Totally plastered and now we're on the tiles!

Gone is the clay - replaced by lovely black mulch.

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The garden cleared for turfing

As its two weeks since my last epistle, a fair amount has happened. Tony Holland has done an excellent job on the plastering which is not only finished but nicely dried out too. Mind you, it ought to be as we've had a 3 KW ceramic fire in the house for the last 10 days. I didn't really want to take it back because the house was so warm, but the hire charges are not exactly cheap and 3 KW for 24 hours consumes a lot of joules. I guess one day soon an electricity supply company is going to realise that we've had a supply for over 4 months and send us a bill, but no sign of a it yet.......

Roy's boys have virtually finished all their jobs - the garden has been levelled off, the drive entrance is now widened, the telephone cable laid, and the roadway strengthened where the sewer runs under it. Talking of the 'phone, I telephoned BT to let them know that the cable was in place and that they could connect up. "Great" said the "new services" man and he said he would get the cable connected to the pole straightaway. Now call me old fashioned, but I don't call June straightaway, but that's the date the connections people have told him. How come they can dig a hole, erect a telegraph pole, connect it to another 50 yards away, all in the space of 10 days, but cannot connect two cables together in less than 4 months? No, I don't know either.

With all the clay soil now removed from the garden we've hired Bolton Turf to make the land that surrounds the house into a garden again. Gary and his man arrived on Friday, removed several tree roots, levelled off various "lumpy" bits and spread 16 cubic metres of the blackest fibrous soil you ever saw on the land at the back of the house. They've also marked off the area where we'll have turf and will prepare that early next week, assuming the weather behaves a little better. (Snow this morning, and sleet this afternoon)

Knowing that Bolton Turf were starting on Friday, I was rather concerned that the builders toilet (you will recall my previous description of this offensive blue edifice) would be marooned at the back of the house and that the less than careful driver that came to collect it would drive across our nice new lawn leaving two furrows. So, it had to be moved on Thursday otherwise, it would be marooned. Being alone this represented something of a challenge. However, in best Ramses II style, I used a track consisting of a pair of timber planks, side by side, and walked the toilet some 35 yards to its new location. Needless to say, I taped down the lid before I started and managed to complete the project in about 30 minutes with no spillages.

During the week we received the quotation back from Vic the bathroom fitter, and have accepted his very reasonable price to install all the fittings in the en-suite and shower room. Now we need the floor laid, but that can't go down until the plumber has laid the pipework and he's on holiday next week (when the radiators arrive). Hopefully Darren the plumber will complete his work the week after next and we can get Clive and his screeding team started on the floor.

Jan and I have been looking at tiles this weekend and have not been overly impressed with what we've seen so far. Think we need to spend some more time on the jolly old world wide interweb thingy to get some inspiration.

Yesterday and today we've been mainly clearing up after the builders - again. Whilst Tony was very careful with his plastering, it was inevitable that he would get the odd dollop of plaster here and there. All the electrical sockets have been cleaned out as well as the light switch boxes. The garage has had an early spring clean today too, and as Roy is collecting all his "stuff" next week, and taking many of the bricks we don't need, plus some of the security fencing, we'll be quite tidy by next weekend. Its the cleanest wee house has been for many months. Wonder if it will stay that way?

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So, as far as the coming week is concerned, we hope to have the lawn laid, the remaining edging to the drive completed at the end of our garden, and the pamments laid to form the porch floor.

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By the way, I received a communication from a widow today - Valentines day. I think that you may be a reader of this blog. If so, then may I say that I am touched by your sentiments and that your "secret" is safe with me.

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Jan & Rog