I can see clearly now

We went back up to the house on Tuesday, we were going for the record in travelling time but sadly there had been an accident on the M1 involving a lorry and a car which meant leaving a junction before we needed and a detour across country,my thoughts go out to all involved in the accident.
We arrived in sunshine despite it snowing through the night and at last was able to open the front door with ease. On Wednesday morning I thought a spot of cleaning was needed as the house has not been occupied for 2 years. I know we are going to be making a big dusty mess soon but looking out through clean windows and doors over the garden makes life a bit more bearable. I also cleaned the window and floor in the bedroom where we are camped out and managed to open the sash window and let some warm sun and fresh air come into the room.
The builder had arranged for a plumber and electrician to come for a preliminary visit, both are very nice, the plumber even made suggestions which we had never considered which means we can remove the water tank in our en suite and in the attic bathroom freeing up more space for the new layouts.
The electrician is going to install electrically wired smoke detectors and a burglar alarm too, they are all coming again next week to measure and then let us know the price.
The old owner came to collect his mail and showed me some of the plants in the garden we have a large bay tree, magnolia tree and somewhere a peach tree woo hoo it get's better and better.

Miracles do happen

After spending a lovely weekend celebrating a 40th Birthday with friends in Cambridge we proceeded to the house. The initial plan was to go out for a pub lunch but that did not materialise. Our friends arrived with the car load of things that wouldn't fit in our car so we now have a table and chairs to eat on whilst we are up at the house. After they left I started to finish the stripping in the orange room, the paper came off like a dream, glad I remembered the I pod and docking station this time as I could boogie along whilst working. The Mr continued to play with the central heating system and miracle of miracles we have now got heat yaaaay. On Sunday evening we dusted ourselves down to pay a visit next door to our new neighbour the pub. It is a small country pub , no music or slot machines just a cottage sized living room with a log fire and about 7 locals sitting around chatting to each other, think we are going to like visiting there. The landlord is very nice and chatty. The builder came to visit on Monday evening, he asked if the Mr knew what he was buying when he saw the house lol ...we knew it was going to be a challenge but it will be one hell of a house when it's finished. He is coming back next week with a plumber and electrician during the day to see it in daylight. On Tuesday the toilet broke, luckily we were there as an overflowing cistern would have been a major problem. The conservation officer also paid a visit, she saw the spot where we had removed the damp plaster and agreed that we could remove the whole of the front wall hall and dining room's plaster, leave it to dry out and replace with traditional lime plaster. The Mr had brought along a new toy which we hadn't used before its an electric scraper, boy was that fun to use, we were even arguing over whose turn it was lol. On Wednesday we saw sunlight shining through the window so a spot of gardening was in order. We explored the garden discovering a whole bank of raspberry canes, a large fig tree, enormous log pile and a quince tree plus a greenhouse complete with many seed trays and fitted with the staging to put them on, roll on summer can see tomatoes and peppers growing nicely in there!