Guess what we've been doing?!

So, what have we been up to in the last week?  Well, the plumber has swung it so Warmflow will send a new manifold for the solar panels and he should be here on Monday morning to swap them over.  Fingers crossed that's the end of it and it all works afterwards (think I'll cry if it doesn't!).  We have also given the hall another coat of white-wash, well, cream-wash actually and we have laid most of the floor tiles in there.  Bob went to get some more grout for them but the flippin' shop has closed down - how inconsiderate!  It has been taken over by someone else and should open again on Monday, just hope they stock the same stuff otherwise we'll have a real patchwork of grout.  

Last weekend was our wedding anniversary and to celebrate we decided we should get up at 6am so I could go to work and then in the afternoon we did log-chopping - we know how to live you know!  Actually, a bit of log chopping and stacking is quite a nice job to do together (we seem to have been doing a lot of separate things over the last few weeks.  It's also quite satisfying to see the pile grow, knowing it'll keep us warm next winter.  These are the logs our neighbour dropped off a couple of weeks ago so they won't be dry enough for this winter.  We also have some more to chop from when the quarry cleared some trees along the side of our lane a few months ago.  We have put down some pallets and knocked in some posts next to the hedge and, when we've chopped and stacked it all, we'll put some sort of roof on and that will be log pile number one done.  We have some logs we split last year (so OK to burn this year) so we need to make another log store near the house for those and then we'll probably make another one up near the chicken house - you just can't have too many log piles!  Do you know, I've even felt a bit of 'log pile envy' now and then when I see other people's stacks!

We also collected the doors last weekend (in the rain!).  It took some doing apparently, but they've come up really well.  Some had been stripped previously and coated with a water-based varnish which doesn't come off properly with the caustic stuff usually used, so the poor chap had to buy some Nitromors and scrape them clean.  They were still quite wet when we got them back so the are now drying out.  In the next few days we need to paint them with watered down vinegar to neutralise the caustic and then when that's dried off we can get on with fitting hinges etc.  They should look quite good, most are pitch pine which is just much nicer than the new pine you get now and will be much more 'in keeping'.

So, that's about it for this week - oh, nearly forgot to tell you, we have done something else!  Nothing much, but we moved into the house yesterday!  I was so excited and it was brilliant and didn't disappoint.  Bob has been almost nervous about moving in.  I think we've planned this for so long and had so many hopes for this cottage he was a little worried it may not live up to our expectations.  I managed to twist his arm though and we had our first night in there last night.  We are kind of camping out in there - no wardrobes so we have a couple of those clothes rails, no stairs so we still use the ladder, no kitchen cupboards so we have plastic boxes, temporary shelves and the broken freezer as a store cupboard, but it's all fine.  We were going to wait for the solar stuff to be sorted out, but as we hadn't a clue when it wouldl be done and the weather has definitely turned autumnal we decided not to wait any longer.

As we were taking stuff out of the caravan, we realised just how manky and horrible the caravan has become.  Bob was quite horrified and now doesn't like coming back in here.  I say 'in here'  because I'm typing this in the caravan.  The phone man is coming either today or tomorrow to move the connection to the house and sort out the internet and phone sockets (we've put the cables in ready), so until then we have to nip up here.

Bob took the bed apart, cleaned off all the mould and dust and
gave it a coat of wax so it now looks lovely again and smells
fresh and clean.

We had to take the door and frame off the caravan
to get the fridge out because . . . . .



. . . . . it only just fits (about 3mm clearance!)



Trying to sort out where to put everything, we wondered about
this as a novel knife block!  What do you think?  If we practiced,
maybe we could just throw them to put them in place.  By the way,
there is a split (or shake to give it its correct name) in the oak
just here, we haven't just stabbed the knives into solid wood!



First lunch in the house - very civilised to sit at a table to
eat.  The caravan table was always full of paperwork, the
laptop, etc so we generally ate off trays.



First cooking in the new kitchen.  It seemed really strange to have
to walk about to cook after the tiny space in the caravan!  That worktop
is pinched from the caravan - lovely and just what we had in mind for our
cottage kitchen.  It was actually a really good idea of Bob's as it gives us a
worktop and cupboard - it'll be a while before we have proper cupboards.  I'm
in my work clothes because I was just getting the naan bread started before
having a lovely long drench in our lovely big shower, ahhh I could get
used to living here!



So much of the planning for and talking about our move to a cottage in
the country was done while cooking a curry on a Saturday night, both
in our old house and in the caravan, that we just had to cook a curry
as our first proper meal here.  Having finally made it and with a glass of
wine in hand, we couldn't help but feel a little bit pleased with ourselves!

Our first night in the house felt like staying in a holiday cottage (a very nice one of course), you know when you can't quite remember where anything is or how things work and it's all a bit of an adventure.  We lit the woodburner just because we could, not because it was cold and it was lovely and cosy, but we did both wake up far too warm this morning!  We slept well though and the rain in the night didn't wake us up nor did the squirrels (they haven't learnt to throw hawthorn berries that far yet!).  The light through the rooflight above the bed did wake us fairly early, but it was nice to just lie there looking at our new surroundings . . . . well, it was once I'd put my glasses on!  There was a buzzard flying overhead which I could see while lying in bed - not bad eh?