The Extension Arises Anew

Well, 'Er Indoors has been away for the last two weeks, and I have been VERY busy.  The main visible task has been completion of the brickwork for the rebuilt extension (mostly using bricks reclaimed from the previous structure), despite the efforts of both the weather and the scaffolders.  On Saturday the replacement joiner did the new roof without cutting himself as his predecessor has done (at his own workshop, I hasten to add).  So, we are now ready (photo right) for the roofer who I hope will be able to come fairly soon to do the slate roof and the leadwork.

I have also been trying to do numerous small tasks inside (plus a few large ones) in an effort to give the appearance of making some real progress while she's been away.  I've been diverted by a number of other tasks: some of these were house-related, such as collecting the new rooflight, and going to the reclamation yard for more bricks.  However, others were total diversions, such as helping my daughter put up shelves in her new (first!) flat in London, playing with grandson, attending a hearing of the Council's
Licensing Committee, visiting relatives in London... you get the idea.  As a result, of eleven working days I have only actually been here for about six, so I've had trouble doing all that was on my list.  Moreover, today was spent clearing up before the other half came home and saw the mess of the last two weeks.  I think if I lived alone it would be very hard to keep the place tidy, as there seems no point in clearing up if you're going to get it all out again tomorrow, is there?

I managed to get some local building sand for the brickie, so that the mortar can match the original, which is a very pale buff colour.  We got three tonnes of it delivered, and one morning last week the brickie's mate Steve said that the last one seemed to have gone down rather quickly.  Talking about it and looking at what had just been done, we were forced to the conclusion that some enterprising soul had actually stolen some of this from the dumpy bag in my front garden.  We reckoned that about one third of it had gone and so I had to acquire some more pretty sharpish, and now of course I've got most of that left!  Before you ask, there was no way it could be moved out of sight as the scaffolding prevented the passage of a wheelbarrow down the side of the house. In any case, I had neither the time nor the energy, nor a wheelbarrow for that matter (see below).

Other events of note are that the plasterer has borrowed my cement mixer - again - and the scaffolders inflicted the coup-de-grace to my worn-out wheelbarrow by throwing their clips into it from on high!  I think that's a bit much as I know what that does to wheelbarrows (see "My first wheelbarrow").  Also, the new Community Centre at the back was formally opened by a member of the royal family last week, and we had a grandstand view from the scaffolding.  This event actually gave me the evidence I needed to object to their licensing application at the Council's Licensing Committee: I noticed that while waiting, the guests had opened the windows (in November?).  Why?  The answer, they had to admit, is that this amazing brand new state-of-the-art eco-friendly Passiv Haus building has no air-conditioning, but only an air recirculation system with no cooling facility. Our objection was because we were concerned about the potential noise at night from events in the building, but now they are obliged by their licence to keep the windows closed at all times when music is being played.  Result!