The builder cleaning out our new house has found a number of items which he feels are perfectly good, including a CD player. He does not want them. None of the other builders want them. We don’t want them. It seems a shame that they should go on the skip. When I told my father-in-law this and expressed the hope that someone might perhaps take these items from the skip, he mused that it was hard to know whether it was more embarrassing to be caught putting something into your neighbour’s skip or taking something out of it. Good point.
The costs of our modest renovation continue to skyrocket unexpectedly (unexpectedly to me, anyway; doubtless providing a welcome boost to the Irish economy). Our furniture arrived from Brussels today and it has been stacked up to the ceiling and out to the walls in the (only) ground floor room.  We should have got rid of more things before we left Brussels. Understandably, the painter and the electrician (rewiring the house) say they cannot work in these circumstances. The man installing the kitchen is game to give it a try but a kitchen without electricity is ultimately unsatisfactory. The plumber is unaffected. Tomorrow we will find a warehouse to store our furniture until these tasks are complete and a man with a van to move it. Shortly we will have spent all our savings on renovation and moving (and removing) and when (if) we manage to actually get in to our house (now impossible due to packing crates), we will have to live on air or paint fumes whichever is the more nourishing.  Also, our builder has gone on holidays and there is still a wall to be demolished and a ceiling to be fixed. Poor Daniel keeps asking when he can go home (something everyone involved would like to know).  We were hoping to be in by August 25 as the Princess starts school on August 27 but there is now every likelihood that we will still be holed up with the unfortunate parents-in-law on that date.
And it’s still raining.
