WCP61

[1]

Parkstone, Dorset.

August 23^rd. 1902

My dear Will¹

We have had some bad weather lately, but are getting on with the house though the Mess is now more than it has ever been. Inside 2 plasterers & a labourer have been hard at work, and no work is more messy, — but they have now nearly finished the upper floor & then we can clean up a little. Outside the drains are being dug and begun laying, and as they surround the back of the house & have to be dug deep all in clay, all that part is impassible. The engineer has been at work putting in kitchen range, hot water cylinder, boiler, & pipes, — & after the usual day in getting materials is putting in the tubes & wires for the "bells" — I read what you said in your letter to him & he quite understands it. The closets, Lav[atory]. basins &c. are here, and the baths will soon come, also most [2] of the upstairs fireplaces, for which we have chosen tiles for hearths, which will look bright & make up for the rather cheap iron mantel-registers.

Most of the window-frames are at last in place & the back windows glazed. The plate glass & large sheets of English Crown for sitting rooms & best bedrooms windows is all advised & will probably be here tomorrow. All doors except front-door are also ordered, — but we are still waiting for Octagon (flower) window and do[or]. for little work room on East front — again hung up at Bristol we suppose and a fortnight over-due! The roof and wall-tiling is at last finished except that around these unfinished windows.

The newels for the staircase came on Friday & Percy & his joiner at once set to work on them & yesterday got the staircase in place, and it will look very handsome besides being the [3] easiest stairs we have ever had. Grandpa² was here nearly a week & went to Broadstone 3 or 4 times, & Aunt Bessie³ came to take him back & had just one fine day to see the house &c. Violet⁴ went back, the same day — Wednesday — & is coming home again in a fortnight to help sort out rubbish & prepare for moving. If we can get them we shall probably take rooms at Broadstone for a month while getting straight. I have agreed to be out of here by Sept. 20th. to let the paperers & painters put the house in order, have a new kitchen put in &c. I expect we shall have the rooms all closed in, and sufficiently dry to take all our furniture, as the sand & lime are so good that the plaster dries very quickly & sets hard; and in all the downstairs rooms, there being no plaster, they will be ready for use ^{as storerooms} as soon as the windows are closed up. If⁵ you come any time in October you could help us a great deal in getting straight perhaps more than earlier. I have arranged [4] a design for finishing the Study walls in matchboarding, which I think will look very well, especially when the walls are broken up by four bookcases & the furniture, the position of all which I have arranged. Dr. Paterson does not want my Study bookcases, so I shall have them taken out (which S may require partly cutting to pieces) put together again revarnished if necessary, and they will suit the ^new room excellently and I think look very well. The oil paintings, will sufficiently furnish the remainder of the wall-spaces.

I find the total Expenditure on Land, Garden & House up to last Saturday was about £1680. From this has to be deducted Land £500. Conveyance £8. Fencing, trees &c, walls and Greenhouse ^{& garden work} &c. £152 — Total £660 — leaving £1020 for the house alone so far, up to last week, but with the August bills to pay — perhaps £40 — £.50. and I have only £60. left. I think £.200 more will cover all costs for rest of material & wages to end of Sept[ember]. & this I can have from Bank at 5. p. c.

Your affect[ionate]. Pa | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]