It has started

The big day has arrived: Ulf and his henchmen are labouring in the garden, taking drinks with two sugars and devouring many, many biscuits. I am very pleased that I thought of buying the biscuits. I am also going to have to buy a bag of sugar.

It started at 7.30 with a phone call - they were already outside and were wondering why I wasn't answering the door. They'd been using the knocker rather than the bell so I hadn't heard them, but at least I'd paid attention to the casual message "See you at 7.30-8.00" and was up and dressed. On my day off. At 7.30 a.m.

By 10 a.m. I was shattered. Not that I'd done much except make tea, but the early start on a Tuesday after badminton on Monday night was harder than I had anticipated. I'd worked hard to clear the kitchen but they started outside, pulling up the brick paving in preparation for digging foundations. The henchmen are doing most of the work, and I have decided to name them both Sons of Ulf - one of them is actually Ulf's son and the other might as well be because I can't tell the difference. They were introduced to me at the same time and I will probably never work out which name belongs to which, but they seem cheerful enough. There was a small cheer when I mentioned the biscuits.

I met another man who supplies the roof lantern and the external doors and windows. It turns out that it will be a 'sky pod' rather than a roof lantern (Google if you want to know the difference) which will be handy if I ever want to do any space travel. Although a sky pod is actually much less exciting than it sounds. I was even offered a choice of colours, but making any more choices may tip me over the edge into insanity. So it will be white.

The skip has been a bit of a problem. Normally by mid-morning the road is pretty clear of parked cars as everyone goes to work. Not this morning - all the closest parking spaces are filled with cars. Where to put the skip? We decided to put it in front of my garage for the time being. The full skip was due to be replaced by an empty one the next day, so I talked to my neighbours about leaving a free space.

Ulf and Sons of Ulf left at around 4 p.m. and I went to bed and slept for an hour before going off to this new Buddhist class. Of which more later.

Day 2 (there won't be this level of commentary throughout the project) and I have realised that it is foolish to consider £25 too much to pay for an extra parking pass when the whole project is costing tens of thousands. However, when I ring the authorities it isn't so simple. Each resident can only have one £25 visitor pass. Further parking dispensations are available per day, per week and per month, but permits are associated with particular vehicles, so not transferable to the electrician or plumber or whoever. So I think we'll be stuck with having to shuffle vehicles around in the middle of the day to avoid charges.

Days 3 and 4 proceeded with me at work, punctuated by text messages in the evening clarifying various things like whether the fridge was broken when they moved it (it was actually just the bulb). Someone came to measure up for the stairs while I was out, as well as the foundations being dug, concrete poured, and foundation blocks being laid. Unfortunately a pipe was found which has turned out to be very expensive as it belongs to Severn Trent. This means that if in future it is found to be damaged the builder may be liable, so it has to be inspected during the build to certify that it is in perfect condition before and after. And this costs hundreds of pounds, due to me being in no position to decline their kind offer of inspection.

Lots of photos, then. These are the stages of the foundations so far (you can see the expensive pipe in the second and third pictures):

And the stages of the kitchen demolition:

There's an interesting lintel and bricked-up opening exposed in that last picture, which is behind what is now the fireplace in the living room. At one point this would have been the rear wall of the house which might then have been the pub, but I can't imagine what its purpose would have been.

So we're four days in and much progress has been made. Biscuit consumption: Bourbons: 90%, Hobnobs 10%, Digestives 0%. I have bought more Bourbons. Maybe I'll try them on custard creams next.