As spring begins to arrive, our garden has filled with snowdrops. It reminds me of the first time we saw the house. In fact, February marks a year since our first viewing. When I realised, I felt a slight sense of panic, thinking we’d already had a year of working on the house. But of course the sale wasn’t completed until May, so we still have time.

It was once again great to see the builders had been busy. All of upstairs is now plasterboarded, and most of downstairs has batons and insulation. The first corner had also been completed, satisfyingly rounded, as we’d requested.

My first job was to repoint the corner of the internal wall that sits over the new steel. Chris noticed a crack appear after we got the steel in place. It’s likely the wall shifted a little when we were doing the work. As the second steel will sit on this corner, it’s important to ensure it’s well supported.

Chris on the other hand got to play with our newly rented cut-off saw. This huge saw was needed to cut through the wall to create our new doorway from the kitchen/ diner to the lounge.

While the saw was well worth the cost to help get through the hard rocks, it created so much dust that Chris had to take regular breaks. Even upstairs I had to wear a mask.

The door came along fairly speedily, with us stopping at intervals to clear rocks from either side. Chris had to stop with his cutting halfway through to let me repoint, in order to stabilise the edge, which began to come lose.

Up in the attic, I set to work plugging up the holes around our two steels. A very simple job, that is aside from the gymnastics required to work in the confined space.

Having finished with the door, Chris began to use the cut-off saw to break into the concrete floor. Unfortunately for us, it appears the concrete was poured on top of another concrete floor. Still, the saw made quick work of the first layer. The first load is being added to our skip, now full and ready to go, but the layers below will be moved to our sinkhole, to try and refill this empty space and help create a soakaway for our rainwater.

It’s great to finally have our new doorway in place. I knew it would bring light into our slightly dark lounge, but it’s amazing what a difference it makes. The room feels instantly larger and more open. It also brings the two once seperate houses properly together.

This weekend, the work didn’t stop when we left the new house. Our old house needs some love and care. Having listed it last week, we have three viewings on Monday. To get the house ready we had a few bits of last minute DIY to take care of, plus general cleaning. If all goes well and one of the viewers decides to offer, then our deadline to get the house finished really will have solidified. Still, nothing like a deadline to get things moving.