas in the road at the top of the drive. We've also gained a not exactly pretty brown box on the front wall of the house which will contain the gas meter. This unpleasant little receptacle has a hinged lid which is opened by a special triangle section key. Where do you suppose the key was left? Why, in the box which can only be accessed with a triangle shaped key of course!

>

Lee the painter has been busy applying a final coat of Sadolin to the windows and doors, and despite a less than dry week has got on well. We're really pleased with the look and colour of the windows, especially the bay, as they are exactly as we imagined they would be.

>

Jan and I have been deliberating over doors all week. The external doors have to meet building regulations Part L compliance in respect of heat loss, and one door to the property has to meet part M compliance for (wheelchair) access - a clear opening of at least 750 mm. Now that's all well and good if you're fitting UPVC as there are endless options, but when it comes to oak doors, the choice is very limited. The door must have a "U" value of 2 or less, which is much more easily achieved with double or triple glazed doors than one made predominantly of wood. The other problem is that the oak door manufacturers advise that their doors do not like full sunlight and rain, so should ideally be protected by a porch. That's fine for the front door which is well sheltered, but what about the utility room which faces south east? We may have to buy a door made of a more durable hard wood - meranti - in a style that matches the front door. The only trouble is that meranti is rather pink. Not sure how much the light oak stain we're using will tone it down.

>

Our plasterer, neighbour, and good friend Tony Holland (league of nations round here you know) met Roy at site on Monday to discuss when he could start plastering as nearly all of the plaster boarding for the upper floor has been finished. Tony hopes to start in a week or two, possibly working evenings and weekends. After that its second fix woodwork - skirting and internal doors.

>

This morning I met Roy and his tarmac man - JJ at Brookvale to discuss the re-surfacing of the driveway. Coincidentally I had seen JJs men finishing a drive in Shefford on Friday, and did wonder if it would be the same firm. Small world isn't it? Anyway, inevitably JJ and Roy had known each other since there were dinosaurs on the planet and they joked and ribbed each other

as JJ wandered around in carpet slippers with his little measuring wheel (JJ suffers from gout it appears - hence the slippers). I should get JJ to talk to the council planners as he said that the driveway would support the heaviest of vehicles without any upgrading. JJ said that it needed a depth of 25 mm of tarmac to create an excellent finish so has gone off to calculate the cost. I have no real idea of the likely cost to resurface over 100 metres of drive. Doubtless I will find out quite soon.

>

Jan & Rog