There hasn’t been much happening here since the joiner finished mid January, we started oiling the staircase and associated newels etc, we’ve had carpets laid in 3 of the 4 bedrooms, the 4th one still needs decorating but neither of us has the inclination to do it and I’ve built up a couple of things for the grandchildren’s rooms. We got a brickie out last week to look at getting the steps and ramp done but with the turn in the weather again we’ll have to wait before we can have the machine in again to dig foundations for these and sort out the driveway and garden, so today at a loose end I spent the afternoon counting! With all the talk of price per sq m I wanted to get it all added together, I knew how much cash we’d had but what with using credit cards for some things and using the current account for others and with both our wages going into this account it seemed there were days when I didn’t know how much I’d spent or where it came from! So much for the spreadsheet I started which went ok until things got really busy and I was getting requests left right and centre for all manner of things.It took me a good few hours to go through bank statements, cc statements, cash withdrawals etc but I eventually got it all counted up and receipts into some kind of order, I wanted to get this done so I can hit the ground running when it comes to filling out the vat forms but I also want to now make a spreadsheet of individual costs such as , foundations, block work, drainage and so on just in case we ever decide to do it again! 

I’m a great believer in fate and things happening for a reason and the two plots we are marketing there is a couple very interested in one of them subject to talks they’re having just now with the local council regarding style of build, this would leave a spare plot?! Would my OH go for it again? I don’t know, I very much doubt it but stranger things have happened, after all we didn’t mean to build this one! Oh and btw we just found out the builders company we were using has folded, apparently one of the two brothers left the company a fortnight before we parted company with them which goes some way to explaining why they suddenly seemed to lose interest and stop coming which at the time seemed strange to us as they had done the majority of the work apart from the finishing joinery which they kept telling us was 4 days work, the joiner we got in after that spent the whole of November, December and part of January finishing off and redoing some of their work which was substandard.