Sandy beds

The sandblasting man came in today. His job was to strip off all the horrible-looking, damp, flaky paint off the stone inglenook fireplaces and the wood ceiling beams. To do this, he fired sand at everything at high velocity. It's like a pressure washer, but with sand. He did a great job, but there is now about three inches of sand on the floor of the two rooms he did, and a thin coating of sand and dust absolutely everywhere else in the house and, because we have no windows yet, outside too. Including the garden.

While the outside of the house is starting to look a little bit more respectable, the inside still looks as if several large bombs have just been detonated in it. It is hard to imagine ever being able to inhabit it again, but of course we will in just a few weeks. The builders worked another incredibly long, hard day in temperatures touching 31C. The windows will go in tomorrow, so the place will be secure and weatherproof for the weekend. Not that any ran is due. And a good thing, too; our sofa is currently parked outside on the patio.