Confused of Catbrook

It's been a confusing week. We had absolutely, categorically, totally decided on bamboo flooring until a chance remark in a shop led us to do a little more homework and now we're going to use engineered oak floorboards instead. At least, we think we are. We're putting in underfloor heating because of the lack of wall space for radiators, so we've been doing our research on the thickness of floor, etc etc. Which is fine, except that it's thrown up a few curve balls. Like - don't use thick rugs and never turn the underfloor heating off. Never?? Really?? With the Aga at one end of the living space, the log burner at the other, and insulation in every wall to comply with building regs, we are going to COOK!!

And then there's the paint. Last summer we researched paint for old buildings, decided on a make and a colour (after buying a litre of each of three possible colours) and relaxed in the knowledge that we could order the paint (with the rather splendid name of Feldspar White) when we needed it. Sorted. Er, no it isn't. We now need the paint in a hurry and a visit to the same company's (new) website reveals that not only has the make of paint disappeared, but either they've totally changed every one of their colours, or they've renamed everything. Clearly on the new website a writer has been brought in to hammer home the eco credentials and 'close to nature'ness of the products - so much so that there is no longer any useful information nor vestige of the paint name previously on sale. Grrrr. Having only discovered this late on Friday (well, after 5pm), I've emailed them and am now desperately waiting for a response tomorrow. I live in hope that they've simply re-named everything they ever did and the paint is still available...

And the reason we need the paint in a hurry? Because the decision has been made to increase the scaffolding up and over the entire cottage to make it dry so that the roof can be finished. And while it's dry we may as well paint. It's rained nearly every day since the rafters went up and even when it hasn't rained the forecasters said that it would rain so it wasn't worth taking the risk. Grrrr again.

The new scaffolding has started...

And it should finish midweek, when work on the roof proper can begin.

The site has been quieter, but not idle - we have lots of internal walls, we almost have stairs...

...and we have a VERY small en-suite. When the walls went in we had lengthy conversations (us and the builders) about whether we could fit in a loo, basin and shower. We thought not.

Then Guy and I got busy with the graph paper and thought we could. We made newspaper cut-outs of the loo and basin and marked up the shower cubicle on the floor with tape.

It all fits! Then my genius Auntie Annie suggested a curved shower, which would be MUCH better. Only the ceiling is too low to buy one off the peg. It will have to be bespoke. That sounds like an expensive word ...

Purchases of the week:
Lots of wine and gin. That counts as house build purchases, right?
Not paint. I would have, but they've changed the names, or whatever.
Not floorboards, although we visited three suppliers locally.
We did buy samples of oil for the internal oak. We're thinking satin...