Where Do I Start?

In the afternoon yesterday, shortly after I got home from the weekly So and Sews meeting, we had a visit from Graham who will paint the exterior of the house. Apparently, he must start work right away on sealing the new cladding. He brought paint chips for us to select the exterior colour from. Don had independently decided yesterday that he didn't want the house to be reddish brown anymore. It hadn't entered my mind that we would change it, but I was happy to go along with Don's brilliant idea. The house will look much more elegant if we go with anything other than the cedar look.

Soon after Graham left, Bill and Barclay came for our scheduled meeting, which was good because we clarified some items for one another and answered lingering questions about what was to be done where...and how...and by whom...and when. Amazingly, Barclay told me I didn't have to empty the wardrobes and drawers in my studio (after I had done so, of course). Instead, he said I could just seal the doors and drawers with masking tape. This means I had to begin today by putting most everything back! The exercise wasn't for naught, however, because I did manage to sequester a large box full of things to go to the local charity shop--some of which came from there in the first place!

By the time our meeting was finished, it was after 6 o'clock and Don still had to go into Creiff for more boxes (we still must pack up books, knicknacks, and so forth from the sitting room) and to pick up some groceries at Somerfields. While he was gone I made our evening meal and looked through the paint samples and selected about half a dozen colours that I thought might work. After dinner, Don looked at the several paint chips I had selected as possibilities. His number one choice was also mine. Isn't it nice when things work out that way?

After dinner (which we didn't sit down to until about 8:30) I did the washing up and then looked through plumbing supply catalogs to make the final selection of a tap for the new kitchen sink as well as one for the shower room basin. Don revised the task lists for the electrician and the plumber. This involved the placement of down-lighting in both the studio and the sitting/dining areas. He decided we really needed to draw up a diagram of where those lights should be and, to do that, we had to get out the set of plans on which I had stuck little stickie pieces of paper cut in the shape of our pieces of furniture. At 11:30 we were blearily moving these little pieces of paper around and saying things like "Wait a minute, that's not a chair; it's an end table" and "Is that a window or a radiator?" We did finally get it finished. After that Don had to do some AU work. It was 12:30am when I went to bed and he said it was 1:30 before he did.

Yesterday afternoon the insulation got delivered and Ally began laying it down in the utility room and sitting room extension. This morning he came back and began putting the cladding on the sitting room extension. Stuart, the roofer, came back and began putting the odd-sized tiles on to finish the roofing over the studio extension, utility room, and kitchen. Shortly after he arrived, another young lad arrived to help him. Stuart is up the ladder; the helper trims the tiles and hands them up to him.

Not long after they got to work, we got a delivery of the plasterboard which was to have come yesterday afternoon but didn't. That's the good news. The bad news is that the floor-boarding they delivered yesterday isn't correct so we're still waiting for the correct one to be delivered.

Don, meanwhile, was on the computer surfing for good online prices for the taps and a garbage disposal unit. (These are now on order.) I began doing laundry, some of which I was able to peg out on the line for the first time this year.

The plaster board delivery was quickly followed by Allan, the fellow from the Coop Store in Perth, who had come to measure the areas we'll be putting new carpeting or vinyl flooring on. Allan is Perth born-and-bred and has a very thick Tayside Scots accent. He also has a terrific sense of humor so after he had measured, we fed him and cup of tea and sat down to chat for a wee while.

No sooner had Allan left than Davy, our plumber, came round to reroute a couple of pipes and to answer some of our questions. Seems the floor was due to be put down in the utility room as soon as Davy had completed the rerouting but that's when Ally told us about the wrong floor-boarding having been delivered so we'll wait for that. There is plenty of other work to keep Ally busy.

After Davy left, Don did some more AU work while I began re-loading the studio wardrobes and drawers. At 12:45 Don dressed up in his blue-striped shirt, grey flannel trousers, tie, blazer jacket, and shiny shoes to head off to the final St Fillans Music Circle programme for the 2005-2006 season. This one is on the music of Gilbert and Sullivan.

I finished re-loading the studio wardrobes/drawers and packing up the box for the charity shop, had lunch, and then Graham and his helper came to start putting sealant on the new cladding. Once that is done, they'll put a blue undercoat on. I gave Graham his paint chips back and showed him the one we'd selected. He will get a small amount of that colour and paint a bit of wall for us so we can be sure we like it.

I had no sooner gone back inside than Bill came by with a stack of bills to be paid before we go away. Now I have gotten in most of the laundry and fed the workmen tea and bickies. I'm sure there's something that urgently needs doing but I'll be dipped if I can remember what it is. Oh yes, I need to wash the breakfast and lunch dishes. Something tells me I ought not to be working without a net.