Garden now put back together again – side of house now no longer looks like a building site with new wall, couple of plant troughs and some Cotswold gravel. A couple of jobs left to do before I can get the official sign off (I hope!) from the local council which should be done this coming week or so.

In order to mark the occasion we plan to ‘celebrate’ on 4th August with a B-B-Q. Hopefully the friends and family who’ve lived through the experience (and especially those that helped) can see what became of it all.

We should be able to complete the interior decoration by Christmas (landing and fourth bedroom need doing as well) and then I hope to lay the laminate flooring in the en-suite.

Thanks to Amanda @ Jeld Wen who sorted it out.

As it was a very skilled job to get a finish (which would make or break the professional look of the job) I decided to get someone in.

If you’re ever stuck for a trade to get into – take up plastering! They’re absolutely impossible to get hold off. When you do find someone interested in doing the task, be prepared for weeks of waiting.

As we’ve had no windows, work has been very slow – I can’t do much bar fiddle around until the shell becomes water tight.

As previously noted, Travis Perkins wasn’t that impressive as a supplier. This delay cost severely and unbeknown to me at the time, would cost me lots of time and effort in months to come…