E-Day + 88

Not quite there yet. We really thought we'd be done by now, but the carpentry work for the doors and skirtings is taking longer than we thought.

Stephen has got the doors up, but the kitchen door we're not allowed to open yet - I'm not sure why. I think it's something to do with the foam that's used to fix it in place? Although, now that I think of it, I don't think he used foam for that one. He's got the architraves (that's the door surround bit) up for the other doors and they are looking good. He's also got most of the wood cut to size for the skirting boards, and has started fixing some of them to the walls. I'd say there is another 2 days' work to finish that. He is very meticulous, measuring everything carefully. It is slow work. You should have seen him carry the door frames around - he was like a ballet dancer, so careful not to knock anything!

And the radiators arrived on Friday morning and were set up when we got back from visiting Paul on Friday evening. We're glad we were not there, as we would have been fretting about knocks to the floors and grubby fingers on the walls. Kevin was there to supervise the whole thing and it went well, without any damage to the floor. We wanted Kevin to watch the plumbers closely, as they had left some scratches on the tiles in the en-suite bathroom when they put in the sink and loo after the tiling. It looked really bad at first, but it now appears that it was porcelain marks over the tiles, rather than a scratch in the tiles themselves. Kevin managed to clean it up pretty well. Not 100%, but we'll live with it, I think. Building an extension, you learn the art of compromise.

Margaret had advised us to protect the wooden floors, and we did, but we're only sorry we didn't have full cover for every inch of it. Any bit that wasn't covered got a scratch of some sort, whether it was from the painter's ladders, the kitchen units, the doors and carpentry tools or plumbers' toolboxes. It upset us a lot at first, but hopefully they won't be too noticeable when everything is finished. With time, I'm sure there'll be more scratches, but we just want everything to be perfect, if only for one day! Over time, we probably won't notice the imperfections, just enjoy the new space. It looks stunning with the kitchen units lit up at night, I have to say!

Stan tidied everything up and even karchered the front drive. It almost sparkles! It certainly hadn't been this clean in 2 years, since we had last cleaned it!

We're nearly nearly there! The thing is that we were not mentally prepared for it to take this long, as Kevin had told us at the start it would probably take less than the 14 weeks quoted for, closer to 10 weeks... We thought it might take 12 weeks maybe. The scope increased slightly, and we're now just over the 14 weeks, and we just want our house back! So, the lesson learned is not to be taken in by Kevin's optimism. Plan for 16 weeks, and be pleasantly surprised when it's done quicker. Not that we'll plan to ever do any more work to the house. This will do us for a lifetime!