Onwards

Windows 10 made itself comfortable on my computer, uninvited. I'm not sure about it yet. Now, so many things are in the wrong place, and when I stick my camera card into the little slot, it no longer does what it used to do. I have to go through a long sequence of actions in order to find my photos. This makes writing my blog a slog. You may have noticed that my blog is fairly photo-reliant. Some readers have asked for more writing, less visual fluff. The car hire blog should keep that lot happy for a while.

I've been applying the second coat of Gris Dauphine to the front door after a major rub down with coarse sand paper due to the previous globular drip problem. My cunning drip-avoidance plan seems to have worked... A horizontal door can't drip. There was a risk of pooling, I recognise that, but I seem to have avoided that too. And because the weather has heated up, it's dry already! Dry, with a generous coating of local insect and flora snippets. Half way through the day, I attacked the tacky surface (giant fly paper) with my tweezers, and managed to remove a good proportion of bits without serious markage. There are several mini bits left, but I think I can just brush them off with a soft brush.

I've also applied the glossy black paint to the iron grille, somehow managing to avoid cross contamination. I've come to appreciate masking tape.

I know you're keen to find out about progress on the dormer window. Kevin, initially scared about re-tiling using the ancient fish scale slates, has given it a go.

Martin's Ben Sherman shirt, that was left in the caravan, is still proving useful for bitumen-type jobs. Thank you, Martin. 

The inside of the dormer window room, the bathroom, is letting the side down. We still have to plasterboard, but the plumbing's done. Under the tarpaulin, there's a toilet and a shower tray.

Buoyed up by apparent success, the tiling continues in earnest...

The sitting room has now been filled with odd bits of furniture, and the kitchen items. It looks dreadful, but now we are free to work on the kitchen! You'll be wondering about that cartoon settee... We bought it because it was very cheap, and we needed a sleeping surface for Greg and Jess last summer. It's a clic-clac, and it is hideous. But it served its purpose. I actually don't know, at this stage, where it's going to end up. 

A new activity has become possible... DVD watching! So far, we've watched Ocean's Eleven and The Usual Suspects. We feel more normal! I've only managed to squeeze a handful of DVDs out of their removal box, so, tonight, it could be any one of these:

• Underworld Evolution
• Charlotte's Web
• The Man Who Fell To Earth
• Minority Report
• Lord of the Rings- The Return of the King
• Matrix Reloaded
• Pirates of the Caribbean- Dead Man's Chest
• Meet Joe Black

I'll let you know...

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, dirty jobs await. I've been avoiding filling that v-shaped gully above the fire lintel.

But, today, I did it! It's rough, but, it's filled!

That little white pot on the ceiling is the shower tray drain. We've just realised that there's no u-bend, so, to avoid septic tank blow-back pong, we will need to install a u-bend somewhere on its route. Hey ho!