Nick and I took advantage of the milder weather this afternoon and went out on the bikes for a couple of hours with the club, leaving Kieran with instructions to dig up the floor under what will be the entrance hall. Poor cinders, I hear you cry, but he loves playing with big, beefy power tools and the marteau-piqueur definitely comes into that category. He made some progress on the hall floor, then started on the concrete block around what’s left of the pressoir.

We were hoping to finish the bedroom that I’ve decorated, and move the furniture back in today, so I cleaned the floor in readiness. There was a patch of floor that used to be under the fireplace, which was distinctly paler that the rest, so I found some coloured floor wax and treated the pale patch. It then looked so much better than the rest of the floor, though, that I got quite carried away and ended up waxing the entire floor. So here we are, 5 hours later, with the landing still full of computer, hanging rail, boxes of books and paper, and one bedroom still full of 2 bedrooms’ worth of furniture; BUT the floor in the other bedroom looks great, and probably will do till the first person goes in with plaster-dusty shoes. Still, I’ve got the photos to remind me how rich and shiny it looked and a creaky back to remind me how hard work it was!