Catching Up

It's been a while since we updated the blog and a lot has happened. We have now moved into Halfway House and have settled in. It only took a week to unpack the boxes and put our things out around us. We haven’t unpacked everything as a) I don’t think there would be room and b) with moving again in a (hopefully fairly) short space of time we didn’t see the point, so a lot is still packed and in boxes in the spare room. We can see The Garden House from the back windows so it keeps us motivated!

Darran has been off the last couple of weeks and has made great progress. The plumbing is now completed (just the shower valves to fit) and he has also fitted the manifold to the under floor heating pipes so we no longer have spaghetti to contend with. We have tested the hot and cold water pipes and no leaks!

We now have the raised vegetable beds in, filled and planted.

The main objective continues to be the bricking. Hopefully as we’re now moving into the nicer weather we will be able to get on with it in the evenings. Darran has done some over the last couple of days as the weather has been so nice. He has done the back of the garage and around under the breezeway, ready to point.

New (temporary) Home!

I picked up the keys to Halfway House today. Hooray! One step closer to where we're going to be - just got to jump the wall and we'll be home!

(This is the view from our plot into the garden of Halfway House)

We move in the weekend of the 20th/21st March after some cleaning of the kitchen and bathroom. Apparently professional cleaners leave crumbs in kitchen drawers - and if we make a note of it on our inventory, we can leave crumbs when we leave too. I kid you not.

Slightly disappointed that we're going to have to clean (or maybe my standards are too high?) but other than that it's fine. It will make such a difference to a lot of things when we're just round the corner.

Plumbing And A Halfway House

Too cold for bricking, this weekend saw a big leap ahead with the plumbing. The hot water loop is complete and the cold water loop is almost there.

These pipes are currently cut to size, bent to the correct angle and set in place ready to be clipped to the joists and the joints to be soldered.

After weeks of debate about copper v plastic pipe work (and yes, we mean weeks and weeks), copper was decided. It's going well so far, Darran's 'pipe-benders-face' is now easily recognisable, I think the 22mm pipe is harder to bend than first thought.

In other news, we have found a property to rent where the wall at the end of the little courtyard garden is the same wall that surrounds our plot. It is a perfect location. I have dropped the application form off today, so hopefully we'll be successful and be able to take the tenancy from the 1st March which will give us a few weeks to move in while we still have our Oxfordshire place. We'll be so glad to have moved and being so much closer will make such a difference.