You'll have to talk amongst yourselves for a while - there is stuff happening but nothing worth getting excited about. R is about 1500 bricks short of a wall - my mum says he must be getting bored up the wall, but R says he's just impatient to get on with the house. Has not affected the excellent quality of the brickwork.

I have come down with what appears to be an unexpected case of two frozen shoulders. Very boring. Almost all work on the house has stopped for me - some taping may be possible. So I focus on earning the dosh so he can do the house. I am learning to be ladylike - that would be a first - asking people to get things off the top shelf in the supermarket and open doors and all that.

The plasterer came today and will come back in about two weeks, by which time we need to have got the windows in. If anyone would like to come for a day or two to help, now would be a great time! When the windows come we'll need four strong(ish) men. I will provide wonderful food and we have a three-bedroom, eight-berth caravan. Plus we need to get the battening and render board up before the plasterer comes.

Windows will be coming at the end of next week - yikes! It won't half look different though.

So watch this space.