Mon 16 Dec

Into the last week. Pawel and his men finish for Christmas on Thursday, and they're desperate to finish the kitchen, utility and ground-floor flooring, as well as the top two bathrooms...

They've been building cupboards in the utility room - a tricky job, squeezed around the various pipes and meters and under the heating vent...

They've also been laying battens on which to lay the wooden floor.

And plasterboarding that last steel in the kitchen.

Sat 14 Dec

Pawel lays self-levelling, quick-drying concrete screed on ground floor.

I take loads of rubbish to the tip.

Fri 13 Dec

The top bathroom.

Nat's room.

Ella's room.

Main lounge.

Meantime, Pawel puts down a damp-proof membrane on the ground floor, er, floor.

Thu 12 Dec

Why's the heating gone off? Ah, it's tripped out the new circuit board. Glad we figured that out.

Pawel starts to assembled the cupboard carcasses in the kitchen. And finds that some are missing. So in the evening, it's back once more to Croydon Ikea.

It's all sorted by some lovely staff, but in the meantime I'm bored enough to notice the new Ikea cardboard coffin. Mörg.

Wed 11 Dec

Last day of the lease at the old house. Which means a last day of fun and games with the letting agents.

They've told us to deep-clean the house, including the carpets so old and cheap they might evaporate. And they give us a number of a set of lovely people who they recommend to come in to do an eight-hour job of it. 

Then, at noon and after we've already spent four hours eviscerating the old place, they say we've got to be out by 2pm. Eh?

They eventually relent to 4pm, but we still need help. Luckily, Nick arrives with his van.

You have to love Nick.

Eventually, it gets done, after a meeting with a jumped-up wet-eared blood-waste I can't even be bothered going into. End of chapter.

Tue 10 Dec

Another day of running stuff over from the old house to the new, in the car and Nick's van. Not a day for pictures.

Then, in the evening, we sleep at Bedster for the first time. Which is nice.

Mon 9 Dec

Moving day. 

Wojciech lifts the very heavy jukebox out of the van almost single-handedly. I am very impressed and slightly scared.

Into position in the kitchen. Well, almost - walls need plastering, sizing, painting...

Speaking of plastering, the lads who did the top two floors are booked for today to do the ground floor. Except they don't turn up. Pawel gets on his phone for some animated Polish swearing, then picks up his trowel and does it himself. Again, my hat is off.

Across the hall, the garage-turned-kids'-lounge is like a bizarre bazaar...

...whereas the kitchen hosts the big stuff.

Up on the middle floor, we've carved out a living space. Yeah, this could work.

What will be the master bedroom is now something of a store room. Yep, that's a whirlpool bath, which they can't have in the en-suite as it gets in the way...

Nat's bed needs making. Really.

Ella's bedroom: Clart World.

Ella herself sensibly chooses the lodger's room for a quiet read.

Before we sleep there for the last time, one last pic at the old house, where Little Orphan Natie sits hunched over her, oh, mobile phone.

Sun 8 Dec

Much painting. Not much picture-taking. Everybody hates gloss work.

Sat 7 Dec

More work today, but again not many pics. One sequence Lizzie did take is of Ella learning to use a drill driver. You go, girl.

Fri 6 Dec

The Longest Day. Very busy. Forgot to take enough pictures.

Painting - well, sizing, but who's counting? - for much of the daytime, including the lower stairs, shown here.

The top bathroom is coming along nicely.

Back over in the evening for a solo mission. Painted the biggest wall in the main lounge a nifty shade of grey as a feature wall, then a different shade for the adjacent wall.

Then it's mucky trousers off and onto the luxuriously carpeted kids' bedrooms to put together some Ikea furniture - without a hammer, as it's now past midnight. #palmsofsteel

At about 3.30am, having built much more than these pictures show (honest), back downstairs...

...for to give a second coat to those grey walls.

Thu 5 Dec

What can we do to help? Tip runs. So it's off to the recycling place to clear some of the cardboard... 

...created by the rapid laying of the (correct) wooden floor on all the middle storey (bar the to-be-tiled en-suite). Here's the master, looking out to the stairs by the main lounge.

And then, in the evening, off round London to pick up goodies. Here's Nat on a spiffing egg chair picked up for a song on eBay and collected from the poshest house she's ever been to, in Ladbroke Grove; thence to Islington to pick up a digital piano from dear old friend Chris Page; thereafter, via disastrous diversion to the central Christmas lights, to Wimbledon to pick up another eBay bargain - a newish Sky+HD box for the kids' lounge. Home? After midnight. Don't tell the teachers.

Wed 4 Dec

'Cos we're on site, we get to greet the dozen new internal doors we've had delivered. One of which, we later note, has a ding. Dang.

Tiles, too, one of which is cracked. Cack.

Front garden's starting to look a bit Arkansas.

Relax, girls, he's married.

I should point out that this isn't terrible painting technique. Pre-painting, recently-plastered walls need sizing, which is applying watered-down emulsion which sprays a little. But you knew that, right? I definitely did. Yes.

Odd hole at top of brick pier supporting rear-wall steel. Fear not, it'll get filled before plastering.

At least the supports have finally gone. Here's the view from the diner (by the boiler) to the kitchen (extension).

Utility's now fully plastered and ready for sink/washing machine.