Still playing catch-up...

I'm wading my way through my notes from the last month, so here is another instalment of progress that's happened at the house:

• Saturday, 17 January: Richard 2 has been.  We've now got a shower tray, base cabinets, and worktops in the utility, and about three-quarters of the tiling has been done.  For the first time, I can "see" myself liking living in this house [as opposed to living in the house until I can make enough changes that it feels bearable (the downside of buying a place for the exterior when the house is a sh!thole, I suppose)].  That felt like an immense breakthrough, and I've felt so much more positive since.  Thank you so much!  He has also connected the loo to the mains, but until Richard 1 has finished his ministrations we are still reliant on our bucket.  Jason fitted the sliding kitchen door into the final position; that's him done for now.  David continued removing wallpaper paste from the sitting room walls, and I started sanding the cornice, and painted behind where the radiators will be in there.
• Sunday, 18 January: I was painting "behind" the radiators, again, whilst David went to B&Q in Ashford to attempt to change the dark grey primer for white!  Hmm, not sure how we missed that?  In our defence, all the pots of paint are white with grey, yellow and black graphics...  The reason we bought primer, is that whatever coating Vic had painted on the new plaster wasn't taking emulsion, so we thought primer would work; it does, but not fantastically.  Perhaps I should have tried the stain stop?  David continued with steamer and sugar soap, and finished stripping all the wallpaper paste from the sitting room; that felt like a massive achievement [it is really gunky stuff].  I did another coat behind the rads, and got a coat of primer on the coving on the fireplace wall.  Sadly, the day ended unhappily as both my thumbs split open (I'm guessing from the cold?).
• Monday, 19 January: British Gas insisted that I wait in whilst the gas supply was connected; David had negotiated it down to just the first day [rather than the whole week], so with the shoulders out of commission (again), I sat in the car wearing all the clothing I had with me, under a blanket [that a laundrette shrunk; we keep it in the boot in case we buy a piece of furniture in our travels (which needs protecting in transit)].  I was just getting to the point where I needed to start the engine to generate some warmth [after about an hour and a half], when Richard 2 arrived with Terry who was helping him tile.  It turns out that, despite having told us that he wouldn't run any piping for the sanitary ware at the heating stage, Richard 1 had run pipes for the basin we want in the loo, and to where the shower was going...  So now we need to have those capped off, because Richard 2 has run those same pipes along a different route.  We have asked that Richard 2 liaise with Richard 1 to make sure the lovely new worktops don't get damaged when the Richard 1 connects up the boiler.  I was stalking Richard 2 and Terry [it's much more entertaining chatting with builders than sitting in a car reading my book] havign left a note on the door for the gas contractors, when BT showed up.  I was a bit mystified as we have scheduled the telephone move for later this month [Feb], but he said it was so that the gas board doesn't dig through telephone cabling.  David checked with British Gas that the workmen were coming [I've had an awful lot of wasted days when I had to stay in for a meter reader between 8am and 6pm when I lived in Brixton], and was assured they were, so I stood around getting colder and colder - desperately glad for the thermal underwear, but wishing I had a full-body electric blanket.  Terry had a heater (and the work light kicks out a lot of heat), so I was standing on the shower tray, but still a freezing place to be.  I got a text from David, who was on hold for British Gas, about 3.15 so I went outside to try and get a mobile signal; turns out that a job from Friday had over run, they were never coming today, and I didn't need to be there [the plumber could tell them where the meter box was to go].  Again, British Gas don't cover themselves in glory, in my eyes!  Richard and Terry were due back the following day [they'd nearly finished the tiling], so agreed to point out the location, and to let in the chimney sweep, so that saved me another day's cold waiting; so grateful to those guys.
• Saturday, 24 January: Progress from both Richards, British Gas, chimney sweep, and Adam [Colin?] - lovely to arrive to a different-looking place.  Richard 2 and Terry have finished the tiling and the grouting, and we have a shower cubicle and wall cabinets, as well.  Richard 1 has installed the boiler, and connected up a lot of the piping to it.  We can't see what the sweep has done; but that's the way we prefer it - sometimes the chap in France leaves tell-tale "sweep was here" dust/footprints, and I'd much rather never be able to tell he'd been!  Adam, or Colin, has chipped up more of our conifer branches, so it's all coming together outside, too.  David finished sanding the original section of coving I'd started, and the remaining three walls' worth of coving in the sitting room, and I went behind and 'fine-tuned' the finish.  David also swept the ceiling and vacuumed the floors.  I did a little sweeping, but am still being massively "hamstrung" by the pain in my shoulders; I can use my right arm until the burning sensation becomes unbearable, but my left hand starts to shake if I lift it above my head for more than a couple of minutes.  Desperately hoping that when we move in I will be able to do 'little and often', and won't feel the need to over-do it, and will be able to continue decorating in fits and starts.
• Sunday, 25 January: We bought a minimum-maximum thermometer: the house never left 2°C all weekend [and I'm not convinced that it wasn't a bit warmer than the previous week].  I got a coat of primer on the cornices in the sitting room, and the ceiling roses, and David transferred his coving-sanding/ceiling-sweeping activities to the study, and then resumed the wallpaper paste-stripping with steamer and sugar soap in there.  I got a first coat of emulsion on the sitting room ceiling; we now have one strip [approximately a quarter of the area] of clean - we are hoping to get as much painting done as possible near to the woodburning stove before it is installed, so that I don't have to climb all around it once it's in place.  Covering the wall [which needs plastering, after the flue liner is dropped] and ceiling/coving nearest is my aim.
• Monday, 26 January: Another wait for British Gas; this time a successful one.  As the weather was milder, it was a balmy 5°C in the house.  I got a second coat of paint on the strip of sitting room ceiling closest to the fireplace, and had just stopped for a shoulder-break when the gas man arrived.  SGN had installed the meter box in the wrong place - it was supposed to be (and could easily have been) at least one metre from the nearest air brick.  We had the choice of either blocking up the air brick [and installing another one (obviously at our expense) 8" away] or waiting for SGN to return and move it.  Hmm, another 9-10 week delay, or just some more expense and inconvenience to ourselves; well, it was a no-brainer.  Thankfully I had been there that day [to make the decision], so we got our gas meter.  The installer very kindly blocked up the air brick himself [the fact that he'd got a gun of sealant makes me think this wasn't the first time this had happened], but he went all "no comment" when I asked if this was how SGN normally acted...  They're the only ones legally allowed to lay the gas pipes, so the only company the regulations apply to... Hmm!  At least it was only an air brick; if it was the window it was too near, we would have had to wait for them to re-site the box.  The helpful guy confirmed that I hadn't needed to wait in on either day, but I was glad I was there that day rather than finding a note through the letter box instead of a gas meter.  Tired and fed up, I cleaned up and headed off...  Just in time to meet Richard 1 as I was pulling out of the driveway.  He was going to continue connecting up the boiler.  He said it was a nightmare; the "kitchen fitter" hadn't left him enough room to work.  I have a certain amount of sympathy for him working in difficult conditions, but he told us that he would connect all the piping ready to install the boiler once the gas was connected.  So my sympathy was limited by the fact that in the three months he had a key to the house before Richard 2 started work, he hadn't connected any piping to where the boiler would be [he'd fitted all the radiators (which got in our way for decorating) instead].  We told him in early December that we had to move in in early February [David may have fudged that a little (this was before Tom gave us a two week extension on our tenancy)], and that the gas was coming on the 19th of January. Oh, well.
• Wednesday, 28 January: Richards have both been busy again; gas piping connected to the meter, and altered flue on the outside [apparently, the new extractor fan was too close], and sink/taps and shower door inside.  Also, Richard 2 has lifted the wall cabinets to give us a greater amount of space over the worktop.  I went there to wait for Nick, the stove guy, to come and block up the fireplace opening, and build up a support for the new hearth.  I managed a coat of stain stop on the ceiling above the kitchen door, where damp marks had come through the emulsion, and on the coving along that wall when Nick and Glyn arrived.  Nick said it was lighter in that room, so another instance of other people being able to see progress when I am not noticing any.  I diverted to applying stain stop to the damp marks on the study ceiling while Glyn started sawing through the floorboards to enlarge the hearth [it's concrete, but not big enough to support the slate hearth that will be underneath the stove].  He blocked up the fire opening really quickly, then filled in the void space up to level with the boards, and now it needs to go off.  I was saying it was lucky it was warmer, otherwise the mortar would suffer, and he said he uses an additive to prevent freezing and to speed-up setting - I wish my dad had lived to use such things.  I hit a point where I couldn't do any more, so was just about to head off when Richard 1 arrived to connect the boiler to the gas.  He said that  he opened the valve to the loo, but water is overflowing from the cistern; hmm, we finally get the thing connected to the water, and water to the pipes, and now we discover the loo is broken.  Hah! 
• Saturday, 31 January: Heat!  Arrived to see steam coming from the boiler, and to find the house warm; bliss.  The house is noticeably warmer [10°C, with the boiler on frost-stat setting; coincidentally how warm the rest of the house is in Maidstone with the heating on today (the "snug" is 20°C, so I don't want to waste energy by turning up the thermostat)], and we've gone, overnight, from keeping the kitchen doors closed to try and keep a little warmth in there (from the gas stove), to opening them both to allow heat to enter from the rest of the house.  We had to remove the radiator as it was fouling the door, and know that once we're living there we won't miss having one [neither of David's flats had a kitchen rad, and the one in Maidstone has been turned off since we moved in].  Conversely, we are keeping the door to the dining room closed, as that one isn't connected up to the circuit; we are hoping to get the wall repaired before hooking it up to the boiler.  I applied a second coat of stain stop to the damp on the sitting room ceiling, and painted a first coat on the second quarter of the ceiling - I had to remove my gîlet, it was so warm!   David took out the last of the old piping [from the kitchen to upstairs], now that Richard 2 has capped off the cold supply after the kitchen sink.  He then diverted to sanding the coving, and brushing off the ceiling in the hall.  Can I call him a dust bunny?
• Sunday, 1 February: four weeks to go till we have to vacate our current home, so it really feels as though the clock is ticking.  Now that we have a shower and central heating, all we really need to do is [a lot of] cleaning, and we could move in tomorrow.  But it would be nice to get a bit more of the messy work sorted out.  David's program is get all the coving sanded on the ground floor [thankfully, there is none upstairs], and if he manages to finish that, get all the ceilings brushed; kitchen, dining room, and loo remain.  I am continuing with the painting in the sitting room; sadly, I won't be able to finish, as plaster was falling off the walls when David finished removing the wallpaper-paste.  We think we will need to get the two end walls skimmed, and the sides of the other French window.  That can wait till we move in, and by waiting we can see if we need to have the wall chased out for a TV aerial.  I got a coat of stain stop on the coving of the fireplace wall, and the damp marks on the ceiling, and went to apply a second coat of emulsion to the second quarter of the ceiling [naturally, after dropping my stain stop brush back into the jar of white spirit], when I noticed a strip of tram-tracks of damp stain...  Stain stop out, again, and I painted over those marks.  As I couldn't then paint that part of ceiling, I diverted to putting more stain stop on the remaining coving.  David used up a can of expanding foam filler, and then started to sand the kitchen coving.  Unfortunately, he has succumbed to the lurgy that Vasant [I believe] brought into the office, and we headed home early in the afternoon to put him to bed with a couple of hot water bottles.  We both had a dose of Night Nurse, and I slept for fifteen hours, so I think we both needed the rest.

 Other interesting [well, to me at any rate] snippets:

• Yet another BT fault, and trying to report it online left me with a variety of hanging pages, timers on screen and a "403 Forbidden" error, but no way (to report a fault) that would actually work!  Thank goodness for helpful colleagues at David's office reporting it out for me.  This one only took three days to fix, thankfully, and I didn't have to wait in [the last one wasn't in the house, but I did have to wait in to 'prove' that to them] - result!
• I asked the gas meter installer about smart metering, and he said that it was some way off, and he took out his mobile-signal meter to test the signal [not good enough for a smart meter], and outside the best signal was Vodafone, with 47% of test calls succeeding, and in the house it was O2 with a success rate of 12%!  At least we won't be too troubled by guests spending all their time with their fascinating on-line life rather than chatting to us, I suppose [don't laugh, it happens].
• Richard 2 told me about Elastoplast spray - and it covers up the splits in my thumbs much better than plasters now seem capable of ;
• The tiger-onesied whippet I'd seen around Maidstone is Poppy, one of Richard and Eve's dogs - I'd pointed her out to David one evening as we were heading home;
• Apparently, whippets make fantastic hot water bottles!

Phew, that me up to date.  I really will try harder to stop the updates backing up like this.