Before the cold weather arrives

On hearing that cold weather is about to replace the balmy indian-summer days, I suddenly had the urge to deal with some unpainted windows - those at Rathcoole gardens. They've been in place for nearly a year, and did get an undercoat, but somehow this spring and summer they lay neglected.

There are 9 windows, and each has 8 panes of glass. One day I'll work out how many dozens of metres of edges had to be painted along, ever so carefully.

Yes there was the possibility of using masking tape to give a crisp clean edge, but have you ever applied the damn stuff, ever so carefully? It's not the easy option - and rather wasteful.

The ladder was less than ideal - sturdy if properly bolstered, but not very high. I'm not very tall, not like the 6-foot-plus inhabitants, so the very top of the frames will have to wait for another day.

 As will the sills, which desperately need scraping right back.

While I was painting, much else was happening, including outfitting the kitchen - it now has a sink and hob and more drawers, and the cupboard fronts are about to be attached -

essential improvements to the bathroom -

 yet more electrics -

 and taking delivery of many bags of tile cement, for the stone-slab floor in the kitchen (it has underfloor heating) -

 However the water supply remains primitive. It is greatly to be hoped that the plumber will actually show up this week and connect a few pipes and wastes and such.

When I was a child, my father was constantly building extensions to the house, so seeing this happening before my eyes (but without having to live in the muddle) is most interesting. It always takes longer than you think it will, and there are plenty of surprises along the way - and it's a tremendous learning curve - but how exciting when a stage of the process, or maybe an entire room, if finally done. 

When the current builder was a child, his parents were generally doing renovations on the latest property as they moved from Holmfirth to Calgary to Halifax to Oxford, and then on their separate ways. He must have absorbed something from all the carpentry that went on around him.