The man from the Council says "YES"

The living room with carpet

The study/guest room with carpet


The bedroom with carpet

Garage entrance - now finished (without carpet)

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We had the final inspection on Friday and our friendly building control inspector has passed our "disabled" access - a rather fetching ramp made of oak and screwed to the front door frame and porch floor. So that's it now in terms of inspectorial visits, we've just got to provide him with the certificates for the electrical installation, energy assessment, air pressure test and sprinkler system.

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And would you believe we've persuaded the rather reluctant manager of the Water Regulations Team at Anglian Water to come and inspect our plumbing on Monday afternoon. Fingers crossed on that one - I've tried to get the shower head down the toilet but failed miserably so we should be OK!

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Friday saw me at Brookvale at 07.55 to await the arrival of Messrs John Lewis's carpet fitters who had advised that they would be with us between 08.00 and 10.30. A phone call at 10.10 from the fitters was not encouraging - stuck in traffic on the north circular - 40 miles away. Quite why we were told by the Milton Keynes branch (23 miles away) that we were out of area and had to contact Welwyn Garden City (22 miles away), to then find the fitters had to come from London (50 miles away) is beyond me, but I'm sure there is some logic in there somewhere. Anyway, they eventually arrived at 11.00 and worked continuously until 15.15 (apart from 3 cups of tea) and then announced they had a job in St Albans. Goodness knows what time they would get that finished. Anyway, we now have floor coverings through Wee House. Its nice to lose the echo that a house without soft furnishings always has, and I hasten to add, we're very pleased with the result as its made the rooms look bigger and brighter.

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Jan and I have spent several days at Brookvale, Jan in cleaning and gardening, whilst I have mowed the lawn (revitalised after the rain of last week) and finished the area in front of the garage (another ton of sand and a ton of gravel despatched). Jan parked her car on it and much to my surprise (and relief), it didn't collapse! I've been wielding the pickaxe latterly, to lower the level of the hardcore adjacent to the drive. Hardcore had been laid by Roy's Boys to provide a reasonable slope from the edging of the driveway. I thought it would not take long but there was much more to remove than I had estimated (told you last week I was rubbish at estimating). Many wheelbarrows later and the remaining parking area was levelled off and only awaited the job I was really not looking forward to - digging the hole for the second soakaway. I needed to psyche myself up to start, but once I got going it was just a question of having a ready supply of oxygen! When that's done I can order the gravel (bet I under-estimate) and the powered roller. Better be careful with the roller methinks.

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Sunday saw Messrs Puffin & Pantin digging out the aforesaid hole for the second soakaway. Considering that it was large enough to bury a small corpse I was surprised (and delighted) to finish by lunchtime. Had Jan not gamely lent a hand moving the spoil I'm sure I would have given up well before the job was done. You can just see the outline of the hole in the photo of the garage entrance. We're now all ready for the larger 20mm gravel which I'll order on Monday. My calculation is six tons, but my gut tells me we'll want at least eight. I wonder which will be right - gut or science?

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Being totally knackered by Sunday lunchtime we decided to go to a local garden centre in the afternoon to hopefully select and buy some trellis panels to screen the garden between the garage and the house. Much to our surprise the panels we liked best were reduced to half price because they were an obsolete style, so we promptly order these together with posts and those metpost thingies that you whack into the ground. Another job for Jack O'Alltrades.

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Jan & Rog