Both balconies now have their purpleheart railings and the top floor is tiled, also spot the bathroom windows!
It is back to steel and concrete, hard work for all involved.

This week has flown by because we have been burning the candle at both ends. We sailed up to Rodney Bay on Saturday, to be there on time to meet up with Jane Bowden from 32 Sqn and her husband Chris on Sunday. As we sailed in we spotted Endeavour, the boat Jeff had sailed the Atlantic with in 2004. He knew the skipper so we spent time with the crew going over people and places that we had in common over a cup of tea on Sunday morning. We had a good sail later that day to Marigot with Jane & Chris, followed by a pleasant lunch and then a trip up the hill to the house. Jeff then drove them back to their hotel. The next day we received an e-mail to say that Gordon Paton was the Captain on the Tuesday Virgin flight so we picked him up in Rodney Bay by car, spent a night on the boat and then sailed all day on Wednesday. It was great fun and it felt a little like playing truant, not being involved with the house on a working day. We sailed back to Marigot at 6am on Thursday so Jeff could get back to the house.

Whilst we were off gallivanting the team has been working hard. Kenrick has made a truly wonderful job of the staircase and is pushing to get the upstairs finished. We were no sooner up there when we were dispatched to buy a sink for the guest bathroom as he was making the cabinets. The tiler also needed some direction and we discovered that we might not have enough of one sort of tile to finish the balconies as so many of them arrived damaged. The next shipment is in December so it may be just a case of doing the balconies last.

In the meantime the small digger in the garden has been excavating a hole for the pool and even though he is having a fight with the clay like soil he is making good progress. The upstairs is being prepared for floorboards so now it is even more hazardous to look around, as there are many more gaps in the makeshift flooring. The painter is managing fine though and his bits apart from final touch ups is almost finished on that floor and he will begin on the first floor or the outside.

Tonight we have been invited to a Thanksgiving dinner, which might be a week early but who cares, turkey is turkey! Tomorrow, Tim, the guy who bought our house will be here, carrying with him a few things we ordered in UK. We plan to have a day sail with him as well, so you see, now that the boat is up and running we are filling our boots with sailing. What a life!