Undercoat on

A blue-y white
Originally uploaded by Burrow Life.

We're back from a much-needed break in France, and today had our first site meeting since the rather frustrating one before we left.

The most obvious difference was that a coat of white undercoat had been applied throughout the house and did a great deal to make the space seem bigger and brighter. The picture above shows that even with a blue tarpaulin covering where the windows will be it still feels very light. Quite a relief.

Other than that little real progress had been made on the ground. Apparently the electrician had been in and moved some light positions (we didn't know they were wrong!) and the frames are in for the kitchen and bathroom doors. However, much will be happening in the next week, with the kitchen and bathroom being fitted.

Probably worth pausing there to mention that Wickes had ruined their spotless record for customer service by being total dickheads with regard to actually delivering the kitchen. Despite being told very clearly months ago that our street was narrower than Kate Moss's backside, they tried to deliver using an 18-tonne truck. Oh yes, and they called us 3 times while we were in France to remind us it was coming without checking on any of this. Delivery is now scheduled for next Tuesday thanks to Messrs Architect and Builder handling things in our absence.

A more noteable victory in the bathroom; Mr Builder can't beat our superb quotes for the fittings, and so he's off with our wish list and filling it early next week! So by our next site meeting we'll have a bathroom!

Lots of other progress made today: We've selected a really nice hardwood called Idigbo, which once stained will match the oak floors nicely (samples for the flooring being left for us this week). We're having adjustable shelving for the unit in the living area. We've agreed to put the kitchen up but leave out the (suspected) un-needed unit for now. We've decided to take a risk with Building Control getting sticky with our rainfall drainage not going into a soakway, as they don't seem to want to see the place until it's finished.

So overall we're not actually that much further forward than the last blog entry, but it feels like things are really starting to move quickly. I think we've benefitted from a bit of distance from the whole thing for a while too - it's good to be excited about the project again.