Sometimes a facelift can take a long time...
Before the Christmas period I thought that the scaffolding on the front of the house would be down within a few days. Silly me. Scaffolders seem to operate on the basis that their structure stays in situ until needed elsewhere, so why take it down over the Christmas break? unfortunately the break also coincided with our realisation that our amiable builder was not really getting ahead as he had promised, and today we had to agree to part company with him and (gulp) arrange the balance of the work ourselves. Fortunately we have been using workmen direct in No. 7 who can be deployed to finish off what's needed at No. 8 - but of course this means delay. Not that we are alone in this: our local doctor told Paul recently - in the course of a two-minute consultation very different from the chatty sessions in Ribérac - that he had had builders round for what was meant to take six weeks and they were there for four months. Ouch.
However, now we have wrested control into our own hands we shall have only ourselves to blame fof further mishaps. Hopefully, too, this spells the end of those middle-of-the-night worry sessions where you feel things are out of control and heading in the wrong direction (to the extent they are heading anywhere!).
On Monday next, however, painters start in No. 7 so there should be progress on that front. And the other positive factor is that we have - so far - been spared the norovirus, aka winter vomiting sickness, which seems to be cutting swathes through the population. I just hope that it spares, too, the workmen who will - fingers crossed - help us to get back into the Shoebox by the end of January.
Antony Mair
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