Today was a major step forward as John managed to get some of our sockets working and we now have power in the kitchen - yes the oven works and we had chips tonight to celebrate - and we have power in the living/dining room which means that when it gets dark we can switch on a plug in lamp! John has wired up the building with two power rings - the "old part" and the "new part". Included in the new part is the new study unfortunately so we can't hook up the desktop computer, scanner and printer etc, but we do have power in the "old upstairs bedroom" which means that I can read in bed again when we move back.

Our other step forward was to get a loo door upstairs, no loud singing or whistling whilst on the throne anymore. This was so important that I even took a photograph of it. The glass panels are the ones that you saw earlier and if they prove successful we are planning to put more of them in some of the other doors, particularly the new bedroom door and we hope that both of these will add some extra light onto the landing.

Tom continued his woodworking skills today and continued with fitting skirtings, door jams, and architraves. He really is a skilled carpenter and loves nothing more than playing with his router so that he can cut out fancy shapes. Marcus is still the weakest link and his favourite occupation still seems to be standing by the cement mixer with a water hose in his hand - mind you he does mix a good screed according to Simon, who has now finished all his plastering. Next week he plans to crack on with the outside rendering and gave us instructions today as to how to fix a Bellcast drip ledge on a wall - very useful.

We were planning to go out to Hilary's friend Pat's house for lunch tomorrow but after Tony explained that we would hold him up if we didn't tile the shower and fit the laminate flooring in the master bathroom we had to call the lunch off. We did make a start on the tiling tonight and it is not going to be easy, for a start the walls are not square and secondly there was a lot of lumpy silicon sealant on the edge of the shower tray. Getting the gaps even is difficult and the first two layers of tiles came on and off several times before we were satisfied, but we think that we are on the right track now and we will continue with the lines that we have got tomorrow. Can't say that I am looking forward to reaching the round hole where the fan goes as they are always difficult to fit. At least we have passed the square shower cut out and that seemed to work out OK.

That's it for tonight, it is too dark to see the keyboard and I am making too many mistakes - only one more week of workmen in the house before we go on holiday - I can't wait.