There follows a brief family interlude. More on The House below.

Well we had a great day in London last Wednesday. It was Em's graduation, in the Royal Albert Hall so we put on our best clothes and drove to Epping, which is our current preferred method of getting into London. It's at the end of the Central Line and with good old Ken's Oyster cards it's not too expensive. You can park at Epping station for £3.50 for 24 hours. At least you usually can but last week was half term so it was a bit full.

Anyway we got there and took the star of the show out for a Lebanese lunch in Holborn. Delicious. Then to the RAH which as any parent who's done it know is about two and a half hours of sitting around and about two and a half seconds of peak excitement as the child walks past the Rector and shakes hands. But the venue helped, also the orchestra and choir and the Indie crossword passed the time a bit too. We heard 250ish medics giving the Hippocratic Oath all together which was quite spine-tingling.

Then a reception and canapes then a quick dash across London to see David Lynch and Donovan in the Institute of Education. DL was lovely - relaxed and funny and knowledgeable - people asked all sorts of questions and the whole thing was very entertaining. The place was packed. Then another reception, with canapes. At the end I just wanted a cup of tea!

Anyway, we digress.


Lee the plasterer turns out to be an artist - which is brilliant, because the outside of the house is exactly where you want an artist. R has quite a lot to do with the overall effect being so good - he with the help of Brendan-the-apprentice (see Great Crested Newt story below) have spent days and days getting the surface of the Heraklith render board exactly right to receive the render. It's a bit darker and more creamy-yellow than I had originally wanted but as my mum would say it'll show the dirt less.


The South end, almost done.

R is getting frustrated with the speed of build but I say it looks pretty good to me. But he spends all day out there in the cold with his hammer and nails and I just come back from work and admire the day's efforts.

On Sunday Kate and J-P her boyfriend came to help me on the inside of the house. Due to the Shoulders of Doom I have been unable to continue with the sterling work of making the house airtight from the inside (see previous pix of blue tape) and they came to help. I had done the ground floor - it took me about a week - they polished most of the first floor off in a day, including all the twiddly bits round the Velux windows. They were brilliant and are promising to come back next weekend to do all the difficult bits such as the underneath of the ridge beam at the apex of the roof and the tricky bit of wall that you have to do from the scaffolding tower cos there's no floor there (above the entrance hall). We had a great lunch and they were so enthusiastic that we had to rig up lights inside the house so they could continue after dark. These photos of them are some of the worst I have taken but you get the idea.





It won't be long before we can have our first air pressure test to see how airtight it is - just got to finish all this taping and put the front door on, then seal around all the windows and doors, and we can call in the Man With The Fan (you'll see.....) and then our heating fate will be decided. Keep reading - all will be made clear.