Aaargh!!

Ok, so on the plus side, things are moving on a little bit. Hopefully the en-suite is being plumbed in next week - the tiling's all done and looks fab. The extensions are coming along slowly - the first course of bricks was laid today which is good. We've picked the replacement windows we want, although still need to decide on the final design for the front door, so all that is good.

Unfortunately, the 'to do' list is far far longer than the 'done' list! We've decided that we really need to settle on a kitchen design before the extension is finished - we're having a water based underfloor heating system in the kitchen, and hopefully an island with the hob on, so as the floor can't really be drilled through once the heating's in, we really need to know the locations of gas and electrics in good time for the first fix. With that in mind (and as Al has a few days off work) we have appointments at two different kitchen places this week to get started on the design - and hopefully see if we can afford everything we want in there!

We also need to move on with deciding about the log burner in the front room. We can't really do anything but have a stove in there now - we had Lee, the builder remove the old gas fire, and knock out the old fireplace to see what size opeining we had in there - it's nice and big, but the brick arch over it is quite scruffy, so can't really be cleaned up or left exposed, which means we need to think about having it plastered and trying to source an oak beam to use as a mantelpiece. The chimney will need lining as it's an old house, so we need to get quotes for that as well as for the stove itself, and the fitting of it. We're in a smokeless zone in our town, so as we want to burn wood, we need to get a Defra approved stove, which limits the options a bit.

Although we're moving to a bigger house, our bedroom is actually a little smaller, and because of all the weird angles in the loft, we've decided that to best use the space, we really need fitted wardrobes in our bedroom We've had a meeting with a nice man from one local firm, and he's drawing up plans which we should get this week, but we also have an appointment on Saturday with another firm so we can compare prices and ideas. We need to grab the plumber the next time he's up there to ask him about moving the sink in the main bathroom when the new suite is in there - we're not sure whether it's feasible at the moment, which means we can't buy the suite until we know what sizes we can fit in there!

I'm trying really hard to stay positive, and keep reminding myself how great it will be when we finally move in, but I can't help feeling stressed a lot of the time!

Jay.