Skip to main content

Little Steps

Let me in!
This week I feel like we have made some progress on the house, albeit nothing ever seems to progress rapidly, and there's always a drama if it has anything to do with the muppet developer. I've been chasing him for a couple of weeks after he failed to turn up to do the replacement guttering, despite all the usual promises. After multiple texts and voicemails I finally switched to the nuclear option and sent him a text message to say if I didn't hear from him then I would have no choice but to contact his mother again. It is ludicrous that I find myself threatening a 47 year old man with a call to his parents, but this is the way he rolls it seems. Sure enough, about 30 secs after the message showed as read, I get a message back to say he is coming Thursday and that he'd already told me this! Utter rubbish of course, not least it is hardly a  coincidence that it tied in to the threat of a parental phone call - he is such a child. All this was after some excuse that the reason he hadn't been in touch previously was that one of the work crew had been badly beaten up, ending up in hospital having a piece of his skull removed from his brain.... either he is dreadfully unlucky or it's more tall stories. I neither know or care.  I thanked him for his call and informed him that regardless I would be following up with an email to his mother to set out the situation and the fact that if he doesn't complete the work next week and pay the remaining money for remedial works I will have no choice but to proceed to small claims. Who knew buying a new house would be so much fun?!

Alongside this we also heard from our solicitor that the Pattemores have finally instructed their solicitor, and apparently already signed all the paperwork for the land purchase! We are being stuck for their legal fees which are about double what they should be, and they are insisting on an overage clause (which I was expecting), but they have us over a barrel so we have to keep pushing on. It will all be worth it - I hope! 

We also had Brad come back and finish off the windows, with Lloyd due tomorrow to finish the cladding so that's enough piece of the jigsaw in place. The bi-folds look great and came into their own this week in very windy conditions - it was nice not to have the whole of the front of the house flexing back and forwards while plaster falls out of the ceiling due to the movement!

Finally we had WCDS back to dig in a proper drain to take our rain water away, rather than it just backing up the downpipes when it rains heavily because there's nowhere for it to go. These small things are actually quite meaningful as we head into winter - we are quite looking forward to the next time it rains now!

While we have been pushing through all of this, Abi is getting used to the change of daylight hours and how she fits her horse into everyday life. Basically, it's now dark by the time she gets there so the only choice she really has is to go in the arena on a weekday, and then make the most of the weekend. At least she can see everyone else is in the same boat, and the arrangement with Gabby is working well where she makes sure Nula is sorted and out in the morning so we don't need to worry about that. 

Izzy on the other hand loves staying on at school on a Saturday to play matches, particularly if it involves a trip out to another school. This weekend she was captaining the hockey team playing against Millfield, a match they thought they'd lose, and they won 2-1 and she got player of the match! She is loving the sport and making the most of the opportunities. She was back in school today, if only to meet up with friends, then off into town for the afternoon. I can see a time quite soon when we will barely see either of them all weekend.  If only it weren't for the fact we still seem to be ferrying them around everywhere we'd have quite a lot of free time!

Lucky for me I have my third baby, Betty, who is currently snoring happily on her bed after another busy day. Abi and Laurie rode together this morning so Amanda and I went on a nice long walk with Betty flying around having the best of times. We didn't meet any other dogs, but we did meet lots of people and she was able to say hello to them all which pleased her greatly. If she's missing Bertie it's not too obvious which is good, I'm very much enjoying just having the one right now.

This week's early morning city run
London's Hyde Park


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's beginning to feel a bit like Christmas...

I was sure I write the blog last week.... but, it seems another 2 weeks have flown by and now we are staring down the barrel of the Christmas holidays and the end of the year! Currently it's all about Doug and what a star he has proved to be so far. He has now been with us for 3 weeks and he is (so far, I keep thinking at some point it will change) a pretty chilled out puppy. As a second dog he has been thrown in at the deep end and has been to Sunday lunch with Alan & Sarah (which he loved), socialised at home with friends and their dogs, met babies (he loved Elsie) and started to go for walks. The walking has been a bit different to our previous approaches with new dogs. In the past we have ventured out carefully, making sure that our new baby only walks a short distance so they can experience all the new sights and sounds. Doug's first walk was after Sunday lunch last week, just him and 8 other dogs for bout 45 mins - he loved it! In our defence we didn't let him wal...
Post a Comment
Read more

Welcome Albert James!

So this week has been full of new things - Jess and Chris have welcomed Albert James Wilkinson Rayner to the family, a tad early but all doing well apparently (and so cute!!), I started my new job, Abi has her new shed and Dad got sorted on a phone that wasn't invented before the kids were born!! I always knew this week was going to be full on and it certainly has been. The first thing I had to do was try and sort out my diary which had been filled from dawn to dusk by my predecessor with meetings. I decided to set out as I mean to go on and immediately took out those that started before 9am. While I can get into  the office for 8am , it's a pain and requires me to be on the 6:30am train which is just a bit much every day (stating the obvious). I then made it clear that we don't need to be joined at the hip for the next 4 weeks which is a sensitive process - even though he is retiring it's hard to let go and he is understandably keen that the team are looked after. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Diary management!

This part of the summer is definitely typified by me trying to remember who is supposed to be where and when. Abi likes to be off doing something with someone while Izzy is happier to know she's close to home and so for the last week they've gone their separate ways. Abi has been down in Somerset making the most of Ben and Laurie being about. From what I can tell she's having a lovely time. Apart from the covert phone call one evening to tell me she was 'starving'  (Mum was cooking for the hordes and so it had been delayed), I've barely heard from her. The few calls I have had have very quickly ended in "can I go now" like I'm making her speak to me! Today she switches from Mum and Dads to a night or two with Kerrie - not sure who is more excited! Izzy didn't want to be away for that long so she opted not to go. She's very conscious that Abi and Laurie are joined at the hip when together and Ben has his own things he wants to do so she ...
Post a Comment
Read more