Well, I suppose for anyone who cares, you may have been wondering where I have been all this time: busy, dear reader, busy....with capitals .......B.U.S.Y.
Unusually the summer holidays have flown by all too quickly and it has been a test of strength and character to get through at times because not only have the children (and their chums) been at home for 6 weeks but also a whole team of builders finishing our extension. The building was supposed to be completed by the first week of the holidays. In the event they completed (more or less) in the last week . Most of the time it has been fine. Only one especially bad day stands out: we were looking after a friend's dog for a week and this coincided with a point in the building works where we needed 'all hands on deck'...namely 2 carpenters, 2 electricians, 3 plumbers, 2 labourers.
Nine builders, one senile dog (ours), one confused 'holiday' dog, two near-teenage children who want to lie in their beds and two rather fraught parents do not make for a good mix. Suffice to say that by 8 a.m. that day one child had risen in a filthy mood and, upon finding the electricity turned off (i.e no computer, no lights, no TV) stomped off to town, the other child was in tears because she wanted a shower and the water had just been turned off (resolved by taking her to kindly neighbour), senile dog had been accidentally trodden on, the plumbers had caused a leak in the header tank in the loft and then holiday dog decided to bite one of the electricians ankle ! Oh how we laughed.
Still, we are here and we have survived and now all (ALL ?!!!!! ..Cusp laughs slightly hysterically) we have to do is decorate the new rooms (bedroom, wet room, utility room, kitchen) and clean up and re-decorate the other rooms...3 bedrooms, living room, dining room and bathroom: so that should keep us out of trouble for a month or three.
The building has affected the whole house and now it is time to clean up and re-organise. Fortunately this phase coincides with the start of autumn...a season I love with gentle sunny days and a feeling of new beginnings and preparation.
When I get the opportunity to post again I shall do so but until then think of me up a ladder, filling in holes with plastic wood, emulsioning walls, cleaning carpets and putting things back where they belong.
Unusually the summer holidays have flown by all too quickly and it has been a test of strength and character to get through at times because not only have the children (and their chums) been at home for 6 weeks but also a whole team of builders finishing our extension. The building was supposed to be completed by the first week of the holidays. In the event they completed (more or less) in the last week . Most of the time it has been fine. Only one especially bad day stands out: we were looking after a friend's dog for a week and this coincided with a point in the building works where we needed 'all hands on deck'...namely 2 carpenters, 2 electricians, 3 plumbers, 2 labourers.
Nine builders, one senile dog (ours), one confused 'holiday' dog, two near-teenage children who want to lie in their beds and two rather fraught parents do not make for a good mix. Suffice to say that by 8 a.m. that day one child had risen in a filthy mood and, upon finding the electricity turned off (i.e no computer, no lights, no TV) stomped off to town, the other child was in tears because she wanted a shower and the water had just been turned off (resolved by taking her to kindly neighbour), senile dog had been accidentally trodden on, the plumbers had caused a leak in the header tank in the loft and then holiday dog decided to bite one of the electricians ankle ! Oh how we laughed.
Still, we are here and we have survived and now all (ALL ?!!!!! ..Cusp laughs slightly hysterically) we have to do is decorate the new rooms (bedroom, wet room, utility room, kitchen) and clean up and re-decorate the other rooms...3 bedrooms, living room, dining room and bathroom: so that should keep us out of trouble for a month or three.
The building has affected the whole house and now it is time to clean up and re-organise. Fortunately this phase coincides with the start of autumn...a season I love with gentle sunny days and a feeling of new beginnings and preparation.
When I get the opportunity to post again I shall do so but until then think of me up a ladder, filling in holes with plastic wood, emulsioning walls, cleaning carpets and putting things back where they belong.
