Back to Life and Living...

I ended the last post two whole months ago (!!!) with a fairly obvious lie - "and then relax." Like, did I really think that would happen??? Not a hope. For a start, when we finally moved in (and yes we are now in our new house, more on that later) only half the house was actually painted and only half the carpets were down. We also had furniture to retrieve from Macclesfield, visitors scheduled for ten days after we moved in, a family holiday planned for the following week, a trip to London for Angus's birthday, then his actual birthday and party, starting school, more visitors, and so on. WHEN DID I SERIOUSLY THINK I WOULD HAVE TIME TO RELAX?!

We do now have 95% of the house painted, all flooring down, and those final jobs are the ones about which people will say not-very-motivational comments such as, "It took us seven years to finish all the small jobs like that after we had building work done." Hopefully we can keep ourselves moving forward and set ourselves some goals. Either that or it will be pure guilt as Ken's parents or Mark come to visit again and look at what they helped with last time and what has happened in the interim!!! To be quite honest, I don't care what motivates us providing the windowsills eventually get painted and the loo is tiled.

We are happy with the house and starting to live life rather than just focus on restoration. We are still sorting through a few boxes in the loft and selecting stuff we haven't used for a while for Freecycle but the garden now looks more like a garden than a meadow and we are putting up pictures.

Hopefully, now that life will develop a routine again based around school, naps and so on, I will catch up on the other things that happened over the summer and post some pictures! Here are a few to keep you going:

This did eventually turn into Angus's bedroom. It is now possible to see his floor - sometimes!

The lounge. Can you see the new fireplace? Much better than previously. And the new paint?

This move was so much easier than the last one (no snow for a starters, and no ill people), that we were able to cook dinner in our new house that evening. I made my Totally Evil Chocolate Sauce. Isla got to lick out the saucepan...

And Angus, meanwhile, found... well, what do you think it is?

This is what happens when you are so focused the following week on unpacking boxes that you don't realise it is 2.00 O'clock, you have overlooked lunch and your proactive daughter decides that she is hungry! Yes, she is eating off the floor!

So there you are. I bit more up to date than  you were previously. I will fill in a few details in the coming week, honest!