11 January 2016

REMEMBERING 2015. THE LAST QUARTER

OCTOBER

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Leaving the house in the hands of the mason and his team for several weeks, we take a holiday on the island of Anglesey, the first real holiday away from home for years.  Friends send us reassuring news and photos of how the building work is progressing.  Towards the end of the month we return to make a start on the big clean up and the decorating – the final push.

NOVEMBER

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ceiling4

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The good weather continues well into November.  A new ceiling is fitted in the living and dining room end of the house where there was no real ceiling before.  New wood burning stoves arrive for the kitchen and living room and we steadily plough our way through the decorating.

DECEMBER

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Finally and quite suddenly the weather changes and becomes cold and damp.  Getting the house to the stage where we are ready to bring back the furniture from the barn becomes a race against the clock.  Cleaning the tomettes in the dining room takes much longer than we expected.  In fact everything takes much longer than we expected but, eventually, we get the place looking more like home……then straight away leave to return to the UK just in time for Christmas!

So that was our 2015.  We hope that our 2016 will be a lot calmer!

9 comments:

  1. Feel like we may be following in your footsteps in many ways.

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  2. You place looks absolutely stunning. Looking forward to more updates throughout the calmer 2016!

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  3. Looking back must give you a real sense of accomplishment. Your home is beautiful.

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  4. The difference 'twixt the mason pix and what we saw the other day is enormous!! As Craig says...... can't put it another way.
    Himself will have been working hard indoors today....
    nothing else to do... it has been coming down in stairods all day!!

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  5. You've made admirable progress this year. Definitely take this year off to enjoy the results. You don't want to risk hating the place.

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    1. Susan, the best antidote to any risk of hating the place is simply to spend a few weeks back in the UK........amidst the awful traffic, the litter, the bad driving, the bad manners, the marauding youngsters, the terrible weather.......I simply can't wait to get back!

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  6. I agree with Susan. Better to end up making peace with the place, and slowly improving it, than to turn it into a source of stress and dissatisfaction. Settle in. Work on it over time. You've made so much progress.

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    1. Ken ,you're absolutely right, that's what we're aiming for.

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  7. Doing a quick catch-up and it's amazing to see how much you accomplished in a year! Time to enjoy it now. :)

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