December 27^th

Bartek, Sebastian, Karol and Rafal are all here, having arrived in boss builder's grey van all together. That's the good thing, or an extra good thing about the boss being away on holiday while you have to work: public transport from Ealing to Kentish Town takes forever. 

They unloaded a mass of stuff...chipboard to go under the flooring when we're ready for that, and the new floor joists to replace the original ones that were all of different thicknesses and heights, which is what gave the floors their interesting and unnecessary indoor camber.

For now, though, they are doing something so violent that not only is this house shaking but I feel the entire terrace must be shuddering in alarm, or possibly sympathy. I do hope the neighbours are out. Work, pub, sales... Anywhere else will do.

Later: the doorbell of the top flat where I am staying goes. Karol is asking me if I am going to be out or stay in. Why?

Because we are going to make a large hole outside this door, (he points to the hall exactly outside the front door of the upstairs flat). It will not have support so to stand here will be dangerous.

How long will the hole be there?

Maybe two days.

Now this could be a problem. When anyone leaves the top flat, they come down the stairs to a door which opens directly into that hall, so the final step, which was onto joist and floorboard-supported carpet, will now be into a hole. And at night, on the way back in, there is no light in the hall, remember. We discuss and he decides they will put chipboard over the hole. I must make sure no one heavy drops by. I hesitate to say ‘in’.

Can I look? I say, peering through the partially open door of my real flat.

Yes, but not now. It’s dangerous.

I peer more, without moving. I can see a steel beam fixed to the party wall next door (please let them be out!) and the central supporting wooden beam, is nowhere. No joists either for a gap of about four feet between what was the two lower ground-floor bedrooms. I retreat – to write this.