Tuesday 15 April 2014

Easter approaches

So here I am again - I don't want to write a negative blog I really want to write a positive blog and I promise I'm trying...
Of course there are a plethora of reasons to be cheerful; weekends away, spring lambs, tree blossom: the list is endless and I do love this time of year as its full of promise! 
Talking of promise though my hubby did promise me we'd be in our house for Christmas, then end of Jan, then end of Feb.. Looks like Easters going pass us by too! "Sigh...."






And so to the house update:


The internal doors are slowly being fitted and look really good, the thermal store which is a bit of a beast as you can see from the photographs is slowly being installed - this is quite complicated and no mean feat! It will use power generated from solar panels or the air source heat pump or the wood burner we can't really move in until we have actual heating and hot water so this has become a priority. We laid the floor tiles in the utility room first so that the boiler could be placed on it. Here's Richard laying the 1st tile - It may take a while only 85 square metres to go...





















We got all our stuff out of storage as we had the garage floor concreted and couldn't justify the monthly storage cost when we have this enormous empty space. It was so nice to get all my 'stuff of life' back - I still keep having a peek in boxes almost daily and still it makes me smile when I see my pots and pans, photos etc

The storage unit final day!



Paul has completed the cladding but there are some finishing bits to be done around windows etc- I think you'll agree it looks stunning - I love the almost mirror reflection in the glass.  Paul has now finished & left site :-( - there are jobs we still need him to do but we have genuinely run out of money. Now day by day the site is deserted and it is a bit eery without him ...





















We are finding it difficult to find the funds to pay for the finishing. This is very frustrating as the finish is the culmination of all our ideas; all my research on mood boards and all our dreams of how the finish should look is now compromised due to our finances - very sad but I'm sure in the future we will be able to implement some of those ideas we had - fingers crossed 

In the meantime we are trying to do the rest of the work ourselves but with Richard working a 0630 to 19:30 everyday we only really have weekends.
I'm limited myself physically with doing some of the things but have built kitchen units and attached skirting boards etc. My next big task will be painting the doors, skirtings and architraves
I've also got an old table that I need to sand - this will be our main dining table for now but it spent quite a lot of its life outside in the garden & isn't in the best condition but it is quite an attractive table

We are going to spend this coming Easter weekend working hard on the house but first we will spend half a day preparing our caravan for sale as this will give us some much needed revenue and will help go towards our finish and an added bonus it will add to clearing the site as at the front we have a huge mountain of mud, roof tiles (I moved these today!) wood, pallets, piles of spent floor screed (I also moved this today!) amongst other stuff
I can imagine one day it being a normal drive - it will be so nice in the future when we can drive up and actually turn around in front of the house - luxury!!

So I've realise another milestone of the year goes by that is Easter and still we haven't moved in! Honestly we are very comfortable in the studio but perhaps a little too comfortable? Maybe if we were actually still in the caravan things would be going at a faster pace? who knows?
I suppose I can't complain although I feel I want to and yes we will be in one day and we will look back and laugh ...

I/we have had two consecutive weekends away one in Munich spending three days with our lovely friends Georg and Milo for their 50th birthday celebrations and last weekend I was in London with my daughters celebrating Chloe's 21st birthday!

It is lovely to come back to the house and see with fresh eyes as I don't have this privilege often I think that as I'm here all day long and look at a ghost site and all the things that needs to be done is probably why I get a bit down


And so I sign off again with a sigh but ever hopeful (this seems to be my permanent disposition) I promise to write a more cheery & positive post one of these days but hope that the photographs of our progress will be even more advanced 
but for now here are some pictures of fluffy bunnies and Easter chicks:

Happy Easter!!!
Wendi x