Groovy Baby

Tongue and groove to be precise. We're still working hard to get all the prep done at mum's house. The way we look at it, every hour we spend ripping up carpets or removing tiles is time we won't be paying builders for, once things start moving.

There's lots of stuff that I can't do, so I've been mostly stripping wallpaper and lifting carpets while Al's been doing some of the heavier stuff. We discovered some vaguely remembered seventies style tongue and groove cladding in the bathroom - neatly hidden under glued on hardboard which had been papered over, so Al had a happy few hours ripping that out - it was certainly built to last! I've stripped the wallpaper and carpet from the bathroom, so that's looking nice and grotty now!

Tiles next!

One of the biggest things that Al did this week was when we were having an outside day - there was a big carport joining thegarage to the conservatory which needed dismantling. Dad used to park the car under there many years ago, and mum used it to hang washing outside on drizzly days. As we won't be doing either of those, and are hoping for a really big seating area at the top, the carport needed to go.

It was a nightmare to get out - to put it politely, it was very very well built! Al was scratched and cut from battling the hard plastic, and some of the big supporting posts seemed to have been anchored in Australia! It's nice to see how sunny and bright that area's going to be though - as you can see from the before and after pics.

In other news this week, we - or rather, I - discovered that we seem to have a healthy population of frogs living in the garden. I think one of them is a specially trained attack frog, as it took an almighty leap towards me, making me squeal like a girl! Al was very concerned. Several minutes later, after he's finished what he was doing, he finally asked if I was ok! Thanks for that Al!

I'm hoping I'll have some news about the builder this next week, and whether we can actually afford to do everything we're hoping to - we had a meeting with a local builder on Wednesday. He was recommended by my hairdresser after building her extension, so we're waiting for a quote from him, and take it from there.

A fairly productive week all in all.

Jay.