Bathroom tiling and more landscaping

Another week closer to the handover, and another week's worth of progress.

On arrival, we couldn't help but see yet another fundamental leap forward in the landscaping. It had snowed last Monday, so we'd really hoped for little or no progress. But, in keeping with the weird winter we've had, the snow had pretty much melted away by Wednesday, so the landscapers had clearly resumed.


The parking area has (finally) been correctly levelled, shored up both uphill and downhill, and there'd even been a little progress on the paving stones. About a third of 'em are down, and the rest are on pallets sat on (ahem) our neighbour's land. If the weather holds (a big if) then we can expect the rest to be down by the end of next week, and maybe even the various trimmings done, such as edging stones and whatnot.

As usual, I mentally turned my car into the driveway, and found plenty of (mental) space for the swing in. Reassuring Claudia will remain a chronic task, one thinks, perhaps ending a few weeks after we've moved in. I've seen (and driven into) plenty of tighter driveways over the years, so I reckon after a few hiccups we'll be feeling our way in and out with nary a thought.

Inside the house, we raced to the downstairs bathroom, right next to the front door, to see the results of the tiling...


...and we were very very happy indeed. The light grey tiles had been a significant point of discussion during out Hartenfels trip (only nine months ago, wow!) so the overall effect was, well, both reassuring and simply great. The shower base had been installed, and short of the loo and shower cabinet, the general outlines of the downstairs bathroom are now there. If yer squint yer eyes, that is. Hmm, might be better to close them entirely.

But it was the upstairs bathroom that blew us away.


Bath pedestal, shower base, boxy thing where the sink's will go, all present and correct. Again, the loo and shower cabinet were absent, but the overall shape and spaciousness of the bathroom was quite simply great. When you're in the middle of a building project, surrounded with mud, concrete dust, wires coming out of the walls, and Lord Knows what else, it's easy to forget the reason for all this: we're here to build a beautiful house, with beautiful bathrooms, and a beautiful (meaning bloody expensive) kitchen. The progress in the bathroom was a welcome taste of, erm, taste to come.


Lastly, as we left, we spotted the The Mystery Box mounted on the exterior wall of the kitchen. Does anyone out there have any ideas as to its purpose? We're at a complete loss...

Next week, the parquet flooring work begins according to the schedule. It'll need two weeks of nailing down, which makes me wonder. Is that one week preparation followed by a week of yer actual fact bonding of wood to floor? Or will we be seeing some parquet during next weekend's progress trip?

Stay tuned, folks!