"I see no skip ..."

Despite my blog yesterday, some materials arrived later on in the day and the builder turned up a few minutes ago with his pneumatic drill. And so - and no doubt the arrival of headaches later today - the next stage of the great work begins. Contrary to what the civil engineer said, the tiles are being removed and a magic chemical is to be sprayed, before a membrane is put in place. I can remember him saying that the sand underneath the tiled area would be saturated and would need to be allowed to dry for three or four days. This now appears to be not the case.

A lot of money had been spent in the last couple of years (and not our money I am glad to say) and the work seems to have been done in the wrong order. Surely solving the damp and mould problem (caused by the fact that "damp proof courses" do not appear to exist in Cyprus) should have been the first step. But no ... remove the mould and redecorate inside and out at a considerable expense. Another winter and more mould ... and so decorate the interior of the house with an anti-fungal paint. Six days later the first signs of mould reappear. And so ... a builder is called in but is not appearing to be following the advice of the civil engineer. So "quo vadis?" No doubt the affected areas will be rubbed down and treated again with the anti-fungal paint. And then ... wait to see if the mould reappears.

Some people appear to have more money than sense. But what do I know? You cannot seal the house from rising damp. You must eradicate it and then treat it.

Daisy was not amused at the sound of the pneumatic drill but seems to have settled down now. Mister Sprout is making his feelings felt from the laundry room. Ann and I will no doubt be reaching for the paracetamol if the drilling goes on all day. But the sun is shining, the sky is blue and already there are signs of Spring in the air.