Scary New Year

You'll remember how we left the cottage for Christmas:

Still looks like a cottage, right?

Er, not any more. The builders, clearly rejuvenated by an excellent Christmas rest and quite a lot of turkey, returned with a vengeance on Tuesday and got cracking.

By the end of Wednesday we had this:

We find it's best to focus very, very hard on the gorgeous blue sky.

It's even more scary from the back...

We sent the photo above to our lovely friend Ed by text and he came back with "OMFG - you were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off".

We couldn't have put it better ourselves...

Just in case you thought enough damage hadn't already been done, the last remaining internal wall is also coming down

The builders tell us they know how to put it all back together. We do hope so.

There's a bit of a mess in the utility room too...

All of this stone is being passed out through the old bathroom window, piece by piece, to be ready for our new retaining wall. This is actually the First Bit Of Proper Building, and it is absolutely gorgeous!

It's a curvy wall! It's currently made of blockwork, but it's going to be faced with all that stone and it will be stunning. There will be little gaps so that we can put plants in to soften it, and the top will be a flower bed with colourful things tumbling over the top. Well, that's the plan anyway.

And there's more positive news (it has been quite a week!) - the new barn (or 'replacement agricultural building' as we put it to the planners) is on its way!  It all arrived on a truck (which luckily could get up the drive) and the posts have already been concreted in place. 

I quite like the look of it this way, but apparently the cross pieces are just holding the posts in place and will be taken off again. Shame. Although walls and a roof would be good...

The base is prepared and the concrete is due to arrive first thing on Tuesday. Which brings me to my New Best Friend - Gary at Cemex in Bristol. He is completely unflappable - on Wednesday (the first day back after Christmas for Cemex) I rang and said 'can we have 3 cubic metres for Thursday oh no hang on its going to be frosty how about today' and he got it to us within 2 hours. I am hugely impressed, so here is a very nice picture of a mini concrete lorry:

And the best news of all:  BOB (previously Best Option Builder, now Boss Of Builders) has told us he'll be finished by JUNE!  O.M.G.  We are now furiously looking at kitchens, tiles, lights, sockets, switches, landscaping, baths, taps, sinks and a myriad of Other Stuff. Decisions will need to be made.

And there's a housewarming party to plan...  August OK for everyone?