Anticipation...

Received a call from Herr Arkitekt (he of the bow-tie) to clarify just when in Week 47 the house arrives, and it'll be Monday 20th November. Hang on, that's next Monday! Great!

He also warned us that our neighbours might need a bit of soothing, 'cos the Huf Haus truck will literally block car access to the entire cul-de-sac for a week. Yes that's right, our neighbours won't be able to park on their own property for a week. The good news is that this is all legal and above board here In Der Schweiz. The bad news is that disgruntled neighbours can pay yer back in kind in a zillion ways. Ergo, always a bright idea to bang on their doors to grovel for forgiveness up front.

Claudia suggested a bottle of bubbles. I immediately escalated to two bottles. No wait! Make it a case of red wine! Damn the expense! Erm, how many neightbours does this impact? So, we're awaiting a tally of potential disgruntlees before we commit to a bottle count. Might be a small bottle of beer each, if there're too many of 'em.

So, this puts us about a week ahead of The Dastardly Bob Salmon and his Rival Huf Haus Blog (see link on the right of this page). He observed that we're neck and neck, and I think that's true. A week's nowt. Once the house goes up, there's an awful lot of interior work to do by the wonderous Huf Haus people, plus various local suppliers banging together the kitchen and part of the bathroom, plus the landscaping (currently more of a moonscape). Lord Knows who gets to the finishing line first, but, when it comes to house building, no one's the hare. Except the bank.

What may be interesting is to contrast our experiences in a sort of UK versus Switzerland battle of the local suppliers with regards to quality and timeliness.

Hmm, one feels smugly confident of a good result for the Swiss-based Blogger. I root for the UK underdog on most occasions, but I've had a life-time of dealing with British electricians, plumbers and likewise...