Well we're here finally!!!

After almost a year I can now say I'm a Fenlander!! The last few months have been hectic to say the least, we have been busy painting and fixing up our old house ready for the rental market. Why oh why did we leave so many jobs unfinished....new resolution in this house to finish one job before starting another. We arrived on Saturday evening late evening and boy was it cold. Despite being able to park right outside our front door the unloading of the car left me chilled to the bones and my hands red and hurting. The last few days have been spent assembling my computer again, scrubbing mouldy walls and cupboards in the kitchen and ferrying boxes, boxes and yet more boxes upstairs to clear space in the hallway and sitting room. It feels like we are getting somewhere at last, I ordered a new washing machine last night which is being delivered tomorrow ready to tackle the mountain of washing build up which is threatening to rival Everest!! Well now off to Wickes for some supplies think we starting to decorate the first bedroom next week ready for our DD's coming to stay at Christmas.

Still painting!

That is only the start lol, every room will need painting in the new one. I am still painting the rooms of the old house getting it ready for rental, the plan is the rent will be going to fund renovations on the new old girl. I seem to spend my days covered top to toe in cream emulsion, have I got more on me than the walls?? We are waiting now for the architect to call to tell us our plans are ready (I was going to draw myself but there are too many different levels and angles) then we can go to meet him and tweak them a little. The last time we stopped up there we bought a power washer and cleaned up the what I had originally thought were grey flagstones outside which are in fact sandstone, just so much moss and dirt accumulated over the years and the Mr has been tackling the jungle which is now resembling a garden again but still a long way off what we saw when we viewed the house. I really can't wait for us to finally live there permanently there is so much I want to do. I can get my sewing machine out again to play, I used it a few weeks ago to make DD1 some cushions for her bed ansd now I'm itching to sew something for our house, I will try to add a few pictures soon. 

Apologies apologies life got in the way

Apologies, apologies it has been so long since my last post, there have been a few personal dramas which I hope we are coming out of at long last. We moved the majority of our furniture up on 25th of July... if there ever was an award for packing a 7.5 tonne lorry the prize would go to the Mr. I don't think there was one inch of space left unfilled, they even had a step ladder inside the truck making sure the boxes reached the ceiling!!  After a careful long drive by my cousin Mark we arrived at about 6-30 pm and they had unpacked the lorry and were holding a pint in the pub next door by 8-45 pm have to say we were very grateful to our helpers who worked like Trojans the whole day. We got home at 1-30 am Sunday morning only to realise that DD3 who helped us had no bed so off to Streatham at 2 am to deliver her to her house and back to inflating our air bed at 2.45 am ...sorry neighbours.

oopsie!

Well apologies, apologies it's been over a month since I last posted. At the moment we are in limbo just waiting for the quotes from the builder, plumber, electrician and plasterer which have been promised to arrive this week. I hope they are good quotes otherwise we will have to start all over again and the goalposts will move further. Good news is DD2 has managed to find a flat to rent which is just 7-8 minutes walk from her other sisters, this has given us great comfort knowing they are near each other, she will be moving out mid April which in theory should mean all systems go for us... now the sun is shining a bit more we can hopefully move to our new old girl and rent this one. We are taking DD2 to see the house this week as she has not seen it before. 

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!

Fffreeeezing!

On Tuesday we had our first sleepover at the new house. We planned to leave early so that we would have time to attempt boiler starting once again during daylight hours. The journey up was just over 2 hours but we were driving through heavy rain towards the end and as we arrived it started to sleet. The Mr had to give the door a shove to open it but it is seeming easier each time as he shaves a bit of door off every visit we are there (hope there's some door left come the summer lol). We set up our bedroom in the cleanest, least needing to be decorated room, which just happens to be DD2's bedroom switched on the little oil filled radiator we bought last week and left it to warm up. We tried to light our log fire, hmmmm think we need a bit of practice at that as it doesn't seem to be roaring like you see on telly. We enjoyed our first meal in front of the fire which was lovely, then to bed. Freezing does not describe how cold it was despite us being huddled under our new duck and feather duvet, eiderdown and wearing woolly socks. The heating just will not start, but on a plus note we have hot water. We managed to strip the room which is to be our bedroom plus the downstairs hallway and squeezed in a visit to the council to tell them we are the new owners so progress of sorts. This is the bedroom we stripped which looks considerably brighter now the old blue paper is off.