Day 320-2. Plaster and Paint

Friday: Pete and Tim come to board over and then plaster the nominally-ex kitchen ceiling. We're not quite down to totally disrupted in there, but its close.

Monday: nowt. This is *rather* annoying. Complain.

Tuesday: painters turn up. They think they are here just today, and back to Norfolk tomorrow. Complain. Bob says they are here until finished: good; lets hope its so. Meanwhile, order flooring (£4k) of "engineered board" as its called: 20mm, of which the top 3mm is oak. Painters are doing the "music room" as we grandly call it; they have to shuffle out various boards that are in the way. They also get some of the ooutside started, hurrah.

Still no sign of the gutters, though.

Day 316-9. Misc, mostly Pete

Not a terribly busy week so far. Pete does various plastering in the old hallway and makes messes where the kitchen was. Today the only action is Paul doing abit more tidying up outside at front. Pete the Plumber was supposed to be due tues but due to some - aha - miscommunication, errm, didn't tur up.

Decide that we are taking refurb of our bedroom, and the living room, out of the project. We just can't cope with more upheaval at the moment.

With Ians help, secure a "2 weeks from friday" promise from Bob for a finish date (with quibbles about a week more of snagging after that). To get to that, we'll have to get the flooring down too, which means getting a price. We're sort-of giving up on Ivan, as he is so hard to get in contact with and doesn't want to lay what we want.

Day 315. Pete mostly: old hallway

Today mostly Pete plastering the old hallway. He gets most of it done; there is some stuff around the old doorway into the living room to tidy off though.

Also Bob "drops off" some samples of flooring, when I wasn't here, and apparently the quote from Ivan for laying same is in the post. Which means that the long-awaited deadline of monday for actually doing the laying is going to be missed, as even if we could decide on flooring in time, and accept the quote, they still need to get the wood. And... when the two "obvious" rooms are done (D's room, and the new room) where will they continue to? We need the hallway finished off first, obviously we think.

Also the top-of-the-stairs is not yet sorted: Crescent the stair people appear to have fouled up putting on the handrails (they put them on top of the chipboard floor, so they are too high; cutting them down to the correct size appears fairly easy though but for some unkown reason Bob won't do it, and Crescent apparently are shy).

I have realised now (far too late) that what we should have done is kept the old stairs. The area on top where the new stairs/landing is would have become a largish upper landing area, which would have lead onto D's room. Very useful for storage (!) and big enough to be a temporary 4th bed when required. And we would have got a small study downstairs. Not quite ideal, but soooooo much less knocking about.

Day 312-314. The horror, oh the horror

Well, not quite as bad as that, but its getting somewhat grim, and long drawn out. And rather slow as well. Coming home to tidy up each day is a chore. And I (we?) am not looking forward to the next step, which is to clear out the kids room so it can be floored on monday, and clearing out D's room, ditto. Bob seems grimly determined that it will be done on monday, this being Ivan's booked slot. But, its not clear how he is going to continue come tuesday - things don't look ready to continue into the dinig room. Hmmm.

Tues: Pete is rendering downstairs.

Weds: nothing. Builders all called out to urgent job elsewhere.

Thurs: Barry doing the door into the kids room (frame straightened when I point out it isn't). The bathroom glass gets taken away to be sandblasted (I talk about this with Ian: will it be cleanable? Should the sandblasted side point outwards? Didn't we want frosted glass anyway? But this turns out out have little effect. The glass looks OK now, we'll have to see how the cleanability works out.

Get a current update on the accounts from Ian. We're about on track for the original estimates, which is good, though some things we thought were in, aren't (dining room cupboards), which is bad. Also the "balcony" or whatever to secure the D's-room-door outside has been forgotten, it seems.

Day 311. Windows, shower, door

A hot morning. Leave Tim and Barry ripping out the windows at the back and replacing with new; Pete tPP putting in the new shower door; and Pete addressing the conversion of the front door to a window.

Back home (after they have left): try out the shower. Well its a lot better, and in usual use fine; but if the spray is pointed at the bottom of the door it leaks. Hmm. Windows seem to be in OK; there is some decorating filler to make good.

Don't think Pete tPP has done anything to investigate the "friday leak" which is gone now. The other half of the door (well, 1/4) is here; also tap not changed in bathroom. I rather suspect he found it too hot to work today.

Day 307-310. Decorators, Carpets, Windows

Decorating continues apace on tuesday, and the corridor is finished. The bathrooms still need some work.

But its in a state that Mr Carpet can turn up and do his bit on wednesday, and indeed he does, so we have carpet underfoot upstairs which is nice. Indeed he is notable for his promptness and efficiency.

Also on Wednesday Pete turns up with a pile of windows, and stores them inside.

On thursday, he turns up with the glass, but no other building takes place. Meanwhile I'm trying to sort out between Bob, Ian and Ivan what state the floor-laying plans are in.

Friday Tim and Barry turn up to fit the new windows. Optimistically, this is supposed to happen in a day (oddly enough this doesn't work: we only get 2 in). It would probably have been better to do this before the carpets went down (really there is no reason they couldn't have been done a month or 2 ago, just like the gutters, ahem) but they do seem to have been careful. Tim is confused that the bathroom windows are clear glass, as are we. Nobody has told him or us that they are due to be taken out again and sandblasted to opaque. Seems an odd an inefficient way of doing it to me!

Later, panics (by me) about a leak - the plaster in the cloakroom cupboard is distinctly darkened and looks like water seeping. Oh dear. After many phone calls and confusions, with Ian out all day and Bob promising Pete tPP who prefers to head off to the pub, its to be left till monday as non-urgent. We hope so. Pete was also supposed to bring the shower curtain but that again delayed.

Day 306. More carpet; electrics; mess; floors and architraves

Carl, Barry and Mr Decorator - whose name I don't know, sorry.

Barry finishes the flooring of the showerroom (sadly for him the end room is now full of children, so he can't saw in there, and has to do it outside). When I get back, he has mostly done the skirting boards and architraves as well. So thats looking fair.

Mr D is wallpaper stripping and prepping where the shelves were in DE's room, in preparation for painting tomorrow.

Carl does misc: I think he has put in a proper loft light; also gets the shower room fan in. Also makes some mess doing the bathroom fan, which is displeasing.

Still, progress. Mick Rule comes back to do the small room carpet, so thats another room ticked off. Perhaps we are indeed slowly chasing them out of the door... carpets are due in the rest of the upstairs on weds, so the painting is supposed ot be done by then. Lets hope!

Day 305. More plywood; more electrics

Barry is doing more plywooding upstairs, to cover the terrible state of the floorboards (which are partly through age, and partly through having been ripped up). E's room is all ready for carpet, and B does the corridor and bathroom today. I come back at lunchtime (why? to check the oven is in OK... it is, and it works; thanks Carl) and notice upstairs that there is a big dip in the corridor... cos Barry has neglected to pack up the thick plywood replacement for the central boards. "Oh, we could latex the dip" he says... gurk. Phone Ian, who phones Bob, who phones Barry, who sets to ripping up the ply and replacing it properly. Hmmm...

Carl gets the bathroom and shower room lights in (this is nice in the evening...).

Days 302-304. Plumbing and Electrics

Getting well behind myself...

Monday was a bank holiday, but nonetheless Brian the plumber came in to do some stuff. Or so we understand, we weren't here till he was gone. He had hoped to finish then, but in fact came in on Tuesday to finish off. That should mean that the floors can go down upstairs.

Wednesday we weren't around and I'm not sure anyone else was either. I did take a long phone call from Bob, explaining why various things were a bit later than expected but nonetheless going to happen Very Soon Now. When we get back, more plywood has been delivered and left outside, so I bring it in to prevent it getting wet.

Thursday saw the return of Carl. First off he and I lift the oven into place (I get a cut in the process, but its all right, no blood on the oven). Carl doesn't have a big enough socket to power it up, tomorrow we hope. Quick visit from Ian - review various things, including the mess that Crescent have made on various bits of the stairs. Then Carl goes off to chip in the lines for various sockets in the New Study, a dusty process, so I leave him to it.