There's men!

I thought I would appease the tradesperson gods by getting up at sparrow's fart and making chocolate slice for anyone who showed up to help today (our builder has been promising a bit of help for a few days now).  It totally worked, when I turned up I found two helpers waiting at the house (and that's not counting the young man who was taking away a trailer load of old tiles and rubbish).  They had been tasked with going round the house door by door, window by window, and checking for rot, easing frames, and basically fixing stuff. 

The stable doors are all in atrocious condition, few close properly and several obviously leak. The guys are taking them off and fixing them individually - so satisfying to see. 

And then, after lunch, two more young men showed up. They have thick accents and one of them has a rats tail. An actual rats tail! I don't think I've seen one of them since I frequented the Cheviot fish-n-chip shop.  Anyway, these poor latecomers have the very unenviable task of scraping off all the old tile adhesive, so that the concrete can be sanded. 

I offered everyone chocolate slice, and although I think they were keen, they all felt obliged to sneak into the kitchen and surreptitiously grab a piece occasionally, in case they might get in to trouble. 

While this was all happening, I got a second coat of paint on the downstairs frames and sashes, and then moved upstairs.  My poor old mum is helping out too, she gets to make all the doors white again. There is a huge variation in colour, some are blue, some brown, and then there's this:

And these window frames are lavender:

 (Those are the neighbouring Warren & Mahoney townhouses - looking pretty slick and well looked after too).

On Tuesday I also finished the kitchen cupboards, and put them back, but was so pooped that night I couldn't bring myself to post any photos. Apologies for the dirty lens:

In addition to all that happened today, the glazier came to measure the six panes that need replacing, and some guy came and mowed the lawn.


This is what progress feels like.