Progress in the garden and a nasty surprise in the kitchen!

Got back last night from three busy days at Southwold.  We arrived in the afternoon and after consulting the amazingly complicated refuse collection rota, confirmed it was the night to put out the blue bin (recycling) and the green bin (garden waste).    In the middle of the night I realised (why does my brain process nonsense all night?) that I hadn't put the sticker on the green bin that confirms we have paid for the garden waste collection service.   Absense of the sticker would result in the bin not being emptied and we are desperate to move some of the garden debris so I tossed and turned, worrying about it.   In the end I got up at 4.0 am (4.00 am!!) and put on my dressing gown and slippers and went out into the street to put the sticker on the bin!   Fortunately the street is well lit and there was no one about to see the mad lady!  At least I don't think there was...

Suspicious goings on

The following morning we got up reasonably early and Peter went off to the Two Magpies bakery and came back with sourdough bread and two large croissants.   I devoured the croissants and Peter sawed and chomped his way through several slices of sourdough.  Both equally delicious.   Then we pottered about doing jobs until the builder came to look at the house and give an opinion on what needs to be done following the survey.   He was with us for 3 hours!   A thorough walk around outside and through the house, a bit of a discussion and then a tour on his own with note pad in hand.   We should get an estimate next week.   Interestingly he dismissed as not necessary quite a lot of the precautionary work recommended in the survey report - on the premise that if it ain't broke don't fix it.  This was heartening, but he thought we ought to look at the reason why some of the kitchen tiles have sunk (not mentioned in the survey!) and took up a couple.  Well!  He then took up some more and confirmed that the tiles had been laid on hardboard which in turn was laid on old joists infilled with concrete. And the hardboard is rotten and in some places damp.   If it turns out that the concrete was put onto soil without a proper membrane, then damp is rising from the ground and we'll have to have the whole kitchen floor dug out and remade and all the kitchen will have to come out too...£££££££££££  The good thing is that the builder is the director of a very good Norfolk firm and we like him. They've done a small job for us in Norwich and we know they do a good work.

While the builder was doing his stuff Mattressman arrived to deliver a mattress and king size bed frame for the attic room.  Two youngish men willingly carried all the parts up two flights of stairs to the attic.  That was the good part.  Unfortunately they managed to crack a bannister rod and knock off some paint here and there.  More repairs!

In the afternoon Peter and I loaded the car up with green bags full of garden waste (the green bin was full again) and headed for the 'household recycling centre' in Lowestoft, stopping on the way back at Homebase to check out kitchens (all really nasty) and lavatory seats!  Back at Southwold we began the process of putting the bed together.  No easy task, crawling about on hands and knees and trying to do up nuts and bolts in impossibly small spaces.   We got the main frame together and then decided we needed a break.   We went across to the Little Fish and Chip Shop opposite and had very good cod and chips.  We sat in the shop, they have two tables, and watched the local citizens coming and going.

The following day we completed the bed and then unwrapped the mattress and discovered that we don't have duvet for the bed.  Another purchase to be made this weekend.  Peter made another trip to the dump at Lowestoft with all the broken pots and sundry rubbish from the garden and I laboured clearing weeds from the paving, pruning, weeding and moving pots and shovelling excess earth. It's difficult to know how so much spare soil has accumulated.  We are beginning to knock the garden into shape.

And so, back to Norwich.  Two steps forward and one step back!