Love me tender

Mr Architect was round again on Friday, also bringing Ms Structural Engineer with him for a once-over of the Burrow. Once she left we, once again, made life awkward for him by making yet more amendments to the plans.

Actually, the plans are looking pretty darn good at the moment. All on paper these days so no way to post on the site unfortunately. We also have a set of tender documents that will be sent out next week to 5 contractors for quotes. We've booked a date in early April to go through the returns and make a decision.

Good progress elsewhere too. Rachel has been round to see the neighbours (I was too scared) and they were completely nonplussed by the whole thing. A real relief for me!

Not only that but it looks as if we may have saved ourselves £5,000 by persuading the almost-in-laws to let us move in to Horton-cum-Cuddle-Me for the duration of the work rather than rent somewhere.

Monday evening has us meeting with Mr Mortgage to see if we can actually pay for all this! It's been suggested we get a 'draw-down' mortgage to pay for the work as it goes on rather than all in one lump. Sounds clever.

And with all this expense heading for us like a steam train we've decided to bugger off to Germany for a week for my birthday.

All systems are go!

After what seems like an eternity it finally feels like the extension is actually gong to happen - and soon!

We had a long, intense meeting with Mr Architect on Monday. He presented his latest plans, which are now crammed with detail (he's obviously been doing some work) of plug sockets, waste pipe routes, lighting etc. In going through all this (right down to the type of doorknobs we wanted) we also managed to drag in the front and back gardens and decorating throughout the house. Hate to think what this is going to cost now, but we think it makes sense to do everything at once and have professionals do it for us.

So the start date is the first week in May, looking to complete by the end of August. This means we will have to find somewhere to live for the duration, which we knew already but now it feels real. Have made a few enquiries with rental organisations and realise it aint gonna be cheap! We've got another plan up our sleeves which is best left unmentioned at present.

It's also coming to the point where we can't put off telling the neighbours much longer. Not sure how we're going to start the conversation. Maybe "hey, you know you used to have sunlight coming through your kitchen window? How about buying a new light..." Well, we're going ahead whatever, so we can only try and make it as painless as possible.

Another meeting fixed up for next Friday with Mr Architect where we'll be looking at the latest plans and agreeing the contract! Oh my god....