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!

This time next week...

It seems so unlikely, but this time next week we will be packing up in order to move into our new house. Tomorrow the builders will be moving out: the electrician still hasn't quite finished having announced last week that our house was actually dangerous and needed a complete rewire; we also discovered that our garage ceiling was asbestos and so all the builders went home for three days until that had been removed. But despite these last minute glitches the work is mostly on track.
A few pictures to show approximately where we are up to:

The back of the house was originally a boiler house, but has been rebuilt as a utility room with a small loo and shower-room. I don't think much of the door, though. It's really stiff to open and close!

The kitchen now has a ceiling!

The front of the house has had most of the cladding removed, the window replaced with a narrower one the same dimensions as the other bedroom window, and the external walls rebuilt with (nearly) matching brick. The garage, porch and the breeze block wall will have to wait for a couple of years until they are sorted out! Notice we also have an attractive tiled roof.
This will eventually house a wood-burning stove. We have already had it rendered, painted it, and have stone slabs in place.

Most of the rest of the house has also been completed and thanks to Mark, my Mum and Ken's parents, all amazing people, we have several of the rooms painted subject to repainting the holes made by the electricians! Tomorrow the plumber will fit the bathroom, a few odd jobs will be completed and the house will be stripped. Then it's ours.

The next week will, I predict, consist of filling any holes we can find, sanding, cleaning, floor sweeping, and then a lot of painting. At the moment it will be cream throughout with white ceilings (to save making too many decisions. Colour will be added through furniture, curtains, etc.) with oatmeal carpets. Then we will pack boxes, move them 500 yds, unpack them, and make it our home.

Then we rest.

A Conversation

Players:
Mum
Angus: eldest son of Mum, 4 years old
Jake: Friend of Angus, also 4 years old.

Setting: Lounge

Boys approach lounge and can be overheard in the hallway.
Jake: See, I told you she was in the lounge ironing.
Boys enter lounge.
Angus: Pause Mum, what are you doing?
Mum: Ironing.
Angus: What's that?
Mum: I am using an iron, it's this (holding up iron). I am using it to iron your Dad's shirt.
Angus: Looking puzzled What are you doing to Dad's shirt?
Mum: I am using the iron the flatten Dad's shirt and take out the creases.
Angus: Why?
Mum: Because it looks better and neater that way.
Angus: Still looking puzzled. Oh. But you don't normally do that.
Mum: No, you're right, but I am doing it today.
Angus: Oh, okay.
Exit boys.
Overheard in corridor.
Angus: I have never seen Mum do that before.
Jake: My mum does it all the time.
Angus: Why?
Jake: I don't know. I think it makes her happy.
Angus: Strange.

Yes Angus, you're right. Ironing is strange.

Today at our House...

We had two notable events at our house today - firstly, Ken got to play with his new toy:

It was Ken's birthday last week and thanks to family members clubbing together, we bought him a chainsaw, saw bench and all the accoutrements. The saw arrived on Friday and today he went to the new house to and played with all the wood in the garden! According to Ken, the saw sliced easily through the wood and he had a huge grin when he came home and was telling me all about it! For the chainsaw fanatics about, it is a Husqvana 321el. Yes, we know it's electric, but since most the wood will be cut in the back garden, noise was factor so we bought electric. Ken has decided that if he likes his saw enough (and that looks likely!) he may well later buy a petrol one. I think that is more for play factor and boys' toys issues than practicality. In case you are wondering what the wooden boat thing is in the background, it is the swing set given to Angus and Isla for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa. It has been moved and erected in the garden of our new house.

Secondly, we had our first crop of home grown veg. Plenty more where those came from.

And some people make life easier...

As I wrote previously, there are people who make life difficult, and those who make life easier. Last weekend was Ken's birthday. He had intended to spend a lot of the day doing work in our new house. I thought that this was a not a good way to spend a birthday, and with the two smalls trying to help, this could also have turned into a frustrating and not so productive day.

Out went a "Save Ken's Birthday" email to a few friends, and we ended up having a mostly productive and far more enjoyable day. Sadly I didn't get around to taking any pictures as I was too busy doing things, but I really should have. I loved the sight of the Walmsleys, a scouting family Ken knows with three girls aged between ten and three, lined up in one room all stripping wallpaper, and Ken's dad enthusiastically tracking down and removing extraneous wires; Angus trying to use the steam wallpaper stripper and Isla still trying to work out how to rip paper off a wall, interspersed by turning around in circles until she fell over; and Ken's mum arriving with a birthday cake topped by a small Mallard steam engine - wherever did she find one of those!? The day was ended by a typical British barbeque - in other words, damp.

By the end of the day, all the wallpaper had been removed, all holes in walls filled, all bar one room had been washed and all fixtures and fittings were removed from the walls. We are still to tackle the disgusting oven which still has the greasy bowl in it, but the house is starting to feel more like ours now. The builders have put up the frame to the roof and taken down the internal ceiling prior to raising the height. There are cabbages, beetroot and broccoli growing in the new veg patch and the children's swings have been put up in the garden. Only a bit of sanding and some painting to go now... Okay, rather a lot of painting.

Thank you so much to all of you who helped to make Ken's day far more fun.

Sorting the drains in the back yard - are you meant to blog about drains? Since when did they become interesting?!

Foundations laid - where the yellow bucket and stepladders are, will be a shower, with a sink and loo around the corner. Along the other wall will be washing machine, tumble drier, etc.



The new roof is on and this was followed by them taking out the existing roof. Fortunately they covered it all in plastic as it rained hard last night. I went down this morning and we haven't had any water ingress. Phew.
Yes, this really is a cement mixer, jack hammer and angle grinder parked in our hallway...

This will be lovely lounge. This will be lovely lounge. This will.... If I keep saying it, it may happen one day. Just not yet.