Light at the end of the tunnel - well at the end of the doorway anyway !

The next huge job was to knock through from the kitchen to the Utility room - easy, you may say. Well - not here, and not through a granite wall that is just under a metre thick !!

Up until now, to get to the Utility room, we have had to go out of the front door, and round the house to what will be the new front door. However the thought of the work, the mess it will cause, and the effort it will take are not very inviting...BUT we have another lot of visitors due who will sleep downstairs, and may need the new downstairs loo, and it's not very courteous to ask them to go outside and round the house, now is it ?

So, with a limited window of opportunity, Craig started the work. All went well.....

...........the idea is good - the template is there - first lintel to go in at the earliest opportunity.

End of Day One.....

End of Day Two....

Who's idea was it to put a doorway in here ????????????

The size and irregularity of the pieces of granite caused such headaches, broke three breakers, and very nearly broke Craig too. He would make a huge inroad, only for the drill to hit solid granite and be unable to tell which way the edge went. The noise was horrible. The dust and mess was equally bad .....IT WILL ALL BE WORTH IT !!!

Each evening, before we could eat, we needed to wipe down the whole kitchen area. Craig put a dust sheet up to stop the dust as much as possible, and it also kept the draughts out to some extent. He needed to have regular breaks due to the effort he had to put in, and those people that called in, often had tips and ideas of how he could do it easier - not always helpful, especially after the event.

In fact it took NINE DAYS in total....For those who don't know Craig, he is a small guy, definitely not designed to do such physical work, but I am so proud that he completed it, and in time for the next set of visitors. 

And Arthur was the first to go through the new opening.....

All this stone from one opening - note the sack barrow needed to remove the bigger pieces - too heavy for us to move alone.....

We always enjoy the arrival of visitors, especially when they have been before, and so can see the progress we have made. My sister and brother in law stopped by, on their way home, after spending several weeks in Portugal. They travelled by train via Paris to Morlaix, and then on to Pleyber Christ. I had expected to collect them from Morlaix, but they text to say that they could get a little nearer - I never even knew that there was a station at Pleyber Christ ! They were to stay a few days, and then return to the UK via the ferry from Roscoff.

It was lovely to have them here. We had a relatively quiet few days with them - we had coffee by the lake in Huelgoat, went to the market in Carhaix, and enjoyed the company of family, in the sun. And of course, they were suitably impressed with the new door opening, which pleased us no end !