You wait ages for one then loads turn up all at once. At least that’s what we’ve found since the last blog. December was a sloooooow month. It seemed that builders were disappearing by the day and Jez was soldiering on all by himself some days. The crux of the matter was a Christmas deadline it seems – everyone wants things done by Christmas, mine was no way going to be but others were so my builders were slowly being syphoned off onto other projects.
Progress is very stop-start. A flurry of activity leads to huge visible progress and then it seems like weeks and weeks of nothing. In reality it’s not actually weeks and weeks but time has a habit of standing still when you are eagerly anticipating things.
By Christmas I was about ready to tear my hair out and was decidedly un-festive. The sewerage sage lingered on – the permit application was lost in the post so another was needed. The entire building industry downs tools for 2 weeks at Christmas and so in the end did I. I put utilities out of my head, stopped looking out of the window for progress and ultimately relaxed.–
It turned out it was what I needed. I was getting more and more stressed and this process is not supposed to be quite so agonising. Plus it’s pretty hard to concentrate on being cross with a multitude of service providers when you’ve two crazy boys counting down to Santa’s visit. A bit of total down time was well needed. We even found the energy to shop for a new sofa and kitchen.
But the New Year has seen lots of progress. I’ve talked (rather sternly at times!) to Nigel about deadlines and finish dates and so far we’ve had builders & joiners a-plenty. The snow hasn’t even stopped progress (yet!). The floor of the second timber frame is nearly down there are rumours of sandblasting and scaffolding is up ready for roofers who I’m told will be arriving later this week. However, as I’m told a lot of things that don’t always transpire I won’t get too excited until the first slates are laid.