A new addition to the terrace

A couple of weeks ago, we had the weekend off from working on the house. Jon really needed the break, especially after many house-related frustrations (read on for a much-reduced summary), but mainly it was because we were on Caternity! We have a new addition to the renovation team - a kitten who we have named, Maisie. Luckily she's a seriously cute ball of purr, so we can't blame her for getting nothing done.

But back at the terrace, absolutely nothing has gone to plan.

Jon tried to be really sweet and kept it a secret that, after 5 months of waiting, the Bifolds and Windows were finally ready...or so he was told. It was meant to be a nice surprise when I next came to the house to see them in place - our only 'Grand Design-ish' feature.

Unfortunately, his plan was completely scuppered as the day was a disaster from start to finish. Firstly, the fitter arrived but the Bifolds didn't...delayed again. Next the fitter put in the bay windows in the lounge, which would have been a nice tick off the old to-do list, but then realised (after he had ripped the old ones out) that they were 10cm too big! Then after the fitter had left, Jon noticed that the bedroom window is completely skewed and the corridor window has a blue piece of protector within the glazing. So basically everything needs to be redone.

I totally get that when you are renovating a house yourself, things are going to go wrong and inevitably there will be delays. But I was not expecting the professionals to mess up quite so badly. It's so frustrating. He's coming back tomorrow, so really hoping it all gets sorted, although I am not holding my breath!

We do at least have a new front door. It still needs filling around the sides, but makes the outside of the house look a lot smarter.

Aside from that, with the Covid-19 lockdown being eased a little, our bathroom floor tiles were finally able to make the passage from Spain to the UK. As you would hope after the considerably lengthy deliberation process, we are very happy with the style and colour and were excited to be able to start work on the bathroom. Jon installed the underfloor heating (4mm backer-board, underfloor heating mats and cables and a wireless controller) and the next day mixed up the special latex levelling compound and poured that over the top. Then started tiling.