October 23rd 2023 - Day One in the House

They arrive in a blur. Four of them, pacing the flooring, all beanie-hatted, sucking on their e-cigarettes. Justin, Jamie, Kyle and Freddie. Meet the gang - our builders.

No skip , no portable loo, no clue as to what they're going to do for the next few hours. At least it's sunny.

Things start getting ripped out , stopcocks dribble water and the kettle's on for tea. The junk piles up on the patio, the floor comes out next. Justin doesn't seem to have a plan.The Jaffa Cakes are going down a storm though so that's something and suddenly he's gone. The lads clear off a couple of hours later and everything goes quiet. He asks to look at the plans from Howdens. Two days later he's going to ask for the Surveyor's report for the steels. This is not promising.

We hunker down in our sealed off bunker that evening with an air-fryer, a toaster and a pile of boxes filled with useful things like a an 82 piece china dinner service and a crate full of unusual spices. Can't find the mugs, but we have got a rubber bucket to ferry the dirty dishes upstairs to the bathroom where David, later that evening, re-decorates the ceiling with a blast of hot water from the shower spray. We eat something weird from the air-fryer which we're not familiar with, bump into each-other a lot and listen to Jazz FM.

Theo cooks fish that night. The whole house stinks. I suggest we place the bin on a plastic tray in case it oozes.

Meanwhile the cats are glued to my side where they will stay , especially Jack for the foreseeable future. They don't like change and nor do I.