chalk lines and jigsaws

You would think there would a limited number of ways to arrange a few rooms on a postage stamp of land, but the thick and growing file of drawings on the table suggests otherwise. Our house planning goes in fits and starts, along with enthusiasm, but it feels like we're getting closer to a final plan. This week I was marking out areas with chalk spray to see just how little garden we might have left, and mentally earmarking trees for recycling. A friend produced a photoshopped view of the plot with his own house - a three-storey wooden tower - on our plot. It works, surprisingly, because it matches the large stone villa (our old house) and reduces its dominance over the plot. I hadn't appreciated just how much our old place looms over the plot until he pointed it out.

Meanwhile we've made little cut-outs of the rooms we envisage and are trying to jigsaw them into a workable shape. Tricky, and rather contrived as they should really be 3D. Still, it gives the impression of progress.