The windows didn't arrive today. Not sure why. Apparently it was today or tomorrow. So, we'll be hopeful for tomorrow!
In the meantime, we got our scratch coat over the walls. And soffits (that's the white eaves from the roof) and guttering. Not sure why there are gouges through David's beautiful scratch coat!
Nice quiet weekend - no concerts, no shopping trips to furniture stores, just a nice walk on the South Wall this morning, when we avoided a major shower by a thread! I never walked so fast in my life. Very dramatic skies. 
The inspiration is this picture of the Lindis Pass, between Lake Wanaka and Lake Tekapo in New Zealand, which we drove through on a grey day after it had snowed overnight in Lake Wanaka. Despite the dullness of the day, there was a vibrancy to the tussock-covered mountains, as we drove through them mile after broad twisting mile. For the mountain in the foreground, I've used Schimncke Ruby red, Winsor&Newton Quinacridone Gold and Holbein Aureolin (yellow), with a shaving of black and purple watercolour pencils. My big struggle right now is to find the right colour for the mountain in the background. The colours in the picture are pink and pale green to my eye, with some smokey purple haze, but I need to simplify it and maybe accentuate the haze, so that it is pushed back away from the foreground. I'm going to have to experiment with swatches of colour, as I don't want to ruin what I've done so far.
I've done my usual aboriginal snails samples, the best way for me to experiment with the colours without being intimidated by the empty page. And Willow had to get in on the action - the page was getting more attention than him, so he had to step forward. He hasn't quite yet walked over one of my watercolours (a few near misses, though), but it's more to do with me giving him the attention he demands (and dropping my brushes) rather than him leaving me to my art.
And here is the current status - not subtle, but I love the colours, and I want the background to match.
The roof is nearly done - all Nordman tiling is in place, with the 4 veluxes, and most of the flashing (that's the lead bits against the wall). Phil found it tough enough to work with the Nordman tiling, as this was their first time using this material. I think it looks lovely. It reminds me of New Zealand, where they have a lot of corrugated iron roofs. And David and Stan have done the capping to the party wall - a very neat job. They will complete the work on Vanessa's side as soon as the weather is good, hopefully in the next few days. She's been very patient! Thankfully the weather was on our side today, with no major rain. It actually turned nice and sunny in the afternoon. The forecast is bad for tomorrow and into the weekend, so the roof's waterproof qualities will be put to the test.
This is a picture from inside our extension yesterday. It looks a lot tidier today. As you can see, we still have our old wall up. That will need to be knocked down, but not until the extension is secured with windows and doors.
Didn't get a chance to write yesterday, but progress was slow anyway, and they had to leave in the afternoon to go to another job in Templeogue. We were worried this morning that they wouldn't turn up, but Phil and David were there at about 8 o'clock, working away until after 4 today, despite the showers. So we now have three quarters of the roof on, with 2 out of the 4 veluxes in place. Yes, it's Velux, not Roto. They're going to return the Roto windows to the supplier, as the handle doesn't suit us - just not practical at that height.
And we're going to have to go back to Belfast to order my sofa. I had seen a lovely sofa on our trip there a couple of weeks back, but I wanted to check the colour against our kitchen. So, went up to Craftstone on Saturday. A perfect match. Very happy with it. And I rang Ikea Belfast yesterday to find out if I could order over the phone, and was told it was not possible, which is really silly, as that sofa is a special order anyway, it's not in the store. Actually, I must ring back and say that to the customer service person, as it might make a difference. I would hate to go back up there to find out that we could have ordered it on the phone. Unfortunately, we can't order through the website either, it's UK only. This is really frustrating, as they don't have a shop in the Republic of Ireland, despite talking about it for years.
No work today. It's Saturday, and it's pouring out of the heavens! Not nice.
They were busy today, but there isn't that much to show for it, as there was a lot of toing and froing. We have one velux in place, but it's not what was specified (it's not a Velux, it's a Roto, I think). The problem is that the closing mechanism (a swinging handle, not a bar you can pull and push) cannot be operated with a pole. Given the height, the only option would be a remote control, which is an extra cost. So we'll talk about it on Monday morning with Colman and Kevin to figure out what's the best thing to do. 
The roof now has battons (that's the smaller pieces of wood that go across the joists I think) and some kind of waterproof sheeting (it's called Balaroid Breather, and it's a roof tile underlay - I'm enjoying the jargon. Builders love jargon just as much as software engineers!). Well, it's certainly waterproof, as tested by this afternoon's showers!
Here is a detail picture of the extra bits of support under the joists. I'm sure they have a name! I'll have to check it out.
Good progress today. David, Stan and Phil worked on the roof - we now have joists (I think that's what they are called).
We got steels at last! It wasn't without a final long wait. The steel man didn't arrive until 2 o'clock, I think (he had said he would be here at 10). David, Stan and Phil were here waiting for it, afraid to leave for even 5 minutes in case the steel man arrived in the time they were gone. There is an awful lot of waiting around in this business.
Colman from Extend was over for the 3rd site visit and was happy with the overall progress and the quality of the work. Extend have been very good through this phase of the project, monitoring progress regularly and answering queries from Kevin promptly. I'm glad we decided to go with the "Design Pack C", as I feel we're getting very good support from Extend through this. 
As you know, I'm a big Neil Diamond fan, going back years. I'm from the Beautiful Noise generation, but I quickly discovered all the old songs. Amongst my favourites are Kentucky Woman, Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon, Do You Know What I Mean?, Soolaimon, Lady Magdalen, I'm a Believer, Dear Father. OK, I'd better stop here, the list could go on. I quite like the 12 Songs album, and I think I will love his new album Home Before Dark (I don't know yet, as I'm eagerly awaiting my birthday to find out, but the few songs I've heard from it are good. I particularly like Pretty Amazing Grace).
Went to see Sex and the City: the Movie with Lucinda this evening. Had a great time. It's exactly as it should be. The clothes are fabulous (sometimes outrageous), the girls meet for Saturday lunch and for late night cocktails, the men are the cause of pain and anxiety, New York is looking its best, and the shoes are vertiginous!
You can now see where we'll have our long window on the side of the house, and the sliding doors, and the door to the shed!
And, at long last, we have a wall between us and the neighbours. The only 2 people disappointed are Willow (who can no longer stroll in the neighbours's garden at his leisure) and the neighbours' son (who has enjoyed watching every minute of it)
Kevin McGrath's team have been doing a great job so far. David, his foreman, is explaining everything they do, so we feel very much part of it. And even Willow is getting used to his garden changing every day.
Stan and David were there at 8 this morning. They had told us they would come around 9, but traffic must have been a lot lighter than during the week. They didn't make too much noise until after 9, so hopefully, no neighbour got woken up by the sound of the drill!
In answer to P's question, yes, some of the pipes are being rerouted - there is a pipe leading from the roof gutter, which will need to be rerouted completely, as it was clashing with our wall. Currently, it's going nowhere, but it will be rerouted on the outside. Other pipes are staying more or less where they were.
The big junction and manhole which is currently beside our party wall will be moved to just outside the extension, in front of our shed door - though how it will get through the wall, I'm not quite sure. No doubt they've got it all figured out and it will become clear in due course!
The main sewage pipes going across our garden have now been covered over and will never be heard of again, hopefully!
This morning, Kevin had to do a bit more digging to confirm that the damp patch we found on Friday night at the back of the house was not a leaking pipe, but just a harmless bit of ground water.
Our garden was a hive of activity when we came back from the gym this morning. Three brick layers were there, Kevin was taking measurements and levels, David was organising things and Stan was busy working hard as always. There were cars and vans everywhere in front of our house. Given that it was bin day, we had to get some of these moved (to make sure that the Panda truck could get by and collect everybody's bins!)
The blocks were delivered around 1:30 (they had been ordered for 8 am), and work started on the wall. We're now at the floor level, so we have a better idea of the extra space we're going to have. And the hole in the block work at the top is for the underfloor ventilation. All fascinating stuff!
And here is the answer to Padraig's question about what happens to the pipes: they get little lintels over them, and then blocks go right over, just like a window!
No work today. It's Sunday.
On the other hand, the sand was painted on damp paper again, with yellow ochre and alizarin crimson. When that was dry, I used the sieve and toothbrush to spray paint the same colours over the background, adding a mix of turquoise and ultramarine for the darker spots. It's a bit redder than I would have liked, hence the title "Life on Mars"
I like the surreal effect of the whole thing. I might have another go, and try another, more realistic, version.
