28 weeks?

That's what the builder stated in his quote for the work, a programme of 28 weeks. He started onsite a year ago today, and with the exception of a few snags, he only finished 3 weeks ago. I make that more like 49.


Okay, so Christmas was 2 weeks lost, and the freezing cold in February meant that there were a couple of weeks when the brickie could do very little as it was too cold to lay mortar. It seems like an age since he constructed a makeshift 'oven' to thaw his bags of sand! On top of that the builder lost the plot at the start of the year when he had problems with floods in his house, taking his focus off our build. This combined with a chippie and plasterer who were part-time, one due to a serious illness in the family, the other due to having taken on a milk-round to combat the effect of the recession on the construction industry, have all helped to extend the programme way beyond what we were expecting. It's just as well that extending our stay in our temporary accomodation hasn't proven to be a problem.


Arriving at the anniversary whilst still not being back at Hillside is frustrating, but is made far less of an issue now that the plumbers are back onsite doing the second fix. Most of the radiators have been hung and work on the bathrooms is due to be completed this week. With the electrician also back tomorrow to coordinate what he's been doing with the plumber it could mean we can fire the boiler up before the week is out.

There's been light at the end of the tunnel for a while now, but living in a tunnel isn't much fun. At long last we are in the last few feet of the tunnel entrance it seems. We can't wait to get out into the light!