Chris was full of energy the other night, and cracked on with building the study door. Having accidentally sold too many doors, we didn’t have a door to fit this doorway. We wanted to match the other doors, but couldn’t find anything suitable second-hand or new for less than £70. The wood to make one wasn’t much cheaper so Chris ummed and ahhed before going for the build your own option.

I, unfortunately, didn’t get many photos of the door coming together as I was curled up on the sofa, however, I think Chris rather regretted opting for the traditional technique of using long nails and bending them back round into the wood to pull everything tight. Traditional but a pain.

During his burst of enthusiasm, he also glued and clamped the boards for the Windowsill. These then dried, ready for further work at the weekend.

Finally, with some energy back myself, I took over on the Windowsill at the weekend. Cutting it to size using my template and then spending an age sanding it. Chris was keen to keep the wavy natural edge.

Sanding all done, the remaining issue is that boards are a little warped. Chris suggested I try steaming the wood over a boiling pan and then weight it down. Although things seemed hopeful when I used my own body weight to press it down, I don’t think it’s done the job. We might try again with a wallpaper steamer, and if that doesn’t work just go for screws.

My other job was putting the door jam on the spare bedroom door, a small job, but satisfying to sort out. We’d brought enough wood to do another three doors, but realised we still didn’t have latches on any of them, so the door jams will have to wait.

After his very successful evening, Chris spent a frustrating day trying to sort out the sliding draws under the bookshelf. While everything seems to come together fine, the draws keep sticking or pulling away from their runners. Chris assumes it’s something to do with the runners not being completely straight, but after hours of fiddling he’s at a loss and very frustrated. Worst comes to worst I keep telling him we can put in shelves, but he’s determined to get there in the end.

Out in the garden it’s nearly time to cut back our mini-meadow, so I spent some time chopping down the ragwort. Ragwort has a terrible reputation, which is entirely undeserved, and is brilliant for a wide range of invertebrates. But, it does like to spread, so while I’m very happy to have it flowering in the meadow, I’m cutting it back before it seeds to prevent it crowding out the other plants. The good news is some new wildflowers have appeared, including self-heal, bird’s-foot-trefoil, cut-leaved cranesbill and yarrow, so hopefully this is a sign the meadow will continue to improve with management. There’s also a lot of young scrub, which I’ll have to get on top of in the winter.