In truth there probably wasn't much to show in the way of progress on our new bathrooms and although I took some photographs early this morning they are not very different from those you have seen earlier. Today's first photo however shows that they are getting to the stage where the roof will soon be watertight again. The side nearest the garden has the felt on and most of the battens, the tiles are secured together in a big pile on the moor and we expect that they will start putting them on next week. If you look closely you can see a new square opening in the wall covered with brown paper, this is actually where our round window will go, we agreed today that it would be faced around it with brick and that will provide a small cill and let the water run away.

We had a good hour discussing the electrical layout with John our electrician and the red tape surrounding his job is horrendous, every time that we suggested a place to put a power point he had a rule or regulation that meant that we couldn't have it there. Not having a door on the entrance to the bathroom is difficult for him and us as 'elf n safety says that their must not be any electrical fitting within 10 feet of the bathroom. We have considered that we might fit a door, have the electrical wiring passed by the inspector and then take the damn thing off. Somehow we will find a way around it. We also spent some time with Tony concerning the plumbing, he has ordered the boiler and now we have to firm up the size of the shower tray in the master bathroom. It looks as if it will be 800mm wide and 1200mm long and I think that we will have glass blocks along the 1200mm side and a hinged door on the narrow side. It is not until all the inside walls are in that we will really know how much space that we have between the long vanity unit and the shower. I think that it will be OK, but Hilary is unsure, I still think that it will be fantastic when it is finished.

The photograph on the right shows another new window that was started today - probably because Orchard windows are coming tomorrow to measure up - Simon and Sam worked on this one while Tom and Marcus worked on the roof. This window faces the heather bank and the golf course and is in the old spare downstairs bedroom that will now become an occasional bedroom cum dining room. As you can see our house is now totally insecure and not only does the extension look like a public lavatory the front of the house now looks like a place where squatters or druggies would use. I half expect to come down in the morning and find graffiti tags all over the walls.

This last photo has nothing to do with the new build but is just to record that today both of my sisters came to visit, the first time that we have seen them in almost a year. On the far left is brother in law Claude, then Claude's brother in law Bill, my sister Rose, yours truly, my sister Margaret and finally Claude's sister Trish. We had about 3 hours together and a good chinwag and we let them have some cowboy gear in preparation for their holiday theme later this year. As you can see we were blessed with blue skies and sunshine as we have been all week.