And so it begins.

At first light the joiners arrive. The old 18th century windows are being taken down and repaired . Ten minutes after they start work the morose lads drop one of the windows. The panes of glass shatter. '' You'd have been replacing them anyway " says ' The Font ' putting a positive spin on things.

A team of  men come to take out the old extractor pipe for the cooker hood and fit a new one. They disappear into the attic. They can't find the old pipe. In fact they can't find the kitchen. Angus clambers up the ladder with a torch . '' While you're up there will you check to make sure the harvest mice haven't been building nests under the eaves ? " asks 'The Font'. Thankfully, they haven't.

Bob and Sophie think all of this is great fun. They roll in the carpenters wood shavings. They are dusted down and banished indoors. They wait at the bottom of the ladder for the pipe fitters. They get in their way. Sophie decides to yelp - repeatedly. This is less than helpful.

The fancy kitchen designer arrives with the tap that the man in the upmarket kitchen store said didn't exist. 'The Font' tells him to return it. Angus might have phrased it differently. 

We go to bed with the  windows repaired with cardboard. This gives The Rickety Old Farmhouse  something of a recently blitzed look. The carpenters will return tomorrow with replacement glass - we hope. Bob and Sophie watch the last of the workmen go. Then they fall asleep. A sheepdogs work is never done.