Mud, mud, glorious mud, nothing quite like it for cooling the blood . . .

That is a line from a favourite childhood song of The Man of the Place. It could have been played yesterday and it would have been very appropriate. About 7:30 pm last night, our plumber showed up to do the small job of hooking up our new bathroom to the water main. It was raining. The plumber was supposed to show up two weeks ago when we were having that lovely dry spell. Nope, it was best to wait until the holes had refilled with water.

I didn't get any action shots as Henry was getting up to the oxters in mud. It would have been supremely insensitive of me to go snapping photos like the worst of the worst paparazza while he was digging away in our very own version of the Somme. The above is the finished product. The rising main in the new bathroom. We'll have to fashion a removable panel that will go behind the bath. Then, should there be a burst pipe, or some other watery disaster, we can turn the water off sharpish.

This is the big hole under the bathroom window. Henry had to dig this underneath the wall of the bathroom. Note that houses built in the 1830's really don't have much in the way of foundations.

A trench was dug a couple of months ago and the blue pipe was laid in. Connecting this length of pipe to the mains and the house didn't happen until yesterday. You can see the cut off bits of pipe floating in the rain water that has filled the hole. Henry had to bail it out before he could get in there and do his work. Expensive plumbers get even more expensive if they have to get muddy. Best to keep them dry.

This is what Henry's boiler suit looked this morning before I put it in the wash. Hint: When washing the boiler suit, check ALL the pockets for nails and screws. It will lengthen the life of your washing machine.

Now the holes must be refilled. It will save us a fortune in lawsuits and the lives of countless hedgehogs.

Here is a fire burning in the new stove. We lit it after work today. I think it looks great! That's George on the left, still in his school uniform but wearing red rubber clogs (not part of the uniform).

The guys have almost finished putting up the plasterboard. Photos to be posted soon.

The new fireplace in what will be our new living room has been completed. It will be Thursday before we are confident that the cement has hardened enough to put our new woodburning stove in.

Here is the progression of the fireplace:

First it was an open fire in a small farm worker's cottage, circa 1835.
(no photo available)

Then it was blocked up and the chimney removed as the building was no longer used as a residence. I don't know when this happened, but it was post WWII. Our neighbour, Charlie remembers an old woman living there with all her cats when he was a small boy.

You can see the faint outline of the sandstone flags on the floor of this room. We lifted and saved these and are reusing them.
This is some of the stone, stacked behind the house for re-use.

We bought in the place in 1995 and are now bringing this particular fireplace back into use. There were three decomissioned fireplaces that didn't get brought back into use.

The builder had to put the chimney back on - Have you noticed what sort of stone he's using?

Then we got a sub-floor put in. Notice that to the right of the fireplace there is a doorway where there was no doorway before. That is now the hall to the bathroom, office and bedroom part of the extension.Good God! Henry re-lining the chimney in preparation for it being brought back into use and worrying the wife.

It is all mess and destruction at this point. Now the concrete floor has been poured, the framing has been done and Henry is putting the insulation in.

Now today, Kevin (the same guy that built the chimney) built up the fireplace. You can see the wood burning stove in the foreground that will be going into the fireplace later on.It's looking pretty good.