Abi & Izzy - the next 5 years

Sooooo, where to start? Well it's Wednesday (I think - I've rather lost track) and we have been in for 5 nights and I guess you could say on the one hand we have done quite well: the house is looking ship shape, we have pictures on the walls and clothes in the cupboards and we pretty much know where things are now in the kitchen. On the other though we are running off a generator which trips if you switch on the cooker and the hob at the same time (or in fact the cooker and anything at the same time) which is very frustrating and is testing our recipe skills - you can only have a meal from the oven or hob, not both! We have made it very clear that we can't continue like this and we are led to believe that our meter will turn up on Friday - not a moment too soon. Outside is a different story. We were promised that the workshop and office would be finished before we moved in but as it was they had hardly been started. 5 days on and with constant pressure from us they are taki...

Our lovely home as we pack up to leave So who would have thought it would come to this? For a family that generally has everything organised and under control, we are completely at the mercy of the house moving gods and it is very unsettling. In order to be in Somerset for the start of the girl's new term, we are moving out of our house before we have even exchange let alone completed, and moving into the barn, again with no legal right to be there (other than of course the part-owner's permission). It's not what anyone would recommend and the solicitors would have a field day if they knew, but of course we are all so far down the line that we are just head down, fingers crossed, hoping it will all come good. It's a gamble.   Watching the world go by As we speak I have one child (Izzy) and 2 guinea pigs in Somerset, one child here with us along with the dogs, the snakes are boarding in Oxford and Glenn is in the garage with a face like a wet weekend panicking that it...

Girls buying baby clothes - this could get addictive! It's Easter weekend already and we still haven't completed!! However we have made some progress, most importantly with the paperwork which has not been Steve the Builder's forte throughout this process. Stags finally got their act together and got in touch with the planning office and got an update from the Planning Officer. Apparently she is broadly happy with the application, and is prepared to pass it with only a few minor modifications which we are completely comfortable with. The Building Control Officer also came and did all of what he needed to, which means the final certificate should be issued which allows the warranty to also be issued. On our side we finally tracked down the paperwork (or more correctly got the BC Officer to come out again and do a second assessment) for the outstanding BCC on our windows (which went in 6 years ago but due to an admin error were never registered) - nothing is straightforward i...

The massive kitchen island unit -  good job they didn't drop it! Having had a good rant to Mum earlier on this evening about the general lack of progress with the building work on the Barn I'm going to try not to bang on about it here. Suffice to say that the much anticipated wow factor of having the new fitted furniture and kitchen worktops was massively over shadowed by the rubbish everywhere and the inability of anyone other than Sharps to finish a task once started. This week is crunch time - I just hope everyone understands that time is running out if we have any chance of making the completion date. That's enough - I don't want to think about it anymore! So what else has been happening? The kids are completely back into the swing of school and are now very comfortable with their routine of twice weekly covid tests and, although they don't like it, wearing a mask all day. Despite all the disruption they have engaged really well and are clearly enjoying being ba...

Izzy's birthday cake for me... we are none of us sure she nailed the design!!! All I want for my birthday is planning permission... and some work surfaces in the kitchen... and a house that is registered with the council so that we can try and sort a phone line and internet services... and the list goes on (and on and on). This Saturday we did our normal trip to see how the Barn is progressing and I will admit to feeling pretty disheartened. We arrived to find that the dripping pipe we had pointed out in the utility room last weekend was still dripping, and instead of being a small leak, quickly fixed, it was now a huge damp patch all over the back wall. When Glenn touched the plaster board it disintegrated in his hands, leaving a huge hole - great! I feel like we are one step forward (this week Glenn made the surround for the bins / log stack and the block paving almost got finished) and three steps back (utility room / painting still not finished / media room plug socket still no...

Betty 1, Hoover 0 It's official, Betty is a teenager and don't we know it. Yesterday I was trying to do a rapid tidy up with the  hoover before yoga and ran out of time. I stupidly thought "I'll unplug it and leave it here until I can finish off..."  I got back to it 90 mins later to find that Betty had rearranged the plug and lead by chewing through it - great. She's also completely single minded and if she's set her mind to something (chasing a bird, playing with a pine cone while we are trying to walk, greeting another dog...), she will give it her sole attention. She has worked out that the best way of getting her way when we are out and about is to sit down very neatly and just wait until whatever it is she is interested in comes to her - it generally works! She also likes to settle herself down at road junctions and watch the world go by - she would happily sit for hours and watch passing cars / people / wildlife! This weekend Abi and I set off for S...

It's official, today we broke the law and I just don't care. We had an illegal gathering of many people at the Barn and while the doors were open and the room is massive, there were moments where I thought that one of our many new (very curious) neighbours would look at the number of cars and decide to shop us. Luckily they didn't and we got away with it - and it was definitely worth it! So we had, in order of arrival: Steve (the builder), Glenn, Abi and I (Izzy stayed at home again for a lie in and ready meal heaven), Amanda and Laurie, George (he and Glenn had planned to ride together), Muma and Dad (theoretically to do some measuring), Dave (the man from Sharps and the reason for being there), Vy (the painter, here to do a bit of work and check in on details). This was all before our new neighbours (Jim and Hilary) turned up at the door to introduce themselves, no doubt looking on in horror at the blatant bending of rules going on! It was lovely to get a sense of how it ...