I'm pretty unimpressed with our new neighbours just now. We have a unit at the end of a row of about eight houses, and for almost two years, the two houses next to us were empty - but now the one right next to us has been sold to a young couple about our age. We were very pleased to meet them - they seem like great people and it's nice to know someone in the village who isn't at least three hundred years old - but it's going to be strange hearing people coming up our front path and moving about right next to us.

And we'll get used to the occasional noise from the stairs, but last night they were hammering multiple things into our shared wall - I knew that they were painting the rooms and I was prepared to forgive some DIY work up until the time when people would reasonably be expected to be in bed, but I couldn't believe it when the hammering started again at 11pm. I believe there's a special place in hell reserved for people who do that, just between minicab drivers and people who speak along to the actors in films.

In the morning, the reason for their haste to finish became apparent - a hardwood flooring van drew up at about half past seven and they immediately set to work with a floor-destroyer machine thing. With a hideous grinding noise going on right next to us I was initially worried about our shared wall's inability to shut out any noise at all, but when we stepped outside I was actually quite impressed - it was loud enough to be heard at the other end of the street and the wall had been masking it down to a merely slightly unbearable level.

Now that the carpets have been ripped out, that's at least one noisy building project out of the way - but I came home this afternoon to find that our house stank of floor sealant or turpentine or something. I've opened the windows and turned fans on, and am just having to speculate as to what exciting lung disease I'll have when I wake up.