Climbing Rocks

You can see that those rocks are beginning to climb up the wall. Good progress was made on the outside of the house yesterday. In addition to the brickies having finished filling in the drains around the new foundations, they made a good start on the stone facing. The joiners were able to finish their work on the roof trusses and end piece over the verandah. Now we just need for George Ferguson and his roofer-helper, Stuart, to come back and put the slates up on both the verandah and the sitting room extension roofs.

The inside joiner didn't make as much progress as we had hoped he would yesterday. The shelf is in for the entryway cloak closet, the shower room door has been changed to hinge on the left instead of the right, and the bulkhead has been built (except for the top) in the shower room. As far as we can tell, that is about all Ally accomplished yesterday. The bulkhead is not sufficiently finished for the plumber to install the w.c. and basin yet. We had told Barclay the day before that we wanted the MDF (medium-density fibreboard) front of the bulkhead grooved so that it would look as though it had been made of vertical boards (for a "country cottagy" look). Barclay apparently forgot to tell Ally, so Don told him earlier yesterday when he had just begun work on the bulkhead. In the afternoon, Ally affixed the front and after he had left we discovered the front was not grooved as we had requested. (Don spoke with Barclay later who said Ally would remove the MDF and groove it next week.) All in all, however, I'd have to say that considerably less happened during this alleged "blitz" week than we had hoped or (we think) been led to expect. At least we're still moving forward.

It was such a gorgeous day yesterday that I got out into the garden for a wee while and did some weeding. The back garden is not affected by the construction so it was relatively quiet and serene back there. At 3 o'clock, everything suddenly grew quite quiet. "Ah," I thought to myself, "they're all taking a tea break." No, they had knocked off early since it was Friday. That's it until Monday. When Don spoke with Barclay about what will happen next week (our contractor is on holiday for a week, fishing in Ireland), he said Ally would be with us next week to get the remaining indoor carpentry work finished. We feel fairly confident that the brickies also will be back. The roofer and his helper were by here yesterday at around 1, so we know that they know the roof is ready for their work. There is a waterproof membrane on so we're watertight.

After Don got home from playing 18 holes with Peter Innes, he and I sat out at the little back garden table with nibbles and drinks in the late afternoon. It was so pleasant a day that we wanted to take advantage of it. In fact, after dinner, we decided to take a walk. We walked to the Innes' house and ended up staying there, talking for hours. Even during our stroll home after dark we were amazed at how mild it still was. Today is a pretty good day but, so far, not quite as brilliant or as warm as yesterday. Still, the day is young.

It's 10 o'clock. Don's on the golf course and I'm waiting for the plumber, only this time he made the appointment with us. He asked us on Thursday when he was here if we would do him a favor. He has a young lad who wishes to apprentice with him, but he's rather a big fellow. Before Davy agrees to take the kid on, he has to be sure that he can do certain things. One of those things is to fit into and negotiate the under-floor crawlspace under houses, which is where water and waste pipes need to be accessed. He didn't come right out and say "Your crawl space is about the worst I've ever seen" but we know that, at 6'4", he's had some difficult times down there (as has our electrician). Of course we agreed, so I am waiting for Davy and his wannabe to arrive.

Then I need to go into the village for my messages--to the deli to see if I can get Don a jar of the imported German frankfuters that he likes and to the post office to mail off a few things.