Progress Of Sorts

Our mammoth home improvement project is still dragging on. It's more than two months since we moved into the new house (two months behind the original schedule) and we still feel like we are living on a building site. When we got the original quotes for the landscaping, replacement garden office and Marion's beach hut style potting shed we were expecting a completed job (bar planting) by early March. Things were running fairly smoothly and I posted photos of both the garden buildings nearing completion on this blog on 7th March.

In fairness to all involved, the quotes were based on the work being done in Suffolk not flipping Siberia and nobody could have forecast these conditions in late March. The completion of the buildings inevitably suffered a setback.

However, Paul from Anson Timberworks came today and added the final finishing touches to my garden office and Marion's shed. Anson have done a very good job and the new office is built to a far higher standard than the original (built by another company) which was finished in September and removed a month or so later after leaking badly. The new version seems to be more solid and, in addition, has a decent floor, LED lighting and some exterior weatherproof electrical sockets which were missing on the original. The only problem now is that we can't get to the office to put in the furniture and all our books that are intended to go inside and are still clogging our spare bedroom and the garage. 

As for the landscaping? We have finally got some decking installed (all seven runs of it). Unfortunately there still looks to be an awful long way to go and I wouldn't bet on it finishing before May despite Tony from DNA Landscaping's assurance that "there's not much left to do now".

Steady Progress

We've seen steady progress with the work going on at the house this week.

The new shelving in the lounge is ready to start using and the lads from Anson Timberworks have made good progress with my new garden office and Tony's landscaping of the garden continues apace. 

The timber for the office arrived last Friday.

By Tuesday the frame and windows were in place and the base for the paths was complete.

And by today the office was completely clad. It's watertight but still needs the roof completing and the internal electrics doing. We had hoped to move the furniture into it this week but that's no longer a possibility and it will have to wait as we are heading to St Andrews to visit the family on Saturday.The coping on top of the dwarf walls is also in place.

Marion's beach hut style potting shed is nearly finished too. 

It won't be a minute too soon when the work is finally done as the constant stream of lorries, vans and workers and the resultant noise and dust is testing the patience of some of the neighbours. We feel very guilty about this but once it is finished in about five weeks time there will be no more work and peace will finally return to this corner of suburbia after nine months of renovations. We hope that it hasn't strained things too far as the aim was to enjoy a peaceful retirement in friendly surroundings.

Progress

It's been a week in which nothing much has happened. After last Friday when the house was packed with workers it was business as usual on Monday when, after a brief visit from decorator Gerald to finish off the shelves, we were left on our own with just landscape gardener Tony slogging away in the garden.

Marion has been under the weather with flu like symptoms for almost two weeks so we had some time indoors and,in a break from reading Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead (don't ask)  for the Framlingham book club, we watched the charming Japanese film I Wish kindly lent to us by Scott Pack of Meandmybigmouth fame (see links to his blogs over there one the right). This is  a beautiful little movie about two brothers whose parents have separated. One lives with his mum and the other with his dad. They go on an adventure with friends to a spot where they can meet up and watch the famous bullet trains pass - an event that they have been told has magical wish fulfilling qualities. It's a simple story beautifully told. Not quite a rites of passage movie (the children are pre-teen) it has an innocence that probably wouldn't work with English or American kids. Try and seek it out if you can. 

We managed to venture out on Wednesday and the weather held up for us to go on a walk around the surrounding countryside. We walked with a group who get together monthly for an easy ramble and it was a gentle way for Marion to get a bit of exercise after being out of action for so long. 

Yesterday we had a look at some other local villages and drove to Orford where we saw the imposing castle, bought some excellent local smoked food from the famous Pinney's Smokehouse and enjoyed a fine snack at the Pump St Bakery. It's quite amazing that a tiny place like Orford can have at least three first class attractions like this and I'm quite sure that the local village shop and pubs would also be worthy of a mention if we had tried them. On the way home we had a look at the Maltings at Snape and are sure that it will become a regular place to take visitors when we have some.

As for the progress I referred to in my heading, Tony the landscaper has made great progress with the base for the decking as you can see from the photos above. In addition the men from Anson Timberworks came today and delivered Marion's beach hut style potting shed. It should be erected by Monday and the garden office should be complete by this time next week - at last.