Walls...

This week there have been walls going up and walls coming down. BOB (who is doing excellent joined up thinking) decided it would be easier to build the garden retaining wall before the oak extension was in the way. Sensible. So last week we had a block work wall and now we have a partly stoned wall. That’s ‘partly stoned’ as in ‘it has stones part of the way up it’ as opposed to off its face on illicit substances… It’s going to be beautiful, if you visit us in the future you may get taken round the back of the house just to admire it.

Yes, that is snow. You know how everything looks so much better with a covering of snow? Not when it’s a wreck of a house, it doesn’t!

There were only two internal walls remaining in the cottage. On Friday the builders said it was so cold they were going to work indoors. We did point out that ‘indoors’ doesn’t really count as there is no roof, no windows and no doors….  Now there’s only one internal wall left…

and if BOB has his way then the other one will disappear too - it will make the bathroom bigger and actually allow us to have a bath that doesn’t have to be super narrow and super short. Which would be, let’s face it, a large sink.

The power has been moved away from the house and into the outside loo. It is now the best equipped outside loo in Monmouthshire. Ugliest, but best equipped.

And we have a wall going up for the Music Room/Piggery. First of all there were trenches,

followed by more cement and then BLOCKWORK! For WALLS!  That’s proper building, that is.

In the next couple of days we need to finalise the plan for the electrician. At our meeting in the greenhouse on Friday (it’s pretty much the only place with a roof…)

… the conversation went something like this: “So where is your underfloor heating control panel going to be?” “We don’t know, do we need to?” “Yes, and let me know where you want the switches for each light to be.” Gulp. We need to get thinking and find a brain between us… Things are moving so fast we’re beginning to Make A Lot Of Decisions which is exciting and is stretching our brains somewhat…

And the barn should be finished this week. I know! Soooo exciting. We had the slab laid (more cement again) this week and it does look lovely.

We’re also beginning to buy things we need, so a new category (you’ll notice that Sarah’s Tip Of The Week didn’t last long - I don’t have a lot of tips) will be Purchases Of The Week:

Purchases Of The Week (see, new category): 3 outside lights, 5 pendant lights, 1 table lamp, a coffee table we’re not sure we need but it’s gorgeous, 12.5 cubic metres of cement, a 3m length of drainage pipe. We’ve also looked at shower cubicles, tiles, bricks and slate for the hearth. We’ve talked about getting the sofa dyed or re-covered, we’ve seen the nice man from Plumbs, and we’ve found some suitable spotlights…