step one

Step one to getting anything done in our house is to get a bunch of people who know how to do stuff over to have a look. And so this morning we were visited by Steve (the realtor ex-builder who sold us the house), as well as three guys whose names I didn't quite get. A mason, a carpenter and an architect.

Walked around. Talked about everything.

First come the urgent things to do: either repair or replace the roof; shore up the structure of the verandah beams; check for termites and get rid of them if they're there; chip off all the exterior render and repoint all the stone; and get our clogged drain/subsequent drainage problem dealt with.

They all seemed very solid. Steve was a builder for 15 years here, and his recommendation means something. Also he's living in a huge chateaux-annex building which he's completely redone, and these are the guys who've helped him redo it. So we're in good hands and it showed, from their relaxed knowledge and just they way they walk around and chip at things with their fingernails. They know what they're doing.

The mason is coming tomorrow to make some measurements for a quote. He's going to bring the drainage guy with him. The carpenter will be by in a few days to get up on the roof and have a look around. The architect will return in 2 weeks to measure every detail and produce an as-is plan for us to play with. And Steve, Steve will no doubt receive a very nice bottle of scotch from us for helping out so much, not only with finding our house to begin with, but helping us cope with it afterwards.

Progress progress.