I can see the light...

...at the end of the tunnel. The house is just about closed, with most windows in place, and we can finally begin to think about living there.

The past six weeks or so have been really crazy. First, some of the windows were delivered and fitted. The rest were due a couple of days later -- but never came. Some time after that, we had a real battle with the builder, Fernando. One day, after the windows had been promised but failed to turn up again, we sat in his car and forced him to drive us to the window manufacturer. There we found that, contrary to what we'd been told, the windows were not complete and ready to go. Rather, they were laying around on floors and benches in various stages of completion. Meg got in his car and said she would stay there until he got something moving. At lunchtime, he got quite violent and started throwing around (and threatening me with) the wheelwrench from his car.

The first windows in place; pretty smart looking but pretty slow coming!

By a fortuitous coincidence, we'd been to a solicitor the day before to discuss the situation and what we could do to get the work finished. He'd agreed to send a letter giving a deadline -- and Fernando must have received this soon after the wheelwrench incident. The letter indicated that we would take further (unspecified) action if the work wasn't finished. It seemed to do the trick -- work sped up, though the windows still didn't come. Until today...

Rear view of the house with most of the windows in place. We are still a couple of panes short; one cracked during installation and the round one is due in a few days.

So things are coming together. It's time for me to get on with building the kitchen. We'll soon forget the trouble we've had getting this far. But perhaps I should write a book on the story -- much of which I haven't posted here for fear of boring everyone.

The terrace with kitchen windows in place. We are also working on the terrace railings; they should be finished this coming weekend.