O'Leary Building Contractors Ltd.

The plan while I was away with the boys was for Daithi to work without disruption on the house. Unfortunately he had to return to work but the O'Leary's have stepped in big-time: Pat, eileen, Niamh, and Cian came down yesterday to work for a week on the house. Karl and Emmet arrive later this evening. In one day the group (without Daithi!) have:

1. Put all the lintels in the windows
2. Painted one coat of top coat to the sash boxes
3. Insulated the kitchen - all that remains is the hall stairway
4. Made good around all the windows (i.e. made them square, level and even) ready for the sash boxes to slip in place.
5. Scrubbed the kitchen floor of the rented place (Eileen with her bad knees too!). It now looks like a completely different floor apparently!

I am starting to actually believe that we will be in the house by the time we get back to Ireland! I am feeling extremely guilty that I am not there at least making the teas and coffees but I know that getting the boys out of the way was a must if anything to allow everone to have a bed to sleep in. There will still be plenty of work for me to do when I return!

Daithi has also managed to arrange for someone to sandblast the house next week when he is here in England. He is a local guy located from a local contact so should be reliable at least. I can't wait to see the transformation for myself. Daithi hasn't posted any pictures to me....

I wonder what is going on?

The boys and I are on holiday and have left Daithi in charge of finishing the house in 2 weeks he he he. I have no real idea on what progress has been made apart from one sash box has been fully painted and our broadband guy is due over to check that we can still receive the broadband signal (what will I do if we can't!!!!?).

And..... Rosa won Super Garden!!!!! well done her. I am looking forward to seeing what she comes up with for Bloom 2009!

Daithi is back at work full time now and so the work will definitely slow again. We knew that he would have to go back sometime but he was hoping that he could hold out until after the august bank holiday so we could complete the 2 downstairs rooms and move into them instead of the mobile home. I don't mind moving into the mobile home as long as our stay doesn't drag into the winter. In fact now that it is cleaned out and I have cleaned all the upholstery and curtains it seems quite a comfortable place to be. I still haven't tackled the bathroom of the place because Daithi had heard rats in the room and had shut it off! It could have been one of his wind me up stories however....

I am back in England with the boys. We have been here for almost a week now and I only just feel recovered from the journey. The ferry crossing (Stena Express) was lovely and smooth but the drive to Essex is sooooo long- we landed in Wales at 5pm and got to Linford at 11.20pm. The boys were great the whole way but were shattered the next day.

Not much has changed here: too many cars, too many people, too hot. But Ikea is still THE best place for cheap fabric, furniture etc. And Next choice is THE place for great discounted Next clothes. I bought a lovely jumper dress thingy reduced from £18 to £3! You can't beat this place for shopping and value for money. Sorry Ireland but you are a rip-off - even my groceries for the week, which normally cost in the region of euro 150 came in at £90! Wish I had a van big enough for everything!

Sanding and painting

I know how my next week of evenings are going to be spent... sanding... priming.... painting! Oh the joys! But for 2 years I haven't really been able to do much because I am crap at anything DIYish but I can paint!It would be lovely to do some during the daytime but the boys just won't cooperate and who can blame them really! I didn't realise how many peices there are in these windows! The boxes, sashes, glazing beads etc etc. They will get done over time, which is something we don't have much of at the moment.

On a positive note, we have finally arranged the layout of the bathroom and en-suite. I shall have my freestanding bath! Yippee. B&Q (www.diy.com) have a great online bathroom planner. It shows a 3-D layout as well as a 2D image and the app spans round the room too. Thank goodness for broadband!

Only a week to go until I head off to England with the boys. Lots to do before then, like pack up the house. Daithi will be here for an extra 2 weeks before he heads over too for a week at Butlins with my parents and the boys. I would love to have Hiro's stop time ability this week!

Last Month

Well it is all hands on deck for the last month in our rented house. The final pay check for the rent has gone out hoorah! Now we have to get our house liveable(!). Emmet is still here helping out and our good freind Paul is lending a hand after work. He renovated his own house so is a good person to know. Rosa, Paul's wife, came this evening and minded the boys while I went up to help for an hour. At last I get to do some real work and get mucky!

The place is being rapidly transformed. The insulation in the walls will be finished this evening and the interior walls will go up over the next few days. The windows are still taking time (painting etc). We have finally decided on 'Milk White' in an eggshell finish from Crown paints for the color of the frames and I will start painting the boxes hopefully tomorrow when the paint arrives. Most of the sashes are done now but we have a shortage of clamps so have to wait for glue to dry before we can glue the next lot. I am so impressed with my husband! What a find!

We finally managed to sort out the layout for the main bathroom too. And it will have my freestanding bath in the middle. Now we have to find all the items for it and buy them! It is so exciting!!!!!