5th February: The innards disappear...

Hot work upstairs

Batted (battered?) down

Hidden innards..revealing living surfaces

Lester being a dag!

Stairs are revealed and plans are made to "re-vamp" entrance

Stairs revealed. Bits of timber, laminex, metal etc. They need to be disguised again!

New, black-framed heavy duty doors in place upstairs.

The old doors were flimsier (more flimsy?) and very hard to open.

The last four days have been the hottest in living memory - well my memory may not be so fantastic any more, but concurrent days in the forties have been debilitating. I must confess to watching many, probably 16, episodes of The West Wing, in a darkened room, in daylight hours, in an effort to cope with life in the +44 zone.) I've managed to get some sorting and packing done at Stocko as well as fitting in doing hospital duties with Lester, (he is fine and still appears to have an ear that looks like an ear!) In fact, he was feeling so good the day after the op that we went out looking for water features for the  roof garden. I felt very sorry for Greg and the others working on the site. They said they were doing better than their mates who were working out at Paterson in all the heat. But it was  really terribly hot!

In a lightbulb moment it became apparent that in the rush to fix the roof, we had all overlooked the insertion of bats in the ceiling. This was soon remedied. The interesting thing about the heat on the building was that the middle floor, which we have thought to be very stuffy, remained quite cool and it was the upstairs floor which was very warm. The roof has a layer of floorboards in place too, so now, with the added yellow bats, we are hoping that we have managed Summer "climate events" satisfactorily.

Legal "issues" continue with the neighbours. The wording of our letter, not accepting that they were not the cause of the leaking roof, is proving arduous. Being placatory (concilatory) is much harder than being aggressive. But we just don't want to go there ...

Brendan, our architect, called in last week and  our landscape architect, David has been in touch too. Our landlords need a date for the termination of our lease. So, whilst this build has taken a bit longer has planned (don't they all??), it is us who don't mind. Greg assures me that, "you won't know the place in the next two weeks".

So, in summary: drainage holes have been made in the lower deck area; the engineer has been out to discuss details of the roof garden; decisions have been made about the entry stairs; decisions have been made about the depth of laundry pigeon holes, (for towels, not birds) and every day more gyprocking is completed and that makes the difference. As the innards are disguised, living surfaces emerge. So, this week colours, carpets and curtains and blinds will  be decided upon. I am looking forward to finalising details and I feel  quite pleased that I have prevaricating for so many months. Whilst going through a process may equate with merely changing ones mind, I feel satisfaction that I have "teased out" the options. If, what I decide upon tomorrow is "wrong", then it is too late and, quite frankly, it doesn't matter. Time to move on...