Six

On overload today, having slept really badly last night. I think this is the moment when moving house lives up to its reputation as (is it?) second most stressful thing you can ever do. I feel like I've reached a tipping point when I can no longer hold in my head all the elements of what we are trying to do. Fortunately, being a very organised pair (especially L) a lot of it is held in lists in an impressive range of different coloured notebooks. The money stuff, the stuff to do with letting this house, the moving stuff...

Up at the house this morning, all was progressing well, and the electrician's mate at least, if not the electrician himself was hard at work, with an evident sense of urgency. Thank goodness... Tramping plaster dusty footprints all over the newly sanded and varnished bedroom floor, but what can you do? I told him to put hardboard under the feet of his stepladder. I hope the varnish was hard enough to cope with his trainers. The decorator has put some of the famous red (Toffee Apple) in the kitchen and it looks a treat, and starts to make sense of the other colour (Soft Stone). The joiner was busy with skirtings, and kitchen drawers, and the builder came up to go through our list of final things that need sorting with us. All fairly straightforward it seemed - I just hope he will remove the old carpet and underlay, old doors and leftover timber before Monday. Two things that still irk are a leaking radiator and the dirty floors in four rooms, the hall, and up the stairs and landing. But the plumber who fitted the new boiler turned up out of the blue, wired the timer, attended to the leak (fingers crossed), and then came here to do the landlord's gas safety certificate! He found me cleaning the oven. So much to do. We also picked up the boxes from our friends today so now the number of boxes in the house has reached some kind of critical mass where you are officially 'up to your eyes'!