Life saves me from more dithering; thanks!

David had asked M. Huguenot to link the spot in the "niche" to the centre light, but this morning I countermanded that and asked the electrician to link it to the shower spots.

Then I started having second thoughts [my first thoughts were that if we wanted the bathroom lit up for loveliness-of-display we would have all the spots lit, and otherwise I didn't want the niche lit every time we put the main light on as those spot bulbs are expensive!], and dithered and emailed David to see if he was OK with that.

I was just trying to persuade myself that I hadn't made the wrong decision [and, let's face it, in the grand scheme of things it's really NOT important!], when the electrician came to say that he'd wired it to the shower spots (I'd said I prefer that, but please do whatever was easiest!), as there was a beam in the way and he couldn't connect it (easily) to the centre light.

Phew!

I like it when the decision is taken out of my hands; reduces guilt immensely.

It's like buses...

You wait ages for one, then three come along all at once!

OK, so the second one is a promise (rather than actual), but the electrician's arrival definitely makes it a triple of good news; all feels like progress.

Actually, that needs to be written:

PROGRESS!

Sorry for being 'shouty', but after so long when it seemed as though we couldn't get things to re-start, two men in our bathroom working is wonderful.

Ooo! Shutters are coming!

I just checked my email, and there is one sitting there from David with the heading "pose des nouveaux volets", and as I've seen a few of these (chasing a date from the Batys) I thought he was on the case again.

But, it was one from him replying to Mme Baty letting us know that M. Baty is coming on Thursday.

How excited am I?!

That means we will be able to sleep in the bedroom; oo!

I was going to say "the tiler is here!"

But now I have to change that to "the tiler was here, but he's gone off to find some sand".

A big white van pulled up in front of the bedroom, and as I was expecting M. Antoni I thought it was him. I got the key to open up the door [still no access from the house, but hopefully that will be happening this week!?] and went round there and was surprised to see M. Waeber.

He's only doing the floor tiles; so that M. Torelli can install the bath and seal around it so when the wall tiling is done there are no leaks.

I don't know when he's coming back to do the wall tiling; I am summoning up the "braves" to ask. We need that done before M. Torelli can fit the basins/taps/shower/shower screen/sèche-serviette...

M. Waeber explained that he has to do the Bogé's terrace when the sun is shining, so I told him I was praying for rain!

At least he has come for this bit, so that's a positive sign, surely?

One swallow does not a summer make...

Nor one fine day.

So, I think we can agree with Aristotle that to assume summer was starting would be counting our chickens... [Why am I feeling guilty? Mixing my maxims to the max; ouch!]

But, as we've had more than one swallow, and today seems to be the start of the shouting-at-them-to-make-them-leave-the-house season, I'm guessing that they are preparing to nest. Which tells me they think there will be enough insects to feed a brood, and that it will be warm enough to produce sufficient insects for the duration of filling those hungry little mouths.

The redstart the other day was only foiled in his (her?) attempts to come in and make himself at home by the fact that I'd left the rear window to the kitchen closed; it may be 30°C in the courtyard, but the air is still decidedly "fresh".

Bees also investigating crevices for breeding purposes.

Either way, I really am off this time to enjoy the warmth!

Beautiful weather

The weather is being absolutely glorious at the moment - it's only 15°C in the shade, but as I'm not in the shade I'm there with the lizards absorbing the warmth.

The upside of a south-facing yard in front of the house is that it's like a giant radiator: at the moment, when the sun is shining, the temperature rises to just over 30°C in the sun, and the heating can stay off even though the night time temps are dropping to around freezing.

[Of course, the downside of a south-facing yard in front of the house is that it's like a giant radiator: when it's 30°C in the shade, the thermometer only goes up to 53°C, so I can't tell how hot it is out there; once the mercury has risen above the scale how does one tell the temperature?

But that is something to worry about later in the season/next year/whenever, as it's still a case of 'let's-open-the-windows-and-let-the-warmth-in' warm rather than 'don't-open-the-windows-or-even-the-shutters-in-case-it-lets-in-the-heat' hot.]

We were talking to Mme Koza and Olivier, and he said that he'd woken up in the early hours of Wednesday morning and seen the heaters out in the vineyards. I think when Mme Koza was woken up to see this she was less than delighted; I'm guessing in the twenty-or-so years that she's lived in the house she has witnessed that a few times!

I wish I'd seen it though: apparently there is a layer of black smog that blankets where the chaufferettes are located; it would have contrasted beautifully with the layer of white frost that covered the ground when I woke up at 6.30. I'm not sure they are legal; the pollution is clearly visible, and they are always tucked out of sight however early I wake up.

I think they only do it when the new leaves are starting; from what I understood of Olivier's explanation, the vines only break into growth once, so if checked by frost that's your season ruined in one night. It's quite odd having days that feel like an English summer's day with almost all the greenery in full new leaf (or well on the way), and the vines are still barren-looking.

Our horse chestnut tree is fully out and about to burst into flower, but the walnuts are still completely naked of leaves; perhaps they follow the same calendar as the vines?

Anyway, I'm off to bask with my lacertilian friends [although to keep up the conventions, I will call it "weeding"]; hope you can enjoy some lovely weather, too, wherever you are.

I'm back in France now, and work has re-started!!!

I didn't want to post about it until it had actually happened, as I was having trouble believing the project would ever get going again.

But it has, and I'm so grateful.

We have the "niche" above the loo [designed to make it look as though this was intended, rather than just another of the errors Jean-Marie created for us], and the wall between the bathroom and the dressing room. This is pretty cunning: it looks like a wall, but is in fact half wall, half temporary-wall that can be taken down later!

The reason for this was that we want to get the radiator installed, so need a wall [the solidly-fixed part], but want to leave our options open so that if the budget eventually stretches to my sauna we can remove the only-fixed-at-the-top-and-sides bit and slot the sauna in there (making the dressing room smaller, but I'll be brave if it comes to that!).

We are going to end up with an odd-looking half-tiled half-not-tiled wall, but that we can live with!

What is much more important is that we are getting the bath/basins/shower and rest of the tiling done at this stage; if "Plan A" had come off, we would have waited a couple of years before doing that, it has only been the absence of the loo that made us (well, David, really) think about doing more work now.

Needless to say it hasn't all been plain sailing, but the fact that we've had any sailing at all feels like massive progress.

We've got a light switch for the dressing room in the middle of the bathroom wall, but that will be fixed when M. Antoni comes on Monday, and our tiler looks like blowing us out about the tiling...

We're keeping EVERYTHING crossed that he's just letting off some steam, and will come next week otherwise that puts the plumbing back again. Given that this work has been planned for months, I don't think asking the tiler to come when he said he would is an unreasonable request!

Also, we'd scheduled work around M. Torelli [plumber] and M. Waeber [tiler] and hoped that the plaquiste, builder & electrician would fit in around them. Which they have.

We've also got a minor (and according to M. Luparello, eminently fixable) problem with the window embrasure: the tiles will crack if the plasterboard isn't moved a fraction of an inch. David's in contact with M. Mekki to arrange for M. Kadir to come back and do that so it doesn't start impeding M. Waeber...

Overall, it feels as though we are moving forward.

[Obviously we don't yet have water to the bathroom - but we have another "nourisse" connected up (just not to the existing one!) - and there is a delay on the radiators/shower screens, and the basins haven't arrived yet, but it all still feels quite hopeful.

Helped, no doubt, by the fantastic weather we've been having!]

Got the Taxe Foncière sorted/Another huge thanks to JDK!

We've finally got the areas sorted out for the Taxe Foncière on the house, so massive feelings of relief for all concerned, I think!

The problems were caused by David filling out a form incorrectly [with sizes based on T+B's plans!], and our being unable to work out how the original areas were calculated [nothing we could do would come up with their answer, again using Jean-Marie's plans] so that we could make the changes needed.

Thankfully David persevered, and Mme Gaule in the Tax Office seemed willing to get this straightened out, and another huge thank you to our friend John for sending us (massively quickly) a set of drawings with the areas marked on each section.

[A quick break to rave about John's marvellous Computer Aided Draughting Services: seriously, folks, if you need help with house drawings he is absolutely wonderful - give him a call!]

Seeing the "blocks" of our house with areas marked on them, it all became clear - we could come to the same answer for the original area the tax people were using IF we didn't include the garage [or the bits above the stable/bedroom which aren't included in the house; odd, but true, they're outside but under a roof]. Then both "habitable" space and 'other' space matched perfectly [or within tolerances, anyway].

[The whole question of whether we should have been paying for "habitable" space in a building with no water supply or drainage and only one working electrical socket is another kettle of crabs (as the Germans would have it)... I'm taking the view that my life is too short to right all wrongs, and the level of overpayment vs. the stress it would take to get a refund means that I'm willing to 'pay' to let this one go.]

David and Mme Gaule also agreed the figures for next year: ~60m² will be deducted from 'other' space and added on to habitable space, and again all will be correct. I think Mme Gaule couldn't under stand why if we'd added to habitable space we hadn't added to the grenier space, but David explained that we'd converted a rangement [stable is not a word to use, apparently] into an extra bedroom (so had lost some 'other' space), and then that all made sense to her.

This is, of course, assuming that the work will be finished by the end of the year!!!

[Sorry, too many exclamation marks.]

Given the level of communication we are having with M. Torelli now that Jean-Marie is no longer part of the picture, we are hopeful that if the work isn't completed by Easter it will at least be finished within the next couple of months.

There's probably a delay on the radiators: having them in clear-coated bare metal counts as a "special" finish, so they have to be make to order (and the factory waits until they have enough orders to make it worthwhile for them to manufacture a batch), as does the shower screen now that we can't do what we'd originally planned [thanks again, J-M!], but if we can finish the bathroom and knock through to the house, there should be only a day or two worth of work left to finish.

And (unlike Jean-Marie) we think that M. Torelli grasps the concept that you have to finish the job before expecting to receive the final payment, so we are confident that the delays will be kept to a minimum.

Fingers crossed, obviously!

A big thank you to Scotia Seeds!

We had a look around the edge of the meadow to see if we had any primroses in the cleared area by the walnuts/hazelnuts.

We have a real [odd?] mix of hybrids: a few primroses, a few cowslips just starting and some small flowered (browny-orange) polyanths that I think must be a cross between either a coloured polyanth and the primroses or a coloured primula and the cowlips...

No way of knowing, but it's not something that featuress in my wildflower book.

I'd seen white and all-shades-of-pink primulas that look like primroses [and covet them; may have to ask neighbours for seeds...], but didn't want to introduce non-native wild flowers into the pré...

However, if nature has done just that, I don't see why I shouldn't add to the mix!

My primroses in the garden have some odd pinky-yellow or yellowy-pink offspring, so I know how promiscuous they are as I don't have any pink primulas. Must be all those insects I'm encouraging!

So, I'm looking (so far unsuccessfully, but I haven't given up yet) for some primula vulgaris subsp. sibthorpii seeds, as I would like the wild pink primrose to add to my mix, but in the meantime I found the Scotia Seeds website with some Scottish Primroses (primula scotica)...

I'm going to risk it: our neighbours all have a complete mix, so I'm not adding anything too strange, I hope.

I ordered them yesterday (obviously with some other seeds!) and they arrived this morning.

After my current experience with Amazon Marketplace deliveries, I'm absolutely delighted; so a big thanks to Fiona and all her colleagues at Scotia Seeds.

Our meeting went OK on Friday

M. Waeber couldn't make it to the meeting on Friday as he had another job to go to, but he turned up at 8am to drop off the estimates [which we signed & dropped through his letterbox later on our way out].

We only had M. Torelli and M. Luparello, so it was a small meeting!

And M. Luparello only needed to be there because the plasterboard that was installed in our absence [and under the supervision of Jean-Marie, obviously!] was too close to the window; once tiled, the hinges would have been blocked!

It shouldn't be a big deal for M. Kadir to re-do that side of the window opening, and M. Luparello was OK about it [I don't think he was happy, but could see that it needed changing].

No M. Huguenot as he was on holiday, but again his 'input' was only needed for adding a spot to an existing circuit, putting in a temporary light switch, connecting the towel rail and moving the light switches/socket between the mirrors.

So David has emailed him since we got back.

The main part of the meeting was choosing the taps with M. Torelli and confirming what we wanted as far as shower screen/mirrors. He's not keen on the basins we've chosen, but to be honest, I'm not delighted...

BUT we needed something a decent size, in a fairly traditional style and with the raised back we wanted; so that pretty much limited it to a choice of one!

We're going with that, and I will make sure to be careful around the porcelain and if they do prove to be fragile, we'll have a rethink at that moment.

Fingers crossed they will be fine; our other basin from Lapeyre seems to be perfectly OK - no problems yet.

We also confirmed that the start date of 11 April is still OK, and that it will [should!] take two weeks.

[I'm planning to be there for three weeks, just in case.]

IF it all comes together, within a month we should be finished!

As I say, fingers crossed...

We've chosen the taps!

OK, so we had already chosen the taps...

But M. Torelli wanted us to choose some other taps...

Thankfully, his catalogue has some that are just like the ones we'd already chosen [prob a lot more expensive?!], so that's OK: everyone happy!

That obviously won't prevent another meeting, but no-one has cried off from our [re-]start date of 11 April, so fingers crossed.

No, everything crossed!

This has got seriously old, now.

Power station at Nogent-sur-Seine

We took advantage of the second trip to Troyes [to take the tiles back to CVS] to head off into the "Champagne crayeuse".

David said that the only thing at Nogent-sur-Seine was a power station, but that's not true...

There's an old watermill, too!

[Clouds doing their best to provide "atmosphere"!]

Forgot to say

We DID take the tiles back to CVS, if you were wondering!

[This only makes sense if you read the earlier post about choosing new tiles.]

Chink of light?

That was what David emailed me this morning, forwarding a mail from M. Torelli giving us a start date of 11 April!!

[And before anyone asks, it WAS this year; that joke was getting seriously old before we'd hit Christmas!]

Coincidentally, that's just over a year since the work should have started!

With a bit of luck, he should only take two weeks (and so we won't be finishing in late May: exactly a year over-run from when work should have been finished, and 17 months after we started a project for two months work!).

We've had another bill forwarded to us [that was originally addressed to our attention at T+B] since David sent his letter to all the companies saying that T+B weren't forwarding bills, so please send them to us to avoid a delay in paying them.

So that worked!

That's five bills [that we know about] that they haven't passed on at all, and one [M. Mazij snr is a friend of M. Boyer, so maybe that's why his bill was treated differently?] that reached us months after they received it.

Obviously when Jean-Marie had marked it that it was checked, he meant "Oh, we couldn't be bothered to look at it", as the 5% that should have been deducted [some weird thing being held back for a year; we get to pay the balance a year later] had been added on!

Hmmm! But I'm busy not thinking of them; David's plan to just ignore them until work is finished, and Jean-Marie can't cause us any further problems, seems like a good one to me!

Tiles

We did our trip to look at the tiles - they are absolutely fine, thankfully!

But we got another example of how the French 'work'...

We explained to the lady in the tile shop that we were doing up a second home, and could they request a sample of the wall tiles to replace the ones we'd chosen before [that were now discontinued]; she'd pointed them out to us in a catalogue as the nearest equivalent.
Having had previous experience of trying to get a free sample of tiles taking six months, we said that if the company wouldn't send a freebie, please order us the minimum quantity and we would pay for them; we just really needed to check they were right for us.

We told her we lived in London, so it would be an English mobile number we gave her when she asked for a number to call when the tiles had arrived...

No problem!

What we heard was: "I've got to chase the manufacturer up as another customer has requested those same tile samples, I'll order a set for you, too".

What we should have heard was: "Oh, I completely forgot those other people wanted to see the tiles several weeks ago, I know, I'll order one set from the manufacturer, then I'll call you in London so you can make a 700-mile round trip just to check the tiles so as not to delay your job, and then whichever customer arrives first can take the tiles home for several days to check they are what they wanted", with a subtext of "and tough on the other customer if they arrive before the first customer has returned the tiles [if they ever do so]"!

Thankfully, we were the first customer to get there, and after some persuading we were allowed to take the tiles home to look at them in situ [originally, a colleague of the first lady said we couldn't take them to the house to see them against the floor tiles].

And as I say, they're fine!!
I'm practising my zen and focusing on "that all turned out OK, phew!", but I can tell you that this post would be very different if we'd driven 350 miles and found that the one set of tiles had been given to the other couple, and 'oops you'll have to come back next weekend'!

Given that the manufacturer happily & quickly sent a sample of tiles, I find it really difficult to believe they couldn't have sent two of each tile for little extra hassle/cost?

The French bit is the not asking for a second set, and just not caring if a [potential!] customer has to travel from London to see something that you might have given to someone else!

Tiles/bath

David received a call yesterday from the really helpful lady at CVS - our tile samples have arrived, and she will hold them until we can go and check they are what we want.

We're thinking that in the 'grand scheme of things' a quick trip to look at wall tiles could prevent a much greater amount of hassle in a few weeks. Although M. Waeber assures us that tiles only normally take three to four weeks to arrive [obviously excluding if you want to order any around summer time; our last lot took about three months!], we really want to avoid the scenario where work is delayed because the tiles haven't arrived/been fitted yet.

That may not be a problem, but with the catalogue of excuses we've already had, we don't want our delay in choosing tiles to be a cause for any further procrastinating.

Obviously, if those tiles are OK all will be well! But we've seen too many badly printed tiles to make the decision based on a thumbnail in a catalogue, and if we need to find another alternative, that will take time...

So, we're hoping to squeeze in a visit in the near future.

We've also [finally!] made a decision on the bath; despite a (near) life-long desire for a ball & claw footed cast iron bath, we don't think there is enough room for it to look as elegant as it should. That, coupled with the fact that when I tried out several of the modern baths the angle of the ends is so steep that my chin is pushing into my sternum, mean that we've chosen comfort for long soaks over gorgeousness.

We've also chosen the more ugly-looking squarer-ended bath as a round-ended one in the hotel in Seefeld was pushing my shoulders in.

I'm a bit sad that we won't get the "dream" bath, but the whole point of having a bath is so that I can soak away the aches caused by too much gardening/d-i-y etc, and if the prettier-but-uncomfortable one is going to look shoe-horned into the space, it's not going to be the effect we would want anyway.

That also means I can have the wall mounted taps and will make cleaning so much easier; not to mention the storage we can fit under the bath - since moving from Brixton I miss the cubby hole to hide the spare loo rolls/shampoo/bleach etc, etc, etc!

I know getting a cupboard under the bath will be a struggle, but am hoping that it will be easier this time around without the project manager's reluctance to let us have what we want because it' not something he's done before!

Wow! Having finally made the decision, I feel quite relaxed.

I think I'm off to do one of Solara An-Ra's wonderful meditations!

I got some photographs published!!

Clean Slate Magazine, Winter 2010, issue 78 features two pictures of our kitchen in France!

Or, more precisely, two photos of the hemp-lime insulation in our kitchen to illustrate an article on hemp-lime insulation.

A lady from the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth [ooh, I remember visiting there in the 1970s, probably not too long after it opened to the public!] contacted me via Flickr having found some photos I'd posted there.

I don't think it's a testimony to my wonderful photographic abilities, as she said it had been really difficult to find any photos of hemp-lime insulation, but hey, I'm not proud!

Whilst I understand that people might get paid for having their photographs used for publication, it seemed a reasonable thing to let a worthwhile charity use my images if that helps to encourage people to use better-insulating/less-energy-consuming building materials!

And I got my name in print, and a few more people will have seen photos of our lovely house!

Working outside

It was beautiful weather while we were in France, so we decided to take advantage!

For me that meant a "spot" of weeding, and David was very kind and let himself be persuaded into joining in...

He would much rather have started chopping down trees/scrub, I'm sure, but the speedwell is starting to flower [and therefore would be spreading seeds in a week or two], whereas the more rufty-tufty stuff can definitely wait!

We spent about four hours on each Saturday and Sunday [before leaving to come back to London], and apart from a very few weeds that we up by the fence against the road I think we've covered the whole garden!

I ended up cutting the elder bushes back to about 2-3' - we want our view back, and it made weeding under them so much easier!

I think the twigs laying around has confirmed the decision to buy a shredder!

I know it's too soon to have cut the perennials back, but some things were starting to grow, and I just needed to gain a sense that I have control over something.

It's a risk I'm willing to take - frost might cut some plants down, but it made weeding so much simpler, and it looks much tidier.

We had a look in the pré for some seedlings from the little red plum tree - it's looking pretty precarious, and given the fate of the other plum that tumbled in last winter's winds, we want to transplant a "successor" before it's too late!

We found a couple of sprigs that we are fairly sure will be from the right tree [there are loads round where the other tree fell], and David transplanted them to by the fence/hedge.

He also move a couple of (what I think are) lizard orchids. I'm not sure we're doing the right thing, but he took a huge ball of soil with them, so hopefully enough of the commensal rhizome [or whatever it is] that the orchid needs will go with it.

The hay cutting stops the orchid from seeding, and if we could save a couple of plants it will be worth it.

We're desperately hoping that the French equivalent of "credit crunch" will put a stop to all the verge tidying that seems to have become epidemic in the last few years; it all looks very tidy, but stops all the wildflowers from setting their seed and we see a fraction of the varieties we did four or five years ago.

Another "fingers crossed" occasion [for my lizard orchids and the Department's verges].

Meeting on Friday

We went to France on Wednesday evening, and had a MUCH better journey down there - no snow/snow ploughs/gritters and the Shuttle was working fine [unlike for the poor people who got stuck last night!].

First thing Thursday morning M. Antoni fixed the télécommande on the boiler - we now can phone it up and get it to heat the house before we get there! It was 7°C in the kitchen when we arrived; not warm enough, but thankfully the poêle soon got it up to a bearable temperature.

On Friday we had a meeting with Messrs Torelli, Mekki & Luparello; sadly, J-M either lied to us [again] or got his facts wrong [again], and what he promised would be done with the housing for the loo cistern is not possible.

Unfortunately, now we can't go back to the less-preferred (but still better than what we have now) option; if he'd been honest, we would have have made the room a little smaller to avoid having a bulky housing sticking out.

So now we have to do what Jean-Marie wanted; instead of having an elegant room, we will have one with a "feature" shelf niche. Project manager 1, client's wishes 0.

I'm fairly certain I know why he has clients [to give him money and manage all the tedious project managing he can't be bothered doing], but I'm racking my brains as to why we have a project manager [we do all the project managing and give away money that would be useful for more building work]...

WHY?

NOT happy, but am getting pretty good at not stressing the sh!t that guy has been shovelling our way. Apparently, M. Torelli told him that there was no way we could have the smaller housing, and suggested exactly what I'd said about moving the wall in about 1½". J-M insisted that he do what we didn't want, and refused to countenance the second-best option.

It's too late to do that now as the shower base is done.

I know that's all hearsay, but I've seen his previous drawings/him instructing other workmen to do the "wrong" thing, so I'm inclined to believe M. Torelli over J-M.

Everyone is much more content to continue working without him.

We feel a bit happier about everything else - M. Torelli seems much more amenable now that we have seen him without J-M there, and Messrs Mekki and Luparello are as accommodating as usual!

A little later we saw M. Waeber - how lucky to see him before he used battleship grey grout on the shower tray [that wasn't going to dry any lighter!].

He's now done it in the same beige colour as the grout between the tiles, the tiles and the dry pebbles in the shower.

I think it's not the right sort, but at this stage I don't care; if it "goes wrong" very quickly it will be really easy to rake out & replace, and it if lasts a decade I'm not going to worry!

I have to admit to a mini-meltdown, but my excuse is that since mid-October 2004 I have been working to get this house to a liveable state/finished and it's not going to happen before Easter [if we're lucky]. It's NOT been a massive drama all of the time [or even most of the time] but it HAS been going on for far too long!

Not to mention costing a lot more money than it should have done!

On a final note: we mentioned to one of the artisans that we have only received one bill from any of the firms working on the project since June, and that was three months late because it had got "stuck" at St Mesmin. Another set we know was sent in July/Aug/Sept, but we received a copy direct from Schwartz when we chased them [still haven't received the original bills from T+B], neither have we received a promised credit note...

This unnamed artisan reckons that J-M is deliberately withholding the bills from us in order to make us look like bad payers - I think he's wanting us to come across as "nightmare" clients. If that's not the case, he's just being massively incompetent; I'm not sure which is the "better" scenario?

David has written a really nice letter to all the artisans asking them to send any communication to us direct, as we risk looking like bad payers because J-M is not handing on invoices... I wonder how many more bills his letter will flush out!

Oh, I forgot to mention: in the fourteen months that this job has been going on, the tiles we chose for the bathroom have been discontinued; another little irritation!

Fingers crossed: a very helpful lady at CVS showed us a very similar-looking example in a catalogue and rang up and ordered a sample of both colourways while we were there. She says they should arrive next week, so as I say fingers crossed!

Phew!

Photos sorted; backed up to disk; documents backed up to disk.

That feels a weight off my shoulders.

Now all I need to do is hope I get to take some more house progress photos sooner rather than later!

Right, I'm off to take advantage of the sunny afternoon and have a walk; happy sunny winter afternoon!