The Anaemic One has finished upstairs, and he even sanded the whole place down, which makes him worth his weight in gold, in my opinion. Yeuchhhh, I hate sanding more than anything else. So we have rolled into action, like a well oiled machine. Well, that is until today...we had a storm last night and although the waterproofing is better than before by miles there are still odd drips where there shouldn't be - most distressingly downstairs where the Anaemic One has just plastered the ceiling.

Well, you can imagine how 'disappointed' we are about that. So, on analysis, we have decided that the new tiling and waterproof sealing is holding firm and that the problem is the wall. It is hollow brick and is not capped off at the top, but the old owners have just put some plastic lining and earth and planted some plants. We could feel the wall was absolutely sodden, and so our theory is that the wall is just absorbing all the wetness and it's sinking, as it would. Here is a picture of the wall:

We discussed it with Olivier (the Anaemic One) and he was quite shocked that a wall should be built in that manner and that, yes it should be capped. So Dave has been diverted off decorating duties and is mixing up cement for all he's worth. Good news in the stockage area, though, water had been gushing in both back corners, but there is just a wee drip now, which is not too serious as it just gets soaked in by the rock face, and will be plasterboarded in fornt of. However, there just needs some repointing round the front steps, and that should do it.

The steakstones have been sent by DHL, so hopefully should arrive soon. I am horrified by the time it took for the transfer to get to the supplier - it took a full week, but mostly by the cost: the bank charged 21E to change it to pounds and another 21E charge for the transfer! 42E to send a transfer in a foreign currency. I can see that this will become a project when there aren't more pressing things to do. That is nothing less than daylight robbery.

We also went out on saturday and chose tiles, paint, a sink and a toilet. So we have all we need to make the mezzanine all beautiful, so I started on it today. But best of all, we woke up to the dulcet tones of everyone working today - the kitchen people are back!! They have told Olivier to put down the screed floor, so hopefully he will be doing that tomorrow, as they cannot finish off the skirting until the floor is finished. And they will start concentrating on the electrics. Hooray! Full speed ahead!!