The plumber didn't come on Thursday or Friday. He's a nice bloke, but he's awful at organising his time, answering phone calls, etc. I guess it's hard to know exactly how long a job will take and plumbers often have emergencies to attend to which must play havoc with schedules, but I don't think he quite realises what it's like at the other end of things trying to plan around him. Anyway, he's promised he'll be here Tuesday morning. So, we have been getting on with all sorts of little jobs that need doing before we can plasterboard. Bob has put in two plywood window sills - we were going to have oak or something, but money's getting short! Not really, it's not quite that bad yet - these sills are in the kitchen behind the sink and in the utility room, so they will be tiled. It's surprising the difference a neat flat surface (even if it is only plywood) makes - just looks much more finished and tidy. Bob cut right through the saw-horse doing one of those! He did think it was taking a while to saw through the ply, but just didn't click! So, we now have a slightly shorter saw-horse. He has also done three pretend oak lintels. As we have had to insulate the outside wall in the kitchen the wall is much further into the room than the original wall and so the original oak lintels will get lost in the wall, so we have put another (non-structural) piece of oak in front to keep the look. The one above the door to the hall is to cover the metal joist-hangers and new concrete lintels. That one was a bit tricky as it had to have cut-outs for the ends of the joists and he had almost finished shaping it when the end piece split off - aaarrghhh! Again, this is just decorative and not structural so we just glued it back together. The building inspector is coming on Monday to check the oak beams, etc - it'd be really funny if he thought that was a structural lintel that we'd glued together! I helped Bob put it into place, but as we were trying to get it into place it felldown (think I'll have quite a bruise on my arm where I tried to catch it). You've guessed it - the end piece flew off again as it crashed on the floor! So now we've put it in place separately, glued and clamped it in place and will see tomorrow if it looks OK. I have been doing a bit more studwork - all sorts of fiddly bits like the triangular pieces to the roof upstairs and round the window, pipes and cables in the utility room. As you've seen, Peggy and I have also pointed around the kitchen and extension doorframes - they look much more part of the building once the join is covered up. I mortarred in the ends of the latest oak beams in the kitchen and covered over the top of the bread oven (above it, not inside it). The inside of the bread oven is a lovely brick dome, but on top of it is just filled in with rubble and dust. So the layer of mortar tidies that up and we will be able to use the space between that and the ceiling as some sort of really awkward cupboard. It is a good arms-length deep, but only about a foot high, so I think we'll have to come up with some cunning sliding thing for storing baking trays or similar.
We did give ourselves some time off this afternoon to watch England beat the pants of the Italians in the Six Nations - yeah!! Last year we went to the pub in the village to watch the England/Wales match - although we are about three miles inside England, there was only us and one other chap shouting for England! After watching this afternoon, we went for a walk around our 'estate'. Spring is definitely in the air and all sorts of things are shooting up in the garden - I just wish I could remember what/where everything is. At least then I'd have a chance of knowing whether the little green things are supposed to be there or are going to turn into some monster weed! I made a ginger cake this afternoon (started at half time and finished after the rugby) so when we got back to the caravan, there was a lovely warm, gingery, cakey fug - that has to be one of the most homely smells I know, yum!
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