Monday 26 the electricians arrive, spend the day putting up tracklights, installing powerpoints and switches. We have light! The bad news is that the exterior spotlights spoil the look of our triangular window in the gable. We chose their position from the outside, considering it from the exterior point of view, and didn't think about how it would look from inside. May be fixable.
Tuesday, we are awoken early by the plumber wanting to turn the water off so that he can relocate one of the pipes under the sink, which would otherwise have finished up in the bin drawer.
By Wednesday my body clock is adjusting to early, and I am up at 10 to 7, showered and dressed by 7. No one comes.
Thursday the roofer comes and finishes the guttering and downspouts, doing a lovely neat job. The downpipes are not yet connected to the storm water drains, but at least the water is coming off the roof in a more controlled fashion.
Friday, and at last, the skylights arrive and are being installed as I write. Camera to be employed when they are done. Builders are also here levelling the floor, filling in gaps around the windows, and putting up architraves. And the hard plasterers, busy filling gaps in the back wall.
Meanwhile we have been trying to finalise all kinds of other things and having the usual two steps forward, one step back experiences. On Monday we found that the range hood we chose months ago has been discontinued. We might, if we are lucky, be able to buy the display one, but that has to be approved by a manager, who has apparently been sick all week. We are also told by the kitchen people, who have contacted Laminex, that the laminate we had chosen for the benchtops couldn't be formed to give the modern wrap-around look. Wednesday things take a turn for the better. We trek out to the Laminex showroom at Tullamarine and confirm that the laminate can be formed. On the way back we find a tile distributor who locates the last 7 square metres of 200x200 terracotta floor tiles in captivity - our builder told us that he thought we wouldn't get the size (no longer fashionable) and our sorties into tile shops thus far seemed to confirm this. We decide to buy the lot, even though we probably only need about half, so we have spares against any future contingencies. We still have fingers crossed on the range hood. It is an IKEA product, and you can't ring an IKEA store, only their central enquiries, which is maddening. After a bit of shouting on Wednesday, the central enquiries person contacts the store for me, comes back with the information that the manager who has to approve the sale of a display item is sick, but they will call. They still haven't and I'm wondering if I have the energy for another lot of shouting, or whether to wait until Monday.
Looking in (above)
Looking out (right and below).
The partition wall on the left is NOT blue - that's just a trick of the light.
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