Guess what...

The joiners are due back tomorrow. One of them arrived last week to finish off the remaining odds and ends and to fix the bowing study floor. Unfortunately he rounded off the morning by sawing through his thumb, which had an adverse impact on productivity, as you can imagine.
The builders have replaced the patio door with two new windows, repointed the front of the house and have GONE. Finished (that word again). Really. I kid you not. I'm grappling with the radical concept that soon all the work on the house might be complete (ringing the changes here). If the joiners actually manage to do their bit by the end of this week (keeping expectations suitably low key here) that just leaves the electrician to work his magic with a couple of light fittings and switches and electric to the barns outside. Then I can carry on decorating.
We almost have a fully functional house with lights, sockets and bookshelves where they're needed, warm water inside where it's meant to be and rainwater outside where it's meant to be. All right, the holes in the yard aren't concreted and we haven't sown the new lawns yet, but this has to be progress of some kind. We'll have been here two years in October.