So I now have the day off and a little time to try and get something down.
Is is too much to say that I have to pinch myself quite often to remember that we're actually living in our new lovely house? The end is properly in sight!
Sewage stress
We're about 99% there apart from the sewage connection life would be considerably easier and less stressful. The short story is that I thought I had sent a joint application to Wessex Water back in August 2012 hoping to connect both mains water and sewage. I hadn't! Apparently it was the mains water application and an entirely different application had to be completed which sods law meant this one meant we had to go looking for a separate contractor to dig the enormous distance of 5 m from our boundary to the mains sewage oh but they have to be Highways approved ... sorry didn't I tell you that usually in order to gain Highways permissions it usually takes 10 weeks and as our house is opposite the school the work would have to be done in the holidays but there isn't enough time to do all this in the summer so you'll have to wait until late October!!
Even better I've worked out this exercise is going to cost roughly £1,000 per meter! With absolutely no alternative the expression "over a barrel" comes to mind.
Despair and head banging from the RP family.
Enter my Mum with pens blazing. She refused to accept this outcome and had the energy to fire various emails telling anyone vaguely connected to sewage to consider how this could speeded up. A few days later we received an email saying that Somerset Highways would ensure the license to close the road for two days (does it really take that long) would be issued during the summer holidays. You never know we may have to have a loo party celebrating our connection.... but let's just not count our chickens just yet.
House stats
I've started looking at the large water tank thermometer on a daily basis (perhaps a little more frequently). Since we moved in on 1st June I've lit the fire twice in order to heat up some water for a shower. It's going to be interesting to see how many times we're have to do this and whether I should have an electric coil installed in the thermal store rather than having to lit the fire and in theory open the windows to let out the excess heat. With outside temperatures reaching 30 oC recently it's not surprising that we've had the tank up to 80 oC - it's a great feeling not feeling even slightly guilty about having a deep bath!
I'm starting to prepare for winter by clearing the wood shed in order to build up a series of bays for the wood to stored in. Then it's down to Devon to fill the trailers with the oak I spilt all those years ago at Hamish's farm.
Photos so far ...
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| Breakfast al fresco |
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| View from the girls bedroom |
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| Bonfire party! |
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| Boot room in use including Tilly's cupboard / basket |
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| A very untidy girls bedroom! |
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| Nearly done just the curtains to be made |
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| Apart from the mirrors for the back wall behind the cooker the kitchen is finished |
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| Temporary planting in the kitchen garden |
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| Planting outside the kitchen window |
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| The girls playroom - still to put up our pictures |
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| The yard porch is lovely and welcoming and provides very good shelter! |
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| Pumpkins have been planted |
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| Our sitting room nearly finished |
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| Story time under the monks stairs |
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| The study view |
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| The study wall - just what I had hoped it might look like |
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| The decking has been a big hit & the stones have nearly all been bagged |
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| We thought the vine had died but amazing it looks like it's survived - now we can take it up the overhang |
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| The woodshed & portaloo |
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