Fashion Tip Number 32

Fashion Tip Number 32 is: Never wear a vertically striped skirt when standing next to a corrugated iron wall. This photo was taken yesterday at the Killin Golf Course and shows part of an old black and white photo of the club's opening back in 1922. You can see my reflected image above the women which shows you that, all things considered, I'm looking pretty normal. I'll look even moreso after the stitches come out this afternoon.

At 7:30 this morning a new joiner, Ally, showed up to install the windows and the door in the new utility room. At 8, Stuart, one of the roofers, arrived and is finishing up putting on the roof tiles over the kitchen. Barclay, the head joiner, showed up at a little after 8. We had a stand-up meeting in the kitchen about how the job will proceed. In fact, we don't think the joiners have been on the job as they should have been and we said so. We reminded Barclay that on Thursday of this week, as he agreed, the cupboard units and worktops will be delivered for the utility room (as well as the worktops for the kitchen but that's another issue). Barclay said he and his crew will be able to get that ready. He said our contractor will need to arrange for the sparky (electrician) and plumber to get in here as soon as possible so the joiners can put down a floor and then insulation and, finally, walls. He assured us that, worst case scenario, he could store the units in his warehouse if for some reason they can't be fitted. (This will almost certainly be the case with the kitchen worktops.)

Next we discussed staging of other parts of the renovations. Barclay wanted to get a crew over here as soon as possible to get the sitting room roof trusses erected so we can keep the tiler (now that we've got him) and finish roofing that last area. He also told me it's time to pack up my studio. This will be dicey inasmuch as the studio is also my dressing room. It will be fairly easy to pack up the rest of the studio and get boxes transported over to Robbie and Peter's who have storage space available for them. The difficulty will be what to do with my everyday clothes and toiletries. I think I'm going to have to sweet talk Don into packing up some of his clothes so I can get a wee bit of closet space and perhaps a drawer in our bedroom chest.

Finally, we reminded Barclay that we'd be away in the States from 10 April through the 22nd and asked if they could possibly do the breaking through in the sitting room and get that area taken care of while we were away. There is no way we could live in the house while the sitting/dining room were out of commission as all the furniture from the sitting room portion will have to be shoved into the dining room area, the smallest of the two portions. As it is, we'll undoubtedly have to put some of the smaller, more "portable" items in our bedroom and the study.

Barclay said that he and Bill will meet this afternoon and outline a schedule for when each stage will get completed. We followed up with Bill by voicemail message and he responded a little while ago that he and Barclay will meet today and Bill will phone us this afternoon. We are keeping our fingers crossed that this actually happens because this is the third time Barclay has promised us a schedule and, to date, we haven't had the first one. Something tells me, though, that it's definitely time for us to fasten our seatbelts!

Don is away now playing golf with Gordon in Killin. I'm getting laundry done and getting quilting things ready to take with me when I go to the Medical Centre at 1:30 to get my stitches out. The So and Sews meeting at 2 this afternoon is very close to the Medical Centre so my plan is to walk to both appointments. Tonight I will go to a chorus rehearsal. The concert is less than 2 weeks away so I'd best go do a bit of rehearsing with my practice tape.