Good heavens it is the 16th of January already so the month is half gone. We have been in the new house for 1 whole month. It doesn't seem possible, seems like it was only yesterday that we were worried and stressed wondering if it really was all going to happen. On the other hand, I am already beginning to feel like I have been here forever. I am not missing the old house one little bit.
I am relishing the peace and quiet here. There is much to be done and it is going to take some while, quite probably a couple of years but it will be worth it in the end and in the meantime it does now feel like home.
Nancy asked yesterday why we brought this house if there is so much to do? I guess that is a good question. The answer is that we want to make changes. I doubt it would be possible to buy a house that was exactly to ones own taste.
We chose this house because it was the one that most closely fitted our criteria. We wanted various things: A rural village location that would be more peaceful. Within 30 minutes drive of Simon’s school as he will still be working for another couple of years. A smaller house, IE 3 bedrooms as we no longer need 4. A much bigger garden so that we can eventually give up our allotment and grow our fruit and veggies in our own garden. Our previous garden was tiny. A garage or space to build a garage so that Simon can give up his barn. In our old house the garage (only suitable for 1 car) was not attached to the house, it was a fair way up the street and not suitable for working in. That was why Simon rented the barn. However the barn was over 8 miles from the house too so not convenient if you just have a spare half hour.
This house has all of that. However some of the decoration was not to our taste. Mainly that dreadful blue and white stripy wall paper with contrasting bright yellow radiator and picture rail! The carpet in there is awfully faded too so we knew that would have to go. Not to mention the horrid blue tiles forming the hearth. It is the worst room. Most of the rest of the house is fine and we will get to it as and when. Decoration is easily changed but finding everything you want in a house is not so easy. Once we put our house up for sale last May we started saving so fortunately we have money in hand to do the necessary work here.
The large garden that we wanted needs much work. It is mainly laid to lawn with a very large paved area at the bottom. The paved area is all up and down but we always intended to remove it anyway. The eventual veggie garden will start at the far end. It will be a hell of a lot of work to remove all those slabs and whatever lies under them. I am guessing that it may be up to 2 years before we can become productive. Once the area is cleared the beds will need to be dug and prepared.
The garage is another huge job on the list. It is bigger than average but not big enough for Simon! Remember his hobby is building old cars and customised Hot Rods. He usually has at least 2 on the go. So he needs a lot of space. He will be doubling the size of the existing garage but before he can even start there is another raised patio area right behind the garage that will have to come out. It looks like it is concrete underneath so a big job. Once that is done he can put in the footings and get started on the building etc.!
His other job is to build in wardrobes for our bedroom. Our old house had a complete wall of built in wardrobes as did one of the other rooms and they were both full. Here they had free standing furniture. We are currently managing with 2 old children’s wardrobes and a hanging rail in my sewing room! It is a mess. This was another job that we knew we would have to do. We would have been very lucky to have found what we had before.
So, hope that answers the question as to why we chose this house. It needs work to get it all how we want it but we have plenty of time and at the moment we have the funds, mind you we hadn't bargained on having to replace all the fence just yet! We had the quote for that on Saturday and it was more than we had hoped.......... £1350!!!! We have no choice but to get it done. The neighbour who had said she would pay half had not expected it to be as much and can only afford £400 but at least it will help.
Anyway................ I am sitting here typing this and I should be painting. We had a really busy weekend. Saturday morning we went to Peterborough to B&Q and got paint, brushes sand paper etc.. On the way back we went into the carpet shop and ordered and paid for the carpet. It should be in soon and will be fitted either the end of this week or sometime next week. In the afternoon Simon finished fitting the fence panels at the end of the garden to make it secure. I got started on sanding down that dreadful radiator. It was a job and a half! The yellow dust has gone everywhere.
Half way through Sam turned up with Ellie. She thought it was very funny that I had yellow paint smears all over me including my face. I told her I would get cleaned up before I gave her a cuddle. She said “But you can't wash your face”. I asked why not and I was told. “ You only wash your face 2 times a day, once in the morning and one time again in the evening”! However...... “Nanny you can wash your hands as many times as you want”! Aren't little ones funny.
On Saturday evening we worked really hard and we actually sanded down all of the wood work and got it all washed down ready to start the painting. We are going to need a lot of coats I think. We went to Branch Brothers on Sunday morning to order the wood for the wardrobes. Simon has drawn detailed plans and they will cut the wood to size according to his plans. It will be delivered on Wednesday afternoon.
Sunday afternoon Simon had exam papers to mark so while he did that I got on with the painting. It is a real job! The room isn't that big and the furniture is kind of in the middle so something is constantly in the way and I keep having to move the ladder. I got the first coat on everything except the door. Simon put the first coat of paint on the radiator. We got special radiator paint so hopefully it will cover well and won't chip. Now the horrid yellow is covered it already looks better even though the paint is patchy.
It is now nearly 3pm in the afternoon and after doing my normal household jobs I begun on the painting. Everything has now had 3 coats except the door. I think the windowsills and skirting boards will be fine but I am not sure if the picture rail may need a 4th coat. I shall see what Simon thinks.
I have the door to do but I think it will be easier if Simon takes it off the hinges. He also needs to remove the handle. I have stripped all the horrid blue stripy wall paper. It was vinyl so it has left behind a lining paper. We thought maybe we could paint direct on to this but I don't think it is going to work. Once I get the door done and Simon gets another few coats on the radiator we will be ready to do the walls. In fact the white bit above the picture rail I will do later this afternoon or this evening. We need to buy the paint for the rest. We have chosen a sort of cream called lambs wool with a sort of mink colour to go just on the chimney breast.
Oh my friend Cindy asked the other day about the white wood that is part of the whole brick fireplace.......we are going to replace that with natural oak.
Isn't it funny no matter how well you cover everything, paint still seems to get everywhere? Well it does with me. I also get covered in the stuff too. I don't know how or why. This is why we are getting the painting done now before the carpet is laid!
Many years ago when Sam was a toddler we had a new carpet and paint incident. We had just moved into a brand new house (our 2nd). It was carpeted throughout the day after we moved in. A day later the bathroom radiator was leaking and as the builders were still on site one came over to take a look.
I had been painting in the living room. I put the pot of paint up on the dining table on newspapers out of Sams reach. He was playing, Coralie was asleep. I went up to the bathroom with the builder, we were maybe 10 minutes. When we came down, Samuel had knocked over the paint can, it was everywhere, he had the brush and had painted himself and the dog from top to bottom and was busily spreading it further around the carpet!!!!!
It was emulsion paint and do you know those builders got out every last bit! I had one helping me clean up Sam, another cleaning it off the dog in the garden and about 6 of them working to get it out of the carpet. It took the entire afternoon. Believe it or not you really couldn't tell, not that it much mattered we only lived in that house a year.
Well it is nearly time to go and think about what to cook for dinner. Simon will be lucky that he gets any dinner. I am not at all pleased with him. He has gone off with my set of keys as well as his own which meant that I was locked in the house until I remembered that the spare set we had cut for Sam are still here. I spent ages searching this morning because I wanted to let the dogs out. I ended up phoning him which I never do when he is teaching, He did answer the phone and I said the keys were missing and I couldn't get out and he said he was looking in his coat but then the phone went dead! I don't know if he lost the signal or hung up! I do know that despite me sending him 2 emails I have not had a reply 5 hours later! Good job I did remember those spares were still here or the poor doggies would have their legs crossed.
OK, I'm out of here now.
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