It’s progressing slowly but surely 24/02/07

Looking back at my last blog post I can see that quite a lot has happened at the house in the last 4 weeks although it doesn’t feel like it from where we are! Things still seem to progress at a snails pace and my time is spent sending endless e-mails to the builder trying to move things along.

All the internal walls are now complete, a section of the landing has been demolished, most of the pipework has been installed for the plumbing and heating and the conduit for the electrical cabling is in. The front balcony is starting to take shape and the frames that the new windows and doors will be fixed to are going in, the roof has also been repaired and the guttering installed.

After our trip to the joiner last month we were feeling very positive, unfortunately this was short lived when we discovered the windows and doors couldn’t be installed until some time in May! We have managed to tie them down to the first week in May for all the windows and doors but the shutters probably won’t be fitted until the beginning of June. This is frustrating as the builder continues to assure us his work will be complete by the end of March (we’ll believe it when we see it!) but we must wait until early May before the house will be water tight and secure, only then will we be in a position to install bathrooms and kitchens.

After months of waiting we are suddenly having to make decisions about everything from the style of the windows, doors and balcony railings to the tiles and bathrooms suites. We’ve just ordered the tiles for the two ground floor apartments and are pondering how extravagant we can afford to be with the tiles for our apartment!

Andy is working in Russia this week so while he is away I must try to finalise kitchen and bathroom plans and work out costs for everything we still have to buy!