11 December

Tentatively, I think the builder was right to take the risk in the stand-off between the structural engineers and the Building Control Officer. Someone with even more clout than the BCO has approved the dimensions of the steel beams (that the builder ordered anyway). One small detail to be cleared up and away we go - though away we appear to have gone notwithstanding.

Meanwhile, the reading I have been doing on the different 'rates' of Georgian house-building (which the builders bidding for the leases on the Christ Chuch/Kentish Town Estate in 1843 used as their template - not yet knowing they were Victorians) has proved to me that my house is 'fourth rate.' Partly its dimensions, and partly its inverted roof, otherwise known as a butterfly roof. Alarmingly, these houses are described not as houses people built to live in but as houses to sell. And then sell again? Not on your nelly!

The little one on the right is about right -as it were.

The steel beams should arrive on Friday or maybe Monday to be installed next week, before the Christmas break. I cannot imagine how they will a) get these huge things into the house, and b) lift them into place by hand. But of course, I mustn't forget: they are Polish.