A week on . . . .

We've been out of the caravan for a whole week now and I really can't imagine living in it now.  Here are some of the little things that are a novelty for us (which everyone else probably would just take for granted):

*  You have to add a bit of cold to the washing up water (rather than boiling the kettle to heat it up)
*  Ditto the shower - well, obviously we didn't add boiling kettle water to the shower, but we didn't need to add cold
*  The pans fit on the hob, yes, even if you are using more than one!
*  We haven't had to share the bathroom with slugs (they were regular visitors in the caravan. . . . .  uughhh!  It makes me shudder to think about it).  Mind you, there are some humungous spiders in this house to replace the slugs!
*  You can bend down in the shower to pick up the soap
*  You don't have to wash up every two seconds to clear space when you're cooking
*  It can be windy or raining outside and we don't notice it!
*  We now have 'ready to go' clothes since I've washed and ironed most of them.  We used to have to plan several days in advance if we wanted to wear anything different so it could be washed and dried to get rid of the musty dampness.

So, our first week has had its ups and downs that's for sure.  The plumber came with the new manifold for the solar on Monday morning and he soon had the old one off and the new one up and in place.  He then found that they had changed the connections since he installed the old one, so he had to sort all that out on the roof which took ages.  Bear in mind that Monday was the extremely windy day with the tail end of hurricane Irene or whatever it was called - mmm, good day to be up on a roof!  We just got the tubes back on the roof before I had to go to work.  Oh, that made me laugh because I came in to get changed, but couldn't get upstairs because the plumber had our 'stairs' attached to the scaffold tower and his roof ladder!  Anyway, he got the solar stuff all connected and re-pressurised and left with us all thinking it would all be lovely now.  You're joking, the pressure had dropped significantly the next day and was absolutely zero by Wednesday . . . . 'Oh, bother' we all said!  So he came back again on Wednesday and checked all the joints again - fine.  So he took the pump station apart, disconnected the pipes from the manifold and blanked them off and attached pressure guages to them both.  This is to check that the pipes, which go through the roof behind the ceiling, are intact with no leaks.  Oh, what if we've put a nail or screw through a pipe?  We're sure we didn't because we were really careful, but you can't help wondering.  We'd have to rip the ceiling off - doesn't really bear thinking about.  Mind you, it probably wouldn't be as much of a nightmare for us as for many people, because at least we do know how to put it back again, it would just be such a pain.  Thankfully, there hasn't been much drop in pressure on those - phew!  He also put a pressure guage on the coil in the heat store in case that has a leak.  We're clutching at straws a bit here I have to say.  He phone every day or so to check what the readings are, but there is nothing obviously leaking.  So he has now ordered another pressure release valve for the pumping station, just in case that is faulty and is releasing pressure when it shouldn't.  WHAT A NIGHTMARE!  So, that's an ongoing saga which I will obviously up date you on again.

On Tuesday the chap came to sort the phone/internet out and that went well . . . . or so we thought!  The next day we couldn't get the internet at all and very lengthy calls to Orange in India couldn't resolve the problem.  They kept insisting we phone them on a mobile so they could test the landline and just couldn't understand that we couldn't because we can't get a signal here (no Orange coverage!).  Bob actually got quite annoyed with them - most unlike him.  So, I think we may be changing internet provider fairly soon!  In the end we borrowed a neighbours modem (to check if it was our modem that didn't like being moved).  Bob plugged that in and it worked, so he tried ours again and it worked too!!??  So, that's that problem solved.  Another neighbour with Orange said they'd had real problems this week, so I guess it was just a coincidence that it happened just after we moved operations to the house. 



My first cake in the new oven worked very well

 Other downs are that I'm not sure the electric oven is working properly - it was, but the last couple of things we've cooked in it have taken ages.  We bought an oven thermometer, but I'm not even sure if that is working properly.  So, that is an ongoing investigation too.  Also we took the CD player into the audio shop in Shrewsbury and their techy bloke took one look and said it wouldn't be worth repairing because the innards are so delicate no-one will touch them anymore.  Oh, that's sad because I did really like that player and we have really missed listening to CDs while we cook.  So, we did a very rash thing and splashed out on a new one, just like that, on the spur of the moment and without a second thought.  Not like us at all, but we had some accumulated birthday and Christmas money.  They had the updated version of our old one, but much neater and smaller and including a digital radio.   We then went and bought a couple of new CDs (there's nowhere to buy them in Oswestry which is frustrating).  As soon as we got home we plugged it all in, put in a new CD, turned the volume up and did a little jig round the kitchen with silly grins on our faces!  Good job no-one could see us.  You can have it on quite loud without being able to hear it outside - so, 18" thick stone walls have their advantages.

Today we've been putting pictures up to make this our home.
This is in our bedroom and the pictures are all baby photos
and other family shots.  The chimney breast needs some work to box in the
header tank on the right and make a wooden mantlepiece (and wardrobes
of course).



Also our bedroom (in case you hadn't guessed) - it's an odd
room to hang pictures with triangles and low spaces.



This is what that bit of the house used to look like - and this
after we'd done quite a lot of work on it.  This is actually the first
time we went upstairs together and I think you may have already
seen this photo.



Do you like our posh Axminster carpet?  We only put it down
when we have visitors you know!



Relaxing in front of the fire - what a life, eh?