Work continues...

As we left our house this morning we saw there was work going on in The Red House so we stopped for a look. A few days ago we learned that in the bathroom steam disaster the damp had penetrated under the bedroom floor. The expert told us the insulation was so wet that "if you squeezed it water ran out". Today the building company were back tearing up the floor, but they say there was no sign of damp! A giant fan heater has been on for a few days to dry everything out so maybe it dried the wet insulation - who knows?  Anyway, done is done, the floor is up, the drying fan will continue heating everything up for another 2 weeks and eventually a new floor will be laid.
I took the opportunity to check what is under The Red House. There is an air gap of about 20 cm below the boards, and then there is a layer of cool but dry sand. So the outside walls sit on a concrete foundation and inside that foundation is sand. The gaps between the beams you see are normally filled with insulation (about 15 cm), then a plywood or chip board floor on top of that, and finally the smart layer, either lino or a wooden floor.
We seem to be ending up with a bill for about a third of all this, while the insurance company is paying the other two thirds. However, we will get with a much nicer and more modern bathroom, and apparently a new floor in the bedroom so we are fairly satisfied with the deal.
The other news from today was cleaning out the Left Party trailer/kiosk. I'm fairly sure it was originally used to sell food at markets - cheese, sausages or similar I'd guess. It's a cross between a caravan and a trailer!  Anyway, it has been rather unloved, and uncleaned, for quite a while. But now it is almost spotless after 4 hours of hard work, and far, far better organised than previously.
My special task was getting the windows clean. This is usually straightforward but these windows have had posters stuck up with selotape and ancient tape is hard to remove so an extra hour or so went to that. I shall have fierce words if anyone tries to stick tape on those windows while I'm there.
It felt like a rather positive day.
At 23:15, looking out of the window it is dark. Those white nights have come to an end. Tonight it is dark because there's thick cloud and rain but yesterday the sky was clearer and we saw Venus shining up there. Still too light for the real stars when the sky is clear but it won't be long now before they wink into life. I'm happy with that, the summer darkness is also rather cosy even if it lacks the magic of those white nights.