Abi & Izzy - the next 5 years

Off to meet FiFi and Grumps for a walk  (and yes, she is on the seat) Finally after weeks of rain and cold weather, the tide has turned and we have glorious sunshine for the bank holiday weekend and half term - hooray, it's about time.  Also just in time is half term as the kids were definitely ready for a break. They have both done brilliantly settling into the school, making new friends and finding their feet in an unfamiliar environment. Izzy has just had her exam week and felt it went OK given she hadn't covered all of the syllabus, and Abi's exams start as soon as she is back next week. I hope she's done some revision as she left for Devon with Claire, Adam and Mia today and isn't back until Saturday. There is talk of looking at some of her notes but who knows. My view is that a bit of R&R will probably be at least as beneficial if not more so than cramming all week so she should take the time to relax and have some fun - she deserves it. So we packed Abi o

It's official, we are now the (proud) owners of Oakwood barn. I would love to say proud but the last few weeks in particular have ben very hard with the developer being such a muppet, and we are ever more depressed by his inability to both finish the job off / tell us the truth. It has really taken the shine off things and his ever increasing ineptitude is making us wonder whether the whole house is going to fall down around our ears in a years time. If we think positive for a moment, the truly awful weather that we have had all month means at least we know the house doesn't leak, although it has shown us that the guttering has been put up incorrectly. It runs the wrong way so all the water collects at the end that doesn't have the downpipe - you really couldn't make this stuff up! This is just one of the 'small' things we will fox ourselves rather than having him anywhere near it - I can't bear to watch him do anything on the house for fear he will make it

Shed prep, with oversight from the dogs Apparently we have the jet stream to blame for the truly awful weather we are having right now. I blame our builder - if he had got his act together and sorted out Glenn's workshop roof as he promised, sods law the sun would be shining from dawn to dusk. Instead it's still pouring every half hour and Glenn is constantly worried about how much water is coming though the roof / walls / floor etc. Apparently he 'literally' just needs to put the ridge on the top and the gully down the side and it will all be fixed. We are literally at the point of wanting to do him some actual bodily harm. The moment he disappears the better. This week he was also literally going to clad the office ("done") and has failed everyday to turn up and do it (which in my book is literally not "done"). He was also going to have Gary come and finish the electrics (not done), whack down the paving slabs (not done), render the last of the bri

So after endless days (it seems, we've only been here 3 weeks so it can't be that long) of sunshine and wonderful sunsets, we have had on and off rain for a few days now, as well as gale force winds to boot which is never great when you have a leaky workshop roof and a stressed out husband. Heavy rain also brings a have a smell of drains in our en-suite - something that obviously makes me concerned when we know the septic tank isn't doing the job it should be, small concerns (not!). It has been another week of keeping our fingers crossed that we will manage to exchange on The Willows, and get to a point where we could exchange on the Barn (ie we have all the paperwork in order).  As it was after a week of "will we, wont we" on The Willows we finally reached a point on Friday afternoon where it appeared everyone was lined up, only to find one of the solicitors had knocked off early and so we had to wait. I give up! On our purchase we are now waiting on the final le

If you look past the netting it's really rather nice It's Bank Holiday Monday and it's blowing an absolute Hooley outside - so much for summer being on it's way!  We can't complain - the rest of the weekend has been lovely weather and even this morning wasn't too bad, but we are making up for it now. The wind is howling and of course the flipside of our lovely uninterrupted views are that there is nothing to stop the winds as it gains strength over the fields towards us. Our chairs are blowing around, I've had to hide the swing seat around the corner of the house and the tarpaulin covering Glenn's workshop roof (another story) is holding on for dear life.  Izzy making sushi with her  birthday present  We are continuing to experience the ups and downs of a move dogged by legal delays and building muppetry. The chain is holding, and we think that all the details have finally been ironed out (wood burning stoves removed, covenant holders found, missing buil