Shed Ahead

"And what of the shed?", you ask.

It's almost done! I have a floor, four walls and a roof. Some of the lining is in and the basic electrical work is ready. It was a long, frustrating wait. The inspector was supposed to come on Monday to check the subfloor. He didn't make it. The first of knew of that was on Tuesday when there were no workmen on the site by halfway through the morning. He didn't make it on Tuesday either and finally arrived on Wednesday afternoon. By the time he gave the all clear it was too late to organise any work for that day. On Thursday Ben and Duncan put in a marathon effort, but didn't quite manage to complete the roof. I came home to find all but two panels installed. I wasn't too happy when I heard they couldn't come in the next day. Another couple of installers took over and got it to "lock up" stage. They'll be back early next week to finish things off. The guttering and plastering are the main items left to complete. Then it's a case of painting the inside and moving in. Some time soon the official title will change from "shed" to "Studio". It really is too lovely to be just a shed!

"And how do I feel?"
How many ways are there to say "excited"? I need to ask some friends to come and help me with the painting, but what I feel like doing is hiring a band for a little barn dance instead! It would have to be a very little barn dance, so maybe just one fiddler. Oh well, maybe I'll just make sure I hook up the radio to play nice and loud while we wield our paintbrushes.

Changes

Yesterday was a day of contrasts. I spent several hours in the morning digging a ditch. By the way, it turns out to be about 4 meters long, not 2--and 600 mm is a long way down in solid clay. When it got too hot to dig, I switched over to some inside tasks.

My afternoon commitment was at the hairdressers. I was ready for a change. After flipping through some style books and trying to describe what I was thinking, it was time to just let it happen. To my surprise, there was no hesitation with the scissors. Anna just went ahead and snipped away all the length around my head, leaving me with something that might resemble a short bob, if it wasn't for the curls! There I was in front of the mirror, watching Anna style and arrange my hair, knowing full well, that within a short time of leaving the salon I'd be back in the garden with a mattock and shovel, running dirty fingers through my hair to keep it out of my sweaty face.

After another session of digging, I decided I needed some technical improvements. I've borrowed a crow-bar from a friend and invested in some protective leather gloves. I was interesting scouring the hardware store for real working gloves in a small ladies' size. Crow-bars only come in the one size, which is significantly taller than me.

The shed installer is due here in less than an hour. Before he arrives I need to work out how to keep the dogs out his way while he works. I've been told not to expect much obvious progress today. The first task for the subfloor consists of digging holes, which then will need to be inspected before the stumps are cemented in. By tommorrow I should have a floor and then the walls and roof will go up. At that stage my ditch needs to be ready for the electrician, so I guess I'll be more than occupied.