Joel and his employee, Sebastien, arrived at 8 this morning and the first lorry, containing 6 cubic metres of concrete, at 8.30. Nick, Kieran and Sebastien barrowed the concrete to the back of the floor, then the lorry driver tipped the rest of it into the front part. He then went to get a second load, to make it up to the 8 cubic metres required. The video’s rather grainy because it’s quite dark in the “house-to-be” at the moment, but you can get the general idea. I don’t seriously expect anyone to watch the whole of both videos though; they’re hardly the most riveting!

By 10.30, it was all done and levelled; Joel and Sebastien went on to another job and we sat and drank celebratory coffee in the sunshine.

Nick and Kieran then started work on the arrière cuisine, insulating the walls, plasterboarding them and building the cupboards by the time evening arrived. They’re cheap cupboards, with horrible white melamine doors, but Nick intends to build decent, replacement doors in the near future; the carcasses are OK, so the room will be functional without too much effort.

Some days you work your socks off, and for no apparent result; today wasn’t like that; it was great to see the progress made!