House
Ground Force
We’ve been working on the garden the last few weeks as to be honest it was left in a bit of a mess by Persimmon our builders. There are some pictures available which show the work from start to finish. A big thanks to Mum, Dad and Jonathan for all the help. They never just visit!
First Crops
We have just harvested our first crop of 54 potatoes from our garden and are very much looking forward to trying them! Sadly, this may be the only crop from the garden as the rest of the vegetable experiment may not be quite so successful! It looks easy, and in theory it is, but growing food takes a lot of planning and preparation not just sticking seeds in pots! Hopefully we will also get some tomatoes and green beans over the summer.
Sauna Anyone?
Mum and Dad bought me a new clock when they were here last weekend and it lives in the conservatory. It has a bulit in thermometer and was sat out of direct sunlight with the doors and windows open and yet still reached the dizzy heights of 42 degrees celsius today at 3pm. I hate to think what it will be like in the real summer heat!
It's been a while…
There has been a lot going on in the last 6 weeks or so since we last posted anything on here! We have been without broadband for a number of weeks so have been unable to add any thing new.
Any way, here is an update on what has happened since picking up the keys on March 23 2007.
One of the major jobs to get done the week running up to moving was having our Oak floor fitted throughout the whole house. We had to buy 30 ish boxes of Oak flooring, which altogether weighed in a about 450kg, which ended up coming from Warrington as Cardiff didn’t have enough stock! It wasn’t an easy job just purchasing the materials never mind fitting it! We also had 20 ish boxes of underlay and 100 metres of edging to acquire. At times it was touch and go as to whether the floor would be fitted in time as it proved to be a bigger job than first anticipated. However, a very nice man called Tony fitted it all for us in time for us to move in and we are very pleased with the results.
Come the 30th March 2007 we finally moved in, and while Jen worked her last day in her old job, my parents and brother helped me out tremendously as we cleaned up the flat and happily watched the removal men struggle with our very heavy sofas. They arrived about 0900 and come 1600 they had left having unloaded all 50 something boxes of our posessions in to our new home.
Since then we have settled in nicely and have more or less completed all the jobs we can afford to do at the moment! We have fitted the conservatory floor, put up some floor boards to make a loft in the garage, more or less finished unpacking, and set up a vegetable patch on our first step on the road to becoming self sufficient!
We have added a number of pictures the the New House Photo Gallery so feel free to have a look around.
There has been more going on in our lives than just moving house though. Jennie has started a new job which she is enjoying very much. She is working longer hours than she has been but enjoying the new challenges a more senior position offers. And, the long awaited ‘Furby’ will be arriving tomorrow!
As for me, same old same old really!
Keys!
Well, after a very stressful and anxious day we now have the keys to our new house (and a massive mortgage to go with it!). Following some very last minute surprise paperwork, we were finally able to pick up the keys at lunch time yesterday.
We were both very excited and my heart was pounding at points during the day where it looked like it could all go wrong! Especially as we are on a very tight schedule with fitting the flooring, moving in and Jennie’s last week at work coming up. It all seems like a bit much at the moment and we are both very tired.
Any way, after work last night we went to the house and unloaded our first 400kg of flooring ready for fitting on Monday. This weekend we have to buy tiles and flooring accessories also ready for Monday. On top of all that, it’s Mum’s 50th (Happy Birthday by the way!) so there is quite a lot going on with a trip to North Wales.
It is commonly acknowledged that moving house is one of the most stressful life experiences. I don’t know that I would agree with that so far, but there is certainly an awful lot to think about. There are so many choices to make we don’t even know where to start at the moment!
Still, we count ourselves very fortunate to have bought this house and we hope that we will be happy there and that we will be able to share it with our friends and family.
Whilst unpacking last night we found a horseshoe in the front garden. I don’t normally believe in that sort of ‘lucky charm’ but in this case I hope it means good things for us.
They say to 'think outside the box'!
Easier said than done when your life is being packed into them!
We have now spent the last two weekends packing up and getting ready to move. So far we have packed 29 boxes! We have an inspection of the new house on Tuesday and are due to collect the keys on Friday. It’s getting very exciting now but doesn’t feel real at the same time.
There is lots to do this week including getting all 600kg of flooring to the house before the weekend! We also have to choose tiles as well as pack the rest of the house up.
It will all be worth it come Friday 30th March when we move in!
Our Money in Bricks and Mortar
Well things have moved on again with the house purchase and we have now exchanged contracts which means no going back now! At the moment the house is due to be ready at the beginning of April which means we may be moving during the Easter holidays. We managed to take some new photos of the house including our new front door!