Day 51 - 23.04.09

I'm not counting yesterday, as it was a public holiday - only the kitchen guys worked. Alan wants Leon to finish in the front before the sheets com on - he does not want them to damage "his" sheets. Leon does not want them to damage "his" walls. Anycase, they have to sort that out between them. At the moment it feels as though they are doing a "go slow" on me. Alan is basically waiting to get the kitchen guys out of the way, so apart from finishing the little wood structure for the "afdakkie" on Tuesday, his guys have not been working here. The afdakkie gives me the feeling that we now have our own church! Do you agree that it looks a little like a church?!

Leon's guys have been working on the outside of the house, first with high pressure hoses (cold) and now they are (or better were - as they left because it was raining too much)busy scraping loose paint off and opening and filling cracks. Alan has got 1 guy - Jan - still here painting and patching. He does not get on with Leon's guys and absolutely refuse to talk to them.! It's quite hilarious. I've just been to the apartment, they will hopefully finish tomorrow, but I think they will still need a full day tomorrow. Now they have just asked Alan's guy to remove the skirting in the bedroom as it was in the way behind the bedroom cupboard. I think that is another something which is shown on the house plan as finishing hére and EasyLife(luckily for us) is ending with the cupboard thére. But it means changing the skirting to fit just the small area between the cupboard and the door opening, and repaint the damaged bits on the wall again. Aggh, it never ends. The carpet is being fitted today a week - next Thursday.

Alan has just been around to see how they're doing with the kitchen and has touched on a few points with the young subcontractor working for EasyLife - discussing light fittings, etc. For the time being, we are not cutting the corner diagonally, can always do it later if it is a problem. The kitchen is at least looking a lot better than on the above photo that was taken yesterday morning.

Day 46 - 15.04.09

I haven't written for a while! The gutters were put on yesterday - I think it looks good, don't you? There was a consideration to let the water run off on the grass, on the other side at the last pillar, but in winter it might make quite a hole as there will be some volume of water coming down.So now the downpipe is on the outside, next to the blue door and it will just run over the paving to the street. Alan thought it might have looked neater being on the end pillar in the garden, but he also had his doubts about just letting it run on the grass.

Last night the bathroom window/hole was just blocked up with a piece of wood and today by lunchtime the window was already in place. They are now busy plastering it and the shower floor is also almost done. The edges (down the side) of the staircase in the apartment have also been plastered and the painter is painstakingly busy fixing all the unevennes.

Tomorrow between 3 and 4 the first interested people are coming to have a look at the house...