Exciting times. Today was Saturday and we were round the house most of the day tinkering with the burglar alarm and buying door furniture for the front door.

The (green) thermal paint on the kitchen floor is now dry and the underfloor heating cable went down today. Once it was secured, it was time for the (big, cream) kitchen tiles to get measured up.

First tile to get the level and the position:

Green paint

Island marked out (slightly wrongly, but it’ll do for now)

Contemplating the tile:

Each man is an island?

Level is v. important and the floor itself turns out not to be:

Bannister:

Study is nice and clean:

Radiator:

Tools:

The fireplaces look much nicer “blacked”:

Guest bedroom sorted:

Clean door:

Loft bannisters:

Loft bathroom sink snags finally sorted:

Towel rail (now without chipped tile):

Grouted panel above the cistern: 

Shower:

And outside, Peter and crew have removed the “raised flowerbed” (without finding any body):

Much more space now:

Tiles go down:

Adhesive:

Powelly works on defusing the bomb: (and we wire up the PIR sensors)

We finally got the roofing snags ironed out (and inspected by the party wall surveyor). See the photos below.

It still looks vaguely like our roof was finished by Stevie Wonder - but at least it shouldn’t leak now for a bit.

The party wall surveyor said he thought our brickwork “interesting” - the “heavy” pointing style went out of fashion 400 years ago - is what he actually said. He didn’t think much to the lead roof either. But neither is too disastrous.

Onwards and upwards.

We now have a carpet man booked in for a couple of weeks time, the kitchen turns up next week, the kitchen floor is being tiled this week and various snags are being knocked off the list.

On the painting front we have finished paint on the top and middle floors and first coats on the lower floor.

And today I booked a move in date for 9th June. Rock on!

Now that the house moves on, thoughts turn to the garden.

Here’s some decking I liked the look of:

And another - overlaid?

We want to have some decking outside the patio doors and then some raised beds where we want to grow vegetables. Finally there will be a chicken coop (for S’s chickens) and the shed at the end of the garden - possibly with a seating area at the bottom of the garden to catch the last rays of the day.

And here’s a very first draft of what the garden might look like:

Ideas for the layout of the loft dressing room:

We got back to find quite a lot of progress in the house. We reckon we’re about 4-5 weeks away from moving in now (exciting) - and ready to set a date for that move too.

Tomasz the painter has made good progress - the loft is entirely painted and so are all the rooms on the 1st floor. Which leaves only the rest of the hall-stairs-landing and the front reception room to go.

Peter has also built a wardrobe for us in the loft back bedroom which turned out great.

Here’s some photos:

Finally the kitchen door gets opened onto the new kitchen:

The back of the house is secured, finally - although we wonder how to actually get out?

Kitchen door, from kitchen:

Fireplace looks brilliant now painted:

And another:

Bannisters - this is the lasting legacy of the dodgy crew - the bannisters which don’t fit… we’re just going to have to live with this one:

Bannisters:

Landing painting - looking pretty nice with a two tone effect. The lower half is “wipe-clean” paint which should mean it lasts longer after we move all our junk in:

Cubby hole in the back loft bedroom - painted also:

Loft bedroom finished:

Wardrobes:

Bannister rail “waxed”:

Loft finished:

Bright white:

New bedroom:

Loft door:

We were fortunate enough to have my parents (thanks!) come and house sit this week while we were away and both supervise the builders in their progress as well as help by fixing up some stuff we didn’t have time to do. I can’t tell you how much of a relief it was being away - but knowing that stuff was getting sorted out and handled! Trying to do admin Stateside with a 6 hour time difference and a full time job is worse than impossible. But thanks to their kindness, we now have two sheds - a new one in the front garden which will eventually be our bike shed. It needs some securing (to the ground) but didn’t my dad do a good job?