Starting to get there (and Dennis).

Oh Joy sanding floors. Such fun. So what you get...

There's the gang - nasty big one, cross between lawnmower, hoover and flesh harvester. Sounds like a jumbo jet and weighs a ton. Has a nice paper bag on to collect the dust (doen't really) and which has a tendency to burst if you forget to empty it or don't put it on properly and that is fun - a sawdust bomb! So you have to push the monster up and down slowly whilst it rips the floor (and anything else it encounters dogs, cats, electric leads etc) to shreds with sandpaper. Best bit is when your husband doesn't put it together properly so you're left like a twat holding the handle whilst the scaring bit trundles of wreaking havoc on its own. And when you start to get somewhere you have to "change the belt" grappling with a bit of sandpaper thats about as easy to bend as a lump of tarmac but rougher and fixing it to the drum etc etc.

And then there's the corners of the room to do of course the big fucker is far to unweildly to go within 12' of an angle. So you get this smaller one that looks like a cooker ring, weighs about 25kg and spins around like a bastard. You have to scuttle round with this thing bouncing of wallls and skirting boards and trying not too flay yourself with all the men on site helpfully popping in and telling you what a horrible job sanding floors is and how the cooker ring thing really does your back. Oh really.

But now the floors are done we can get decorating. So this is room 2 pretty much done, en suite through the doorway, velux window going in today.

That's the far reaches of room 1 - it's massive, the new stove is in the foreground and thats the doorway to the "luxury" shower room. Nice floor too.

We've now moved upstairs to the top floor.

Before

And after. The middle two floors are definately coming on. The ground floor is in the process of being trashed and the cellar just lies beneath the house. The dust continues, Henry the hoover is giving up the ghost, can always tell a hoover on a building site as it weighs it ton cause it's full of plaster and a pile of rubble falls out of the hose when you turn it of.

And Dennis. Poor Dennis has pulled a muscle in his shoulder on the dodgy leg. So is on 3 legs quite a bit and has to be carried downstairs which he doen't appreciate. Always makes the same face

the dog that is makes the face. Top bicep shot Neil. And very tired dog too. Went to Bedale Point to Point on Sunday which was great but too much for a hop a long lurch.

And last week spring arrived. It's been beautiful, all daffodils, bluebells and lambs everywhere. They really are gorgeous. The amount of crashes we've nearly had looking at lambs in fields. We've had lunch in the garden most days and the streets are filling up with caravans and motorbikes.

Dennis hopes that when his leg is better he might be able to play with some lambs. He's working on disguises.