I heard recently that my builder is moving out of the area in December. This explains his recent extreme interest in getting my house completed, putting extra work in himself (at a cost, of course) if necessary. I like the fact that he's putting pressure on me to complete the house. Given that I'm getting a flat mate who would probably prefer somewhere nice to live, it's good to think that the lion's share of the work will definitely be complete by the mid-to-end of December. How the hell this is going to fit around my own inability to put time in, I don't know.

I'm definitely overbooked. It's not just stand-up, though stand-up has definitely been a large part of it. Work is demanding and I'm socialising a fair bit during weekends. This is what weekends are for.

In the spirit of reducing the impact of the bottleneck, I'm doing this to make life better. I'm trying to rally the various tradesmen in such a way that I get the work that needs doing actually done. I'm also organising a decorator to do some of the jobs which I can't do, either well, or in the time. This will ease the bottleneck.

Also, just for fun, I've organised a pairing DIY session on Monday. A friend of mine is coming over to help with the painting and rollering. This will either improve my efficiency by confirming my expectation that, in short bursts, two people can achieve more work than one person twice... or... I'll waste loads of time being all sociable, hosty and generally anxious about the way it's done, and reduce our throughput to less than that of one person.

Time will tell.

I recently described my house as a failing project. That sounds quite unkind. It's true, though. I expected a different deadline. There have been latencies and delays which I caused, and I've not been reality checking the progress against a plan/budget/expectation. As a result, it's October and the house has a high dusty-incompleteness to happy-and-done ratio.

However, I feel like the corner is in sight and we're about to turn it. The kitchen electrical equipment arrives on Tuesday. The kitchen itself is an off-the-shelf package which can come whenever. The tiling will get done. There will need to be more radiators on the wall asap. There will be painting done. I will have my studio by the end of the year.

The studio bribe, by the way, is this. I've promised myself that, if I can get it plastered and painted, I can temporarily have the smallest room in the house as a studio. This will be for sound equipment and perhaps I'll move my computer up there too. It will make me prioritise the painting of a room that doesn't really need painting as soon, but it's a small room, and I'll paint it alongside a room that does need painting that soon, so it should be ok. Plus, I'll have somewhere to live that has a studio in it and I'll allow myself the purchase of a cheap electronic drum kit... as an incentive...

Arguably, bribing myself with something that will take me away from the work that I'm trying to encourage myself to do is not the best of ideas, but I'm the guy who thought my house would be ready by May, so what do I know!?

Next year will be better than this year. Of that, there's no doubt. Now I need to plan my way through a rather tricky few weeks and bloody well get there!