Monday 18^th May - Today, got in and out of work early, giving me time to get the building society cheque into the bank, and then go along to the building society branch office in Bristol to increase our interest payments. All done, and by Friday we should be in a position to reimburse all our debts and also move some money into positions where it will be more useful (like, gaining interest).

Returned home early afternoon to find the front wall going up quite nicely, soon the first lintel should go in, for the window opening. In the meantime I started packing things that needed to be stored in the loft. We discussed building-in the fire, he knows a suitably qualified individual who will do the job, in fact he's the plumber who'll be working to install heating and extra water runs for utility room facilities. He also does gas appliances and will happily install the fire.

Alison returns with the news that the fire is on order, delivery 3 weeks.

We discuss the movement of the door from the living room into the garage, hopefully we can position it differently in the wall in order to tie in better with the design of the garage, which will have a small dividing wall to create a utility area.

In the garden, I notice that the Clematis stems are budding again. Such a hopeful little sign.

Good grief, everything is progressing!

Tuesday 19^th May - Returned home to discover the new living room window aperture completed, and the 1 storey wall at the front close to wall-plate level, and the corners of the larger wall also started at the side of the house. Ian and Dave (his assistant) are coping a bit better with the sun, and the work around the side of the house means they're in the full sun for a much shorter time at the moment. Still, they're effectively taken over the fridge completely and Ian is now making calls connected with the work (we hope) using our phone. When one of the "reference sites" we visited mentioned that they effectively move in with you, we didn't realise they meant quite so completely. Bit of advice, if you don't want something used, keep it out of the way altogether.

We chatted about various aspects of the work, Ian is pleased with progress and expects the small front roof to be started next week, when the walls are in place. In the meantime he'll be raising the 2 storey walls at the side, to first-floor joists level at which point the carpenter will switch over and put the joists in place, leaving the front roof felted and weatherproof, but without roofing slates. When the joists are done the walls will continue to be built up while the carpenter does inside woodwork in the new living room, whose walls are knocked through at some point (within the next 2 weeks, we've been warned). This is the time that the dust and dirt start getting really obnoxious, apparently. We already have an idea of what will need to remain in the living room (due to complete lack of space elsewhere, such as bookcases and a three-piece suite) and Ian mentions that we could use some blue damp-proofing membrane taped up to fend off the worst of the dirt. He advises us that it will still get just about everywhere, only slightly less so.

When the walls at the side are two storeys high, the carpenter should in theory be ready to build the purlined roof (no standard roof trusses blocking the space. Before that time we hope to locate a suitable loft window to provide natural light in the space.

At the front, we're formulating outline plans for the front garden in its new incarnation. There will be more driveway, but we're hoping to add a flowerbed in front of the new living room window, with a wisteria planted close to the wall, and a couple of shrubs that will provide good cover later. The rest of the space will be annuals, Alison's favourite idea.

I mentioned to a friend about the argument between the builder and the elderly lady, expecting the same incredulous response we had given. I was incredulous a second time when he mentioned that she'd done something similar on another occasion, with another neighbour living nearby.

There is still considerable curiosity from passers-by, but they're getting used to it all now. The fact that there are still huge piles of sand, stone and blocks, together with an industrial-grade rubbish skip in the way also helps.

When the builders depart I take the garden hose around various plants to try to keep them going in this remorseless heat. I think the large viburnum is on its last legs, but we'll keep on trying to revive it, the smaller ones are wilting a bit, so they get a good soaking, and then I wander around to the back to help the suffering in that part of the world. Joy of joys, the clematis, despite their extremely dead appearance are all budding, so removal of all leaves hadn't killed them after all. Fortunately they're generally well-shaded on the roots and aren't losing much moisture because of the total lack of leaves. I can't describe how glad I am that they're surviving!

Wednesday 20^th May - Returned home and the house looked pretty much as it had the previous day, in fact for a moment I wondered whether anything had happened at all. I said "Hi" to Ian and Dave and went inside to unwind after a long and tiring day, and I hadn't even been building anything!

When Alison returned I was greeted with "did you see round the side?". I followed her back out and we trooped around to where the new garage was going to be. To my surprise there was a 3 feet high wall around the wide of the building, a little gap-toothed but for all that, 3 feet high! The back door into the utility room was also in place (well, the frame was). Because of the difficulty in working in a confined space they were doing the outside wall first, then bringing up the blockwork of the inner skin, so progress seemed unnaturally quick.

Because the end wall had been brought in a few centimetres during the first week, Ian now had to use a slightly smaller window in the back of the house, for the utility room. Even so it was fine (we'd decided on a very small window to start with anyway, and the architect had persuaded us to a larger one, so it was no loss to us).

We also discussed with Ian where the plumbing was going to go. I liked the idea of it being exposed, along the inside of the utility room at floor level, passing beneath the level of the doorstep and into a corner where we would potentially have a washing machine and tumble-drier with a worktop above them. As a result we'd have the outside tap and the water services plus a tumble-drier vent all in one corner, out of the way. If space was at too much of a premium in the utility room we could leave the appliances where they are in the kitchen until a later date, until we "got organised". The floor in the utility/garage is not going to be raised, so there is enough depth to the doorstep to provide protection for the pipes. In fact we'd create a step or possibly a small ramp in order to protect (by boxing in) the pipework anyway.

When the builders left we went back out to take the pictures and also do a couple of measurements, as luck would have it, despite the width of the utility room being a couple of inches less than anticipated, the appliances would fit nicely. All this plumbing work raises the question of how we drain the water away, so far there is no change to the existing services. Even the increased guttering length doesn't require extra down-pipes and drains. This extra plumbing may require a connection to the waste water pipe (which conveniently runs just outside the wall, a couple of feet down) via a small drain outside. It could also drain via a drain pipe set at an angle along to an existing grid set below the kitchen windows, for the kitchen sink drainage.

Back inside, we again discussed the new garage door and decided on a Catnic Garador - "Georgian" 6'6" by 7'.

I carried on setting up these HTML pages and Alison moved a few more ornaments from the living room. Tomorrow we have to do some serious shifting of stuff from that room and the garage, in preparation for the knocking-through of the intervening wall. On Friday evening we depart for a couple of days with family in Kent, Ian will work on Saturday morning, and a neighbour will help to assure that the house is secure until we return.

During mid-evening there was a brief half-hearted rain shower, huge drops, but not many. Slightly fresher and cleaner, the building site disappears into the gloom.

Again, we discover that other people have remarked about how quickly and diligently Ian and Dave work, seems that our choice is being vindicated.

Thursday 21^st May - On the way into work today the person driving mentions that a neighbour is a carpenter, presumably just by chance. This is interesting because we intend to build "something" under the stairwell to act as high-volume storage for things such as CDs and videos that never seem to find a decent home in the normal scheme of things. We already have details of another carpenter recommended by Ian (who restored an antique fireplace for him a while back) who sounds interesting, and we have another couple of local carpenters who may also have interesting ideas. Yet another thread to be investigated. I also have the idea that we could put a trompe d'oeuil staircase on the side wall of the stairs (warmer than removing the side wall and having the real staircase exposed!).

Hmm. I wonder.

On arrival back home I notice that fair progress has been made all around, more of a steady nature. The side wall has grown from 3 feet to closer to 6 feet and is sprouting wall ties at irregular intervals, dressing up of the stone around the new door is happening, but apparently "little else". I can remember from the original building of this house that there were times when nothing appeared to be happening, sometimes for several days, then suddenly a whole set of developments would occur at the same time. Today, however, is quiet. Inside, we box and move a few more things, but we're really just pausing, waiting for the weekend away, hopefully in less chaos.

Friday 22^nd May - Well, on the way into work the car stopped working, but apart from that the fragile arrangements for the day went as well as could be expected. A car requiring a new engine at a time of such expense is at once very significant and also insignificant. We decide to replace the engine (a serious problem, enough to kill the current engine), because the bill, in the total scheme of things, is almost lost in the noise.

Contingency plans and an obliging neighbour save the day and I get home with the new car only a little later than I'd otherwise have been, prior to our journey away from the chaos. The house walls at the side are now all 7 feet high, probably quite close to joist level. Work has obviously slowed because of the nature of working above head level, or on low trestles. The scaffolding stage will also be rather slow, but will be interspersed with other activities so that progress may actually seem to accelerate.

We drive away having not taken any photographs. Ian will be working here tomorrow morning, and after that we'll return on Sunday and take a couple of photographs on the following day which Ian won't be working because it is a national holiday.

Saturday 23^rd May - No news, we were away.

Sunday 24^th May - No news, we returned late and crashed out without looking at a thing, apart from a brochure that has arrived from the roof-window company Velux. We decide that we also need to discuss with the local council about the legalities of installing such a window, since we've already worked out that it needs to be an escape window because it is in what is effectively the third storey of the house.