What we did well

I suppose as a companion piece, I should write about the good things, too. That list is more enjoyable:

• The bathroom, for starters. It really turned out superbly. The size of the room, our choice of tiles and colours, Tommy and Anders' workmanship, and especially the Queen of toilets, Cinderella herself, all make our bathroom the envy of many. I wouldn't be exaggerating to say it's nicer than the bathroom in our home in London!
• I also think we sited the house ideally. It perches nicely on the rock, and we have privacy with a nice view off both of our decks. I also added a meter to the overall length of the house in the initial specification, and that seems to provide just enough extra room inside.
• The kitchen is just big enough, and the extra space afforded by the IKEA cabinets, not to mention the built-in garderobes, is huge. We really aren't suffering for storage at all, even in a small house.
• Grant's bunk beds also are great. They make good use of his high ceilings and in a way, it's two rooms in one, the upper and the lower. He and his friends were "upstairs" watching videos late into most nights. (And sleeping late into most days, but I digress...)
  
• The Sky chair, especially hanging right over the edge as we've installed it, is a very popular place to sit. We're already thinking of getting another.

Fundamentally, though, to have actually done it, to have gone from nothing two years ago, to our own nice cozy little house, just the way we like it, well, I think that's pretty cool. As Warren Oates said it, "Those satisfactions are permanent."