Progress on the house

A couple of  major points of progress, with pictures this time.  The main part of the fireplace is now installed, courtesy of our local artisan stone fireplace specialist. Here it is:

The shield in the centre recognises the name of the house - Chez Bouclier (Shield House) and the motif on it is a slightly ambiguous design mixing the French symbol of Fleur de Lys and the English symbol of the Prince of Wales feathers. Whether anyone in years to come will recognise all of that and its present relevance may be doubtful but I think its fun. 

A log burner stove is due to be installed in the fireplace soon and we will have a matching top built for it later, to make it a truly grand statement. Once the stove is installed we will have the floor tiles laid and this will make the room close to habitable. We're not likely to light a fire in the new stove and fireplace until the autumn as it takes several weeks for the stone to dry out properly and by then we shouldn't need a fire lit.

Our other main progress is in the kitchen, where one half incorporating the cooker is nearly finished. Here it is:

There is the extractor hood to install in the over-mantle and just a few bits of finishing off to do to this side. On the other side, the sink, dishwasher, fridges and base units are all installed but we are waiting for two dresser cupboards to arrive to enable all the wall units to be fitted.

The builders are still going (fairly) strong, so we now have a reshaped main bedroom with en-suite almost completed - again just waiting for some bits to arrive. We bought the new flooring for the bedroom today and hope to be in it within two weeks. Then the old main bathroom can be altered to get the new staircase into the landing from the hall below, and then we want a break from builders work while we catch up.