Help arrives

Jo and her boyfriend Matt arrived. They gowned up (a nurses occupation!) and set about rubbing down the plaster work and putting the first coat of paint on in our bedroom. They did a brilliant job and it's just so good to have the help.

Jo bashed about in the shower room with the centre punch and hammer, clearing out adhesive that is now rock hard, making way for the grouting.

It's back breaking work and takes chips out of fingers and thumbs along with tiles! It isn't at all selective! I have since grouted the floor and painted over the chips with tile paint. If people don't look down all will seem perfect!

Ollie and his mate Alex arrived. Ollie and Niels studied the heat exchange system, put the instructions away and had another beer!

And now some of the wiring that has been hanging around for weeks is beginning to disappear. Brilliant, thanks Ollie and Alex.

I had thought to have light switches that were more trendy and upmarket, but I'm so relieved to have any thing at all that suggests we may have some light, and besides, I'm working on the premise that we can always change them one day (along with the floor tiles in the shower room!)
At the start one is adamant about doing all the work 100% efficiently and having it just so, after all why compromise on the dream? Now as we move towards the next phase, we've adjusted our thinking. Isn't that why we have plants and pictures and rugs and cupboards to cover up the flaw/mistake/error/wrong measurement/the off day? I've never noticed joints in plaster board, now it's become a fixation. Some of Tesco's loos could have had more attention paid to the plaster board work!

The day after the kids went home, the weather plunged head long into arctic conditions.

On Tuesday I had very important appointment in Inverness, that short of the road being closed I was determined to keep. The hairdressers! Appointments don't get more important than that! I made it!

It was wintry and white

I expect on the road into Inverness it's still snowy but down here nearer to sea level its all together softer. This was this morning from the bedroom window of the house we're staying in.

Just beautiful