Fed Up In Framlingham

Don't get me wrong, we love it here in our new home town but we've been in the house for five weeks tomorrow and we've still got an endless stream of workers and delivery people beating their path to the door. We pity the neighbours who have had to put up with over seven months of this now. It would be good if we could see the light at the end of the tunnel but things don't seem to move as quickly as we're used to and I can't see us actually being settled until the end of April.

Marion's having a potting shed built in the garden. It's a really nice little shed designed in the style of a Southwold beach hut. The men from Anson Timberworks started to erect it on Friday and returned on Saturday but then asked if they could come back on Sunday. We didn't think that we should put our neighbours through another day of hammering and sawing so we politely declined - a decision which we now discover means that they can't come back to finish it until Saturday.

Today was the turn of the curtain fitters who came and fitted Roman Blinds in the dining area, hall and two bathrooms, voiles in our bedroom and curtains in the spare bedroom They also fitted curtain track in the kitchen but now have to go back and make the curtains and blinds for that area so that's another visit next week. We've got Orwells coming on Wednesday to fit the splash back which will mean that the kitchen will finally be finished after starting on 8 December (not quite there are still those curtains I just mentioned).

On Thursday we've got a dressing table and bedside cabinets coming for the spare bedroom.

Meanwhile landscape gardener Tony continues to slog away in the garden. He reckons that we'll see good progress next week after weeks of groundwork. The decking is coming on Friday and paths should be in place later this week. We've still got two fences, the whole of the front garden and resurfacing of the drive to be done in March and then, when all that is done, the garden has to be planted and the exterior of the house has to be decorated.

We did lots of work on our last house and had the similar experience of dust, noise and a house full of workers but in those days we had the luxury of going to work and leaving them to it. Now, retired and not wanting to be at home, we find ourselves escaping by making regular trips to The Dancing Goat, The Crown, The Station and the gym at Ufford Park to keep ourselves out of the chaos.

The new garden office was scheduled to arrive today - it didn't.

On a positive note, we're finally getting the hang of the wood burning stove.