What a difference a year makes ...

It seems so hard to think back to this time last year when were all in the caravan and spending our daytimes in the garden room.  We were perfectly fine and cosy, but it is SO lovely (and far less complicated) to have our own space now.  Here are some pictures from October 2014 and 2015 to show the difference a year makes ... (at the time we remember thinking "what ARE we doing???"!

 

 

 

 

A year of VERY hard work by a great team of people.  Maybe we'll be completely finished this time next year??? !

October update 2

We have just installed much faster broadband this week, and now updating my blog is SOOOO much faster, taking just seconds to upload photos, rather than hours.  Hopefully I will once again keep up with regular updates.  Much credit is due to Adrian who has had a huge amount of work travel over the past few months (Japan twice, Paris, China) but still manages to spend every spare moment doing so many jobs around the house: we now have a kitchen door and dining room door which - very importantly - enables us to keep the cats OUT of the kitchen (otherwise constantly scrounging!). 

And, in anticipation of this weekend's lunch for 16 people, Hannah helped Adrian move the huge pile of unpainted skirting board which was taking up space in the dining room.  It is now in one of the unfinished front rooms, after most of the contents were transferred up into the loft (or sorted for our next car boot sale).  A lot of shifting stuff around!

We've also transferred the piano and drum-kit back from the garden room so that Emma can do her music practice in the comfort (and fab acoustics) of our lovely extension, rather than traipsing down the garden.  (Luckily for us she can use headphones, on both!). Time for duets is a lovely luxury.

October celebrations

It's been so lovely finally to use our new space for what it's intended - entertaining family and friends.

The first party was actually at the end of September: an 86th birthday party for a special village friend, Jeanne.

 Next it was Dad and Emma's joint birthday dinner.

And the Cake Master at work in his new kitchen.

 

 

 Then Emma invited 12 friends for a party in our new house ...

 ... followed by a sleepover with five friends squished into her new bedroom!

 And a beautiful sunset from our new bedroom window.

Next on the cards is Jen's 40th birthday Family Lunch for 16 this weekend!  Plus a Halloween Dinner with cousin Liz and family in half-term.  After a year in the caravan we have a lot of hosting to catch up on!!!

October update 1

Kitchen plinth lights installed - very jazzy with lots of different colour and phasing options!

Adrian had to retrench the mains water pipe (enduring jet-lag from Japan and a rugby World Cup hangover) before the driveway wall could be built.

Brickie neighbour Paul did a lovely job of our curved walls to edge the driveway.  Step one in the lengthy process of tidying up the front entrance.

 

Still lots to do before we can finally fill the area with gravel, including constructing the garage base ready for that to be built next year.  (Hannah impressed Adrian with her trigonometry helping to mark out the dimensions and angles.) We must also dig up the old concrete garage base at the side of the house so that the gravel level will be below the damp proof course.  In the meantime I've raked out the biggest rocks and stones so that it's slightly less of a hazard getting to the front door.  And cut back more brambles so that Paul could work without too many lacerations. No room for error when reversing into the driveway now!

September achievements

Adrian finished the staircase beautifully with a couple of coats of oil and (non-slip!) wax.

 

 

Next was cladding the porch ceiling (leftover flooring!) and installing lights... great to have now that the evenings get dark so much earlier.