Late Spring Visit

We spent three days in brilliant weather at Runival and visited the Wood on the way home. Here are the pictures.

Visit on 26th May

Most of the ground floor is now tiled. Upstairs there is still no finished floor; and there is lots of wiring and plumbing still to do. Some of the wires are still in the wrong place (the kitchen lights); and the kitchen extractor also still needs to be re-sited. The walls have been painted a less pink shade, in parts, though, which is a welcome improvement. We admired the tiled floor of the shower.

As we have given our final instructions about the bathroom wall tiles (though we thought we had done that some time ago), we hope that the tiling will soon be finished and that the plumbing might follow.

As usual, we all gravitated to the south windows; and when we were upstairs we all stood waist deep in the bedroom windows admiring the mountains. We were quite impressed by how well the brise soleil, which we are learning to call the canopy, to avoid pretentiousness, was preventing the house from heating up in the baking sun, which had completely dried out all the places where I have spent such merry hours disappearing to the tops of my boots and being rescued.

I wish I had taken a proper picture of the blood curdling label on Klarg's lid. It reminds one not to walk on the lid in case one is tumbled into the rotating machinery below. The subterranean part of this place is as interesting as the bit above ground.

We Name This Wood

We have more or less decided, it seems, to eschew Gaelic and to call the house East Poulary Wood. It seems more or less to have named itself. Anyone disagree?

Staircase, tiling, brise soleil

We went to the Wood on Saturday. The staircase is in, looking lovely. But I am a bit worried that Ronnie the Stair God has not brought the top step up high enough to allow for the full thickness of the upstairs oak floor, which is meant to be a nominal one inch thick.

Visit on 3 May

The brise soleil was in. It was a little disconcerting, realising how much it cuts off one's upward view out; but I suppose that is what it is for. The house was really warm, on a fairly overcast day; and in high summer it could get very hot without this shading. It was jolly nice being able to see out of the window at last, as the plastic has been taken off.

The tiling has started in the sitting room. We were rather sad that it is being laid with what look like rather over-generous spaces. In Mary's house, the tiles are fitted right up against each other, and that is much more handsome.

We dropped in on Alistair en route, to give him the electricity bill we have been sent. He mentioned how good and plentiful the water supply is.

There Are Always Things To Decide

We put a few questions to Mary after our last visit - the kitchen lights, the shower seat; and she did one of her visits last week to sort some of these things out. The lights are to be put in their proper place over the island bench; there is to be an oily air extractor over the hob, not just somewhere random in the kitchen. (This is so that Nibe doesn't choke.)

The piece of mahogany that we offered for the shower seat has been reviled, spurned and threatened with immolation. I have stamped my tiny feet and waved my tiny fists and insisted on a proper bench, not a flimsy hinged thing, ready-made. People who work with wood are just going to have to run along and find the necessary wood, even to the extent of flattening a rain forest. I have now got to the stage where I Do Not Care.

Mary is apparently having to make her opinions known to Alistair about the colour of the walls and also about something that has been done not quite right with the wood cladding on the south side. She won't tell me what it is. I do not want to know; that is what architects are for.

The latest question relates to the wall tiles in the shower room - should they be the same dark greenish grey as the floor? Mary thinks yes; I think no. If anyone has any views, could they let me know soon? What we have in the specifications is off white matt tiles in a nice big size.

Mary says the staircase is done. She has started to wonder how the south side is to be landscaped - one of my longstanding preoccupations. How about a pond outside the sitting room?

We are off to Runival again tomorrow, so there will be more pictures at the beginning of next week.