Housework - dusty.

Phew! I'll be glad once everything's finished...

My lovely not-yet-hubby spent his day off helping out at the new house, hauling building supplies and starting work on the garden.

He stopped to snap this picture of the plasterers making good and smooth the damage caused by the builders, now that the rotted wooden joist has been successfully removed (having discovered it was held up by half a brick, which was held up with a short stub of soft wood. Yeah....) and the steel beam has been safely - properly - fitted.

The plasterer's assistant was delighted when he discovered that we weren't going to be using the appliances currently in the building and has offered not only a fair price, but to take them away too.

I'll be able to fit my floor once the last bit of plastering is done and dry. My lounge still looks like a total building site, but not nearly as bad as it did, or as bad as the kitchen!

The kitchen is still a gutted room. The pipes have been removed and capped, the electrician, plumber and plasterer are primed to move in and get on.

There's still a seven week waiting list for the kitchen though. Eh, you can't win everything.

Things should move much quicker now though - we haven't changed the original layout since the first design, but all the colours are now changed so that they "synch" better - I was having a hard job finding things that suited the worktop I wanted. So I got rid of the worktop. (Heartbreaking as it is to lose the sparkles.)

We since found a worktop that is a delightful visual combination of very, very dark woodgrain and slate. That sounds spectacularly naff, but trust me, it's actually kinda interesting and has a lovely texture. (Top of pic pile, middle of stack.)

We're teaming it up with some matte, slightly champagne doors with brushed chrome bar handles, which will complement the lighter shade wall tiles in the three tone medley, with the mid-tone being matched by the floor tiles. (Top pile again, bottom.)

The floor tiles... are where I've sneaked in my sparkle. There's a little spattering of metallic flecks in the shale-like texture.

I also got fed up of having to fish out the giant millipedes from behind the coir backing in Terry's tank. I've now silicone-sealed the backing more tightly onto the glass and tucked the rope netting back into the top edge - that should discourage the little sods from getting down there in future.

Smells like vinegar. Mmmm.