Busy, busy, busy

Full English brunch for these two!

Life is VERY busy and I don't feel like we have stopped for weeks (or is that months?) It seems like the 'to-do' list is endless and while I know we don't have to do it all at once, I have taken on the unenviable task of trying to get the Muppet to finish all the work he promised / we have paid for and that has been like pushing a mountain of water up a very steep hill. We've got to the point where I think we have got all of what we are likely to get and the rest we'd rather finish ourselves anyway. The electric gates are clearly a work of his imagination based on the gates / the electric cables he spec'd and the cheapo motor mechanism - there is no way they'll work so we have decided to not bother and source proper gates that do the job and look better as well.

Knowing that we are almost at a point where we sever the ties feels very liberating. Looking back this last 6 months has been incredibly stressful and just didn't need to have been - it was completely down to his poor planning, project management and execution. We just want to get on now with making the house the beautiful home that it has the potential to be. 

The most stressful element of the last few weeks has been trying to sort out the mess that we have as a result of the covenant on our field. Despite everyone being 'flabbergasted' that he allowed it to be agreed (including the original landowners and our neighbours who benefit from it), he denies any knowledge of it, and still maintains it was as much a surprise to him as us that we can't now do the things we want to and had discussed with him, without next door's permission. After a lot of discussion and angst we have found a mutually acceptable solution but it is a compromise. We are still hoping we might be able to buy a strip of land in the next field instead - we are waiting to see - but of course this is more cost that we weren't anticipating. All this before we can even start to look for a horse for Abi.

Despite all of this we are very happy in Somerset. Yesterday Glenn and I went out on our bikes (together!) and rode out to Aller to a cider shack / coffee shop - we sat and had coffee and cake looking out across the Levels in the sunshine and it was idyllic. This was while Abi was at a horse event with Amanda and Laurie and Izzy was chilling out at home. Kerrie popped over for a cup of tea on Friday, we popped over to Mum and Dad's for tea and welsh cakes after school finished and Amanda popped around both Saturday and Sunday. I'm loving that we can do this. I'm on a train to London now and it's ambling but apparently only going to be 5 mins late into Paddington. I woke up this morning to glorious views of hot air balloons sailing over the house in the early sunshine, and by 9:15am I'll be at my desk in the capital. That's not bad is it?

The kids have had exams over the last few weeks and now on wind down to the summer holidays. Abi has her DoE this week (Glenn slightly despairing of her prioritisation of what to take!), Izzy has various activities to look forward as she comes to the end of Taunton Prep School and gets ready to go up to the Senior School (where apparently Abi thinks she'll quickly get knocked down a peg or two!). Both have settled in so well and that is a million times more important than exam results this year. All this and its only going to get better as we settle further into our new life.

Loving their field!