7 am the alarm wakes us. In an hour workmen will arrive to tear up floor boards and get to grips with the damp timbers underneath our sitting room floor. The room is empty and fills with hollow echoes when you enter in the way that empty rooms do. It smells strongly of must and damp now that we have lifted the carpet and exposed the floor boards. The next 3 days (best estimate) will be filled with sounds of tearing, sawing and hammering. They (the firm contracted to do the work) say that dust will get everywhere. However, just in case this isn't enough fun for us, we are having the attic extended some time in the new year. Watch this space