And to top it all...

I've been working on the concrete worktops. I have to use progressively finer grades of sanding disc. Then last week they were all covered with a slurry of runny cement, to fill in any holes and cracks, and then left to dry for a few days. So I made a start on Saturday, getting the slurry off. You grind them with a tool connected to a hose pipe, so consequently you get soaked. Hence having to dress up in my yellow waterproofs ( I don't think I have worn them since I sandblasted our house in Darlington 30 years ago!)

It is quite surprising the range of colours that the pebbles in the concrete turn out to be when they are ground down! The concrete looks great when it is wet - all shiny, but because I haven't reached the polishing stage they don't keep the shine when they dry

I'm feeling Clad allover

Well it's not quite yet but i couldn't resist misquoting The Dave Clark Five! We are using Western Red Cedar (bought from Latham's in Leicester) Pleased with the results so far. Takes Stuart a while to do the preparation as all the corners and edges have to be cut and shaped from pieces of 4" x 2" cedar. Hopefully, weather permitting Stuart will get much of the gable-end done next week. I've cleared out the garage so he can cut wood in there if it is raining.

A revealing week

Well it's been good to have Keith Duerden working at the house - he's been painting all the window reveals. Good to see some crisp lines. We also turned the garage into a temporary spray booth so Keith has also been spray-painting our plywood sliding wardrobe doors.

We also have had the zinc roofers back - we got them to roof the little log store I built. I also made a table using off-cuts from the oak sleepers as legs and they put a zinc top on it

Back to Monocouche

We have had some great weather lately and Stuart has been putting it to good use back outside using up the Monocouche render which was left over from when we had the house walls done. Stuart's got a new string to his bow (we didn't use the same renderers as before)

Unfortunately it looks like the weather's about to break so Stuart will have to dodge the rain this week to try and finish off. Don't think we will have enough bags to do the whole of the side passage but at least we will have enough to do the bits that show