All these things that I have done

unpacking

Sun, 08 May 2011 23:20:17 GMT

Things I have:
A purple wardrobe : thanks, squigglyruth
Books. Boy do we have a lot of boxes of books
Cuddles: courtesty of Alex and kittens

Things I don't have:
Cutlery: Seriously, I think we have now examined all the boxes and it has yet to emerge.
These books: Turns out the lock up garage our builder lent us leaks :(

comments

Jiggety jig

Mon, 02 May 2011 16:57:13 GMT

So! We have actually moved back into our new house. The only room that is anything like properly unpacked right now is the kitchen, which is only missing one vital box of cutlery (annoyingly). And, I suppose, the bathroom, in that it doesn't need much unpacking! Still, the new shower is pretty damn cool! Upstairs, the carpets don't go down until next week and there's some stuff like lights in our room and touch up painting which still need to be done so we haven't moved much in but we have put up the first lot of shelves and the supports for the next lot of shelves in library (which is going to be hella cool) and unpacked some boxes of books just so that people can tell it's our house :)

The kitchen/garden room set up looks amazing - great light, lovely kitchen, and I love the way the doors out onto the garden work and look. Again, there's lots of finishing off that needs doing down here (skirting boards, door handles, downstairs loo pipework) but it's looking good. It's been so long since we've been allowed to live here that I feel kind of illicit sitting around in the dining room typing! It'll feel more like we're back when the furniture comes back out of the lock up, which it will hopefully do during the course of next week.

The builders reckon they'll be done by the end of this week. I think it's more likely to be the week after, given the amount of little things that need doing, but that still means that we can totally have an extension warming party at half term. As such, consider this your invitation - mark your diaries for the Sunday 29th May - BBQ and cocktails at our place, woe betide anyone who makes a mess of my new worktops! We will provide the spirits as we have tonnes of it (except for triple sec for some reason) but you should feel free to bring any or all of the following; other booze or non booze drinkables, unusual mixers and BBQables. I feel glam and am therefore declaring this a Dress Up party - wear something beautiful. Interpret that how you will :)

comments

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 14:34:07 GMT

Easter school is surprisingly tiring actually. I thought I'd get loads of work done this week but actually I'm kind of knackered after having 4 hours of kids. Which I suppose is not that surprising as we'd have 5 hours of kids in a normal school day so it's not that much less. Still, the extra cash will definitely come in handy and it's quite a good scheme, nice for the kids. I guess I'll get some work done next week - it doesn't seem very likely that we'll be able to move in on Monday next week so I'll have a few quiet days here next week, I expect. I'm going to pop over this evening, I think, and see how things are getting on, perhaps take Alex with me for a look see.

We had a barbeque on Sunday, which was absolutely glorious. I got suntanned and it felt so good. It was really sad today to wake up and see how cloudy it was - I really hope we get a nice warm May/June so that I can get out there and enjoy my garden and garden room!

comments

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 11:59:17 GMT

Am at in service training with Pie Corbett. Am not sure it is worth all the money we're being charged for it really. It's OK but not much surprising in there really. It's not not knowing this stuff, it's the time and energy to do it full on all the time. It's really sunny outside and I find myself thinking wistfully abouut blowing off the afternoon and going and sitting in the park and reading. Sadly, there are other teachers from my school here so I don't think I'll get away with it but I can dream :)

House seems to be taking for ever. I don't think it's anyone being slow, just I can't wait for it all to be done. Chose paint colours yesterday but still haven't actually ordered the appliances. Might do that now while I've got wifi.

comments

Sat, 05 Mar 2011 20:24:46 GMT

Am posting this while my computer screen is projected onto an enormous widescreen TV inbetween watching stuff - it's pretty cool, I have to say. Sadly, its not mine, it's angaharad's, but you can't have it all :) Anyway, we are nicely settled into our temporary bedroom and have been generously trusted with the run of the house while our hosts are off ski-ing in foriegn parts. And yes, angharad, we have been v careful about locking the doors :) We went out and bought tiles this morning - yes, the extension has made us even more middle class than ever - you didn't think it was possible!

comments

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 11:26:16 GMT

So, post! Many things have happened in the past couple of months that I haven't managed to post about. I was intending to write a bit more this year, both here and fiction, but I haven't because of basically two things. Thing one is that I seem to have been sick to a greater or lesser extent since Jan 1st. I picked up a cough from somewhere, held onto that for a while, got the vomiting bug while at the doctors having the cough checked out and then got a real streaming flu-ey cold plus new cough just when it looked like the old one was going away. Am finally starting to feel like a real girl again and am really hoping that half term will mean that I can actually manage to recover properly.

The other thing is the extension. We were warned that it would be very disruptive and they weren't wrong! I hadn't really realised how unsettling I would find it to have bits disappearing from my house while I was living in it and so on but it really was. Or, in fact, how annoying it would be to have everything gritty underfoot all the time - I gave up on hoovering about three weeks ago because the layer of grit was back just as deep in a day. It is very exciting and everything but boy am I glad we've reached the point where we have to move out so the electricians can do things and stuff. We're at my parents for half term week and then angharad and Tristan are sheltering us for March while they move the bathroom and redo the kitchen and so on. We have managed to move almost all of our possessions into the builder's lockup garage for storage and filled it up to the brim. I'm sure we seem to have twice as many books and I have twice as many clothes as when we moved into that house.

The cats are staying in situ so that they can guard the house for us and because they hate moving anywhere. That's the only downside - fewer cat strokes. Still, it's only a month. Just you wait for the BBQ parties in summer!

comments

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:56:20 GMT

Good lord, I am exhausted! I hadn't quite anticipated (although I perhaps should have) that in the course of sorting out our extension we would need to move all our stuff out of our house but we do. It's incredible how many books we have! Which is a good thing in itself, of course, but right now I wish they were all ebooks. Still, the shell is up and the builder is enthusiastic and it's all happening, gradually. And we're moving out tomorrow! Which will be a relief because it's not a very livable place right now!

Anyway, it's half term starting tomorrow and I'm off to Norfolk to see my new baby niece, which should be just what the doctor ordered - plus I can catch up on my marking, which will at least be a relief. There's plenty of work stuff to tell, but I'll save that for a protected post at half term.

comments

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 21:17:31 GMT

OMG YOU GUYS!!! I HAVE NO CONSERVATORY ANY MORE! SERIOUSLY! PICS TO FOLLOW!

comments

Home

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 14:17:05 GMT

Well, am relaxing peacefully at home and all is just as I had hoped. There are home made cakes, cups of tea and wifi access :) Am supposed to be starting on Strange Horizons website but have to admit that I haven't made much progress. Am just feeling rather lazy, to be honest. On the plus side, I have chosen a kitchen for the new extension, which is quite pleasing. I've an appointment at B&Q next week to fix up the details and get the thing ordered, hopefully with this year's VAT on it. Now just have to decide about the appliances, the bathroom, the tiles, the flooring and about a million other things. I'm quite nervous about the whole thing, to be honest - seems like so much to do and it's going to be so chaotic. I have to keep telling myself that it'll be fine. And it will be, we just have to get it all organised.

Am going to attempt to do something useful this afternoon and fix Mum up with her new phone.

comments