Day one

For some reason yesterday morning my bedside clock had lost an hour, I thought Mr FF was extra enthusiastic getting up before 6 and likewise the builder who appeared at 7.15 and looked puzzled when I said this is early as I let him in still wearing my dressing gown (I was wearing it not the builder).  

The carpet was taken up on Tuesday, we covered what furniture we couldn't accommodate elsewhere with huge plastic sheets and the insulation that we had been storing in the car was carried up to the balcony.

Here's a reminder of how the doors looked from the lounge

 They are out now

and the opening is enlarged but there is still more wall to come out.  The extra view and the extra light make such a difference already, it's going to be fantastic

but for now the penthouse is full of dust and debris, things have to get worse before they get better.

The stand in joiner/engineer/husband has gone off for timber this morning, he was exactly sure what was needed until the stud work and threshold came out. Apparently it was all a bit of a bodge up but I have no doubt whatsoever that it will be perfect when he's finished and a big improvement structurally.  I shall rest easy when I gaze out of the new doors, meantime when not providing the copious amount of coffee and biscuits working men need I am feeling a bit useless.

Spoke too soon (not so happy now)

Why does life do that, one minute I am posting about how happy I am, that we are booked to go to Italy and then wham.   We got a phone call on Saturday morning from our builder to say he wouldn't be starting work on Wednesday as planned and suggesting week commencing 02 May would be good, the day we planned to fly to Lazio for 2 weeks.  It seemed the joiner had had all his tools stolen (heard that one before) and decided to go off on a golfing holiday, as you do, leaving us up the Swanee.  We had arranged for fitters to come on Tuesday to take up and store the lounge carpet, the building inspector to come on Wednesday for a pre start inspection, to do a condition survey with the neighbours below us of their apartment to make sure we didn't cause any damage and for the window manufacturers to survey the newly formed opening on Friday.  What a miserable situation, we didn't want to cancel our trip having booked the flights and hire car but we didn't want to wait until mid May to get the work done and then be hanging around here into June to give the installation a good work out and make sure there were no problems with operation or leaks.
After a day of torment and what ifs Mr FF stepped up and he is going to be the joiner.  The joinery work is fairly crucial as we have to alter the dormer, but how difficult can it be, he is a structural engineer and will probably make a better if slightly slower job of it.  To be honest having been let down by the joiner I wouldn't have welcomed him in the penthouse at any time. Our builder is fine with this change of plan, in fact delighted to be cracking on, he has sourced some equipment and Mr FF and I drove yesterday to my brother's to collect various saws, hammers, work bench etc that we had stored there.  

And apropos nothing aren't these oranges lovely, I didn't buy flowers for the apartment this week because we need less not more while work is taking place, but these I couldn't resist and if necessary they can all be eaten by Wednesday.
Do let me know if you need any woodworking done, I may be recommend a bloke, who'd have thought Mr FF would have such a career change at 67.

I am so happy

We heard from Mario that he had been to our house in Lazio to cut the grass and tend the olives.  He said he had seen our cats on Easter day but despite being at the house for two days the following week he hadn't seen them.  We weren't too worried, at least the darlings had survived the winter and would now be able to fend for themselves with more creatures about to hunt and eat which might be why they had taken off.
So we were beyond delighted when we got this yesterday an email entitled here is your cat, Marzia tucking into food in the shelter.  

Admittedly it's not as clean as we left it, her blanket seems to have disappeared but my goodness she has grown and looks fit and well.  We are so grateful to Mario for looking after her and can't wait to see her and hopefully the other two. In fact Mr FF was half way to booking a flight out next week, allowing the builders just three days to complete the new door and window openings.  I did explain that wasn't reasonable, they just needed the miss a day for some reason and we would be in a pickle plus we would miss the Tour de Yorkshire.

We are going out the following week, we may have to leave the penthouse boarded up while the new doors and windows are manufactured, which is a good enough reason for not being here.

We will stay in Italy for two weeks, come back to have the doors and windows fitted, the manufacturers will carry out a survey of the openings before we leave.  It will be so wonderful to see the cats again and we will explain that this time when we leave them it will only be for a short while, we shall be back again in June and stay for ages. Bless their little hearts and Mario's too.

Of course there is knitting

There is always knitting on the go but at the moment, so unlike me, I am flitting between projects.  Let me show you.

I found some 4 ply pure cotton in the charity shop £1 a ball and there is enough to knit myself another tunic which I have started.   I mentioned that the arm holes on the previous one were a little bit tight so currently I am decreasing on every 4th instead of every other row.  

I need to sit down and work out how the sleeves will fit in with this revision and when I can start decreasing more steeply.  

So while I ponder the geometry I have cast on a calmingly repetitive scarf using Berroco's Bittersweet pattern.  I had five balls of Hebrides pure wool 4 ply from The Isle of Harris Knitwear Co in my stash, 50g is going a long way so this could be something for Mr FF.  The 20 row pattern is quite manageable whilst watching tv and anything involving a cable needles pleases me.

I discovered this week that my LYS is having a sale, 30% of all yarn. The lady told me not to panic as the sale will be going on for a while but I couldn't stop myself buying a couple of 100g balls of West Yorkshire Spinners lovely sock yarn.  I've used this before in many shades so I was pleased to find these pretty soft tones and 200g might just be enough for three pairs of socks. 

At just over £5 a ball this is splendid value and I shall be back in the shop a few times before the sale is over, like later today and tomorrow and any other time they are open. The official line is that I need yarn to take to Italy for the summer, the truth is that last time I went out there with lots of yarn I was very surprised to see how much I already had in the house.  Stock control and remembering what I did a year ago are obviously not my strong points.

Here in the penthouse

Mr FF is stressing about the new doors and windows for the lounge.  A while back he placed an order, cancelled it the next day as he'd been given wrong information by the supplier,  stressed for a week about getting his £900 deposit back and sourced a better and more expensive option.  A new order has been confirmed but delivery may take 7 weeks, the builder starts in 3 so we could be boarded up for a while, delightful. We plan to move most things out of the lounge, cover what we can't shift, have the carpet taken up and use the second bedroom as a bolt hole.
Meantime we have finally had our windows cleaned.  You have probably been wondering how this is done on the 4th floor, simple 

The abseilers attach themselves to the top the building, there had been problems finding safe anchorage in the old stonework which is why they hadn't been around, but finally the work is done.  It was all very exciting and a bit James Bond, I was delighted I'd spotted the boys arriving as I could have been languishing in bed with a cup of tea and my book when they appeared at the window, which wouldn't have been glamorous or exciting for any of us.  I did get caught out once when we lived in our bungalow in Scotland, I saw the window cleaners coming round the corner of the house, sort of rolled out of bed onto the floor and crawled out of the room grabbing my dressing gown as I left.  

And I in an effort to become more Scandi, I have treated myself to these little beauties.  I first met the Lyngby vase in Copenhagen, my dear friends received one as a golden wedding gift and every house we visited seem to have at least one.  I love them very much, now the penthouse is full of hygge, well apart from the door and window tension that hangs over us.  

Happy Easter

My goodness those little eggs from Denmark didn't disappoint. I put them out on Good Friday but waited until Easter Monday to try them, the traditional day for egg rolling and eating when I was little.  I set them on a pretty glass dish

Then on my special Easter tea towel

They are truly delicious, a crispy sugar coating covers a layer of chocolate and then the most wonderful truffly textured marzipan chocolate and liquorice filling, with I think tiny pieces of liquorice that are slightly salty and bitter, delicious. Mr FF and I are limiting ourselves to no more than two a day and wondering where we can get more.  I shall search the net.

A couple of lovely Easter views from the penthouse, the leaves are coming out on the trees so our view is gradually changing

and of course we also got some snow, it wouldn't be Easter without eggs and snow.

Hot chocolate

I think I have a fairly healthy relationship with chocolate, I don't have to eat it on a regular basis, can go weeks without any and make my Christmas chocolate gifts last for ages.  I used to love plain dark chocolate but as I got older I've drifted back to Cadbury's Dairy Milk as my bar of choice. 

So I was a bit surprised when Mr FF came home with a packet of dark chocolate with orange and chilli for me, surprised enough to say I probably wouldn't like it. Made by Oddfellows Chocolate Co I loved it and am hooked, a little goes a long way which is just as well as it doesn't seem so easy to find other than by mail order.  Mr FF bought mine at the Bradford Beer Festival, the various flavours of chocolate being recommended as pairing well with real ales and ciders, a combination I haven't tried.

I mentioned my new taste discovery to friends recently and they gave me a bar from Hotel Chocolat which is probably more readily available, delicious but not quite as warming.

And can I just show you these which are another favourite, something to do with the way they melt I think, to me the chocolate seems to drop in temperature.  Have a happy chocolaty Easter weekend, I shall selflessly be sampling my Danish marzipan and liquorice eggs on your behalf.