Sunday 31 May 2009

It feels like an age since we last posted anything... In some ways it feels like not much has happened.

We've managed to paint the new shed, and the fences, and install a new rotary washing line so the garden looks reasonable. The lawns have bedded in nicely, although we have a couple of yellow/brown patches on them (overfeeding perhaps?). We've not done anything with the borders yet, but we do have a few pots of healthy looking plants to brighten the place up. With D in mind we've got sunflowers, strawberry plants, a tomato plant (which Mike assures us will not bear fruit, since we've just bought the one!) and a pumpkin seed, which was planted in a pot when we visited Tatton Park last bank holiday weekend. We're very surprised to find that it's growing already! The table and chairs still need to be stripped and re-painted, but at least we have a usable outside space this year.

Inside, all of the kitchen blinds are up and are being used to shield the kitchen from the heat of the sun. The bar stools are being put to good use. We've managed to unpack a few more things from the garage (there are still several crates left though! ;( ) We're glad to have the spice rack back - D more so, as we've been able to make gingerbread people on a couple of occasions.

The new loft has now been boarded, and a light is in place. We've started to sort through our clutter and put some things into this storage area. It means that the house is starting to look a little more organised.

The new bathroom hasn't moved on much. We've taken some time to source the wall tiles. It's something we've been looking at for ages, however we finally decided to go with a square travertine tile. These were ordered a couple of weeks ago. The remainder of the order was collected this weekend. We are working with Zoe's mum and dad to transport the tiles and adhesives back here in batches.

I think that's it. Progress could have been better, but as time's dragged on we've lost some focus and we're also trying to maintain some sort of normality. Mike's been busy with work/study - he's just heard that his he should receive chartered status on 01-Jul! Over the past month/six weeks we've visited/helped family & friends. We had a nice afternoon in Glasson Dock visiting Dave and Val, and another with the Betons at Tatton Park. This weekend wasn't very productive either. We ended up missing Jo & Russ' wedding (Mike had a migraine) and then had to sit with D for several hours at A&E on Sunday morning (wasn't too serious fortunately). We hope to have some more news soon...