One More Day in Limbo

Tomorrow is the day we are due to move back into The Rowans. Three vans from the Cramb brothers' painting company are parked out front, as is the sparky's wee white van, which has been here nearly all week. Painters are working inside and outside the house even though we haven't contracted for any indoor painting yet. (Indoors they are simply preparing the new or damaged old walls for painting.) They have painted swatches of a warm peachy colour we are trying out for the sitting room. Yes, we've decided to replace the raspberry which kept us warm for the 2+ years we've been here. We've had them put the peach swatches on two of the sitting room walls and we will look at them in different lighting conditions. We are having a very bright and sunny day today and, so far, the pale peach looks quite good, although maybe not a foregone conclusion at this point.

Gordon, the sparky, is putting in an outdoor light at the back door just now. This morning he put a new socket in for the dryer--in the kitchen. Yes, another glitch showed up. The washer and dryer don't fit side by side in the utility room space allotted on the architect's plans as well as on the plans drawn up by the company that we got the cupboards and worktops from (made up from measurements on the architect's plans). So how did that happen? Well no one is quite sure. At least the dryer will fit in the open area in the kitchen extension, next to the place where the washer came from and the dishwasher will go into. We had planned to use that open under-counter space for our rubbish bin and as a collecting spot for recyclables. At least the recyclables can be collected in the utility room where the dryer was supposed to go and, fortunately, the kitchen rubbish bin will still fit in the kitchen between the dryer and the dishwasher.

Yesterday while we were here, Gordon put up the extractor fan hood over the hob (cooktop). Unfortunately, Hotpoint hadn't included enough length of aluminium covering that conceals the exhaust pipe. When Don phoned them about it, they very nonchalantly said "Yes, we know. We've got some on order which should be in sometime in the next 4 to 6 weeks." Wouldn't you think they would have notified the customers who had bought the product once they realized what had happened?

Don just went out to talk with one of the painters, to see if he would put a second coat of our paint sample on the wall. He encountered George Ferguson, the tiler, who had just come by to say hello to the painters and to see how the job is getting on. He's ready to put up the tiles but is waiting for the joiners to do something first. Yes, well, he's not alone in that.

Don just came back from a glorious morning playing golf in St Fillans and I have had morning coffee and a lovely visit with Christine Dick. The sun is shining and it's a warm day. Our spirits are not dampened. Tomorrow will be a busy day, though. I have a volunteer stint to do as a waittress at the coffee morning fundraiser for the Crieff Choral Group while Don will play golf with Craig Lamond. Then we'll put on our old clothes and start cleaning this place up so we can move back over. I have a feeling we're going to either sleep very well tomorrow night--or we won't sleep at all!