Our plan to return early was to be able to kick start the renovations to our new home, aka ‘Moneypit on Sea.’  However it’s difficult to plan things when you can’t do something until you’ve done something else, ‘chicken and egg’ comes to mind or ‘going round and round’ but not going anywhere. 

Before we got back we spent a few days catching up with Alex & Freddy in London and then spent Christmas with Neil’s sister June & family.  Boxing day included a chilly but enjoyable pony trek in The Forest of Dean followed by a family party back at June’s.  On our way to Devon we also met with Neil’s kids and number one grandson for lunch before driving South to finally arrive home.  

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It’s the first festive season we’ve had with our family in more than 10 years so whilst the time was brief it was very special.  Thanks to all for taking us in over Christmas at such short notice.  It was great to watch the kids open their presents which is something we have really missed while being away.

Our lovely friends Glyn and Diane who have been keeping an eye on the house while we’ve been away, invited us to join them for dinner on New Year’s Eve in the local steakhouse.  We had a fabulous meal and then they surprised us by bringing a bottle of bubbly for us to crack open on the Esplanade while we watched the fireworks at midnight. For the last 10 years we’ve been on a beach, somewhere, for New Year so that’s a tradition which will continue albeit the fireworks here don’t come close to the zillions of pyrotechnics in Goa.

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We spent New Year’s Day riding the Seaton Tramway.  Neil insisted we travelled on the open top deck in the drizzle to ‘enjoy’ the view.  It was lovely looking across the wetlands nature reserve but it was freezing cold so Cheryl insisted they sat inside on the return tram.  We followed that with helping Gary at The Hat use up the last of the beer in the barrel so that he could close down for his long holiday back home in South Africa in January.  It was a fun afternoon as various people popped in to have a beer and chat and after several drinks and snacks too many we meandered home.

Despite some extremely lively weather we’ve been out for a walk most days along the esplanade and up to the viewpoint past the harbour.  It’s a lovely walk and takes about an hour and a bit.  Each day brings a different aspect of the sea and the views depending on the weather. Early in January the rough sea conditions resulted in most of the pebble beach ending up on the esplanade. 

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One of our concerns about moving to the coast was the possibility of a ghost town feeling in the winter.  We shouldn’t have worried as we’ve found that Seaton has a lot going on all year round.  There are several good restaurants, pubs and cafes.  Our local community venue, The Gateway, has regular film & picnic nights.  Seaton gets the big releases about a month after they’ve been on general release.  The hall has a stage and full sound system and flexible seating arrangements.  We’ve been to one film and a quiz night and have already booked for more as well as The Zoots for a live sixties & seventies music event in March.

Renovation update

Regular readers will recall that the purchase of the house in the summer dragged on and on, leaving us with about 3 weeks between moving in and setting off for Goa.  It was also back in September when it was a lot brighter and warmer.  We spent the first few days back in the house wondering why certain rooms didn’t seem to warm up and then discovered huge gaps here and there where the wind whistled through.  To be fair, it also had something to do with the fact that the boiler is 25-30 years old and is on our list to replace before it dies. Windows were taped, frames were siliconed, vents were sealed and Neil even used some spare carpet to cover the draughty letterbox. 

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The previous owners sent us their annual energy consumption for gas and electricity during the sale process and we assumed the house was just expensive to heat because its old and big.  Turns out their bills were huge because they had no loft insulation, they ran a gas guzzling AGA and the house had more draughts than Wetherspoons.

Not only were the previous occupants happy to live in a cold draughty house we’ve also learnt that they were not well liked.  Several neighbours have had a run in with them over a number of things and we’ve even had a quote from somebody who also did work for them – ‘never again’ he said! I wonder what they are saying about us………..

We are making really slow progress on our plans for the house.  We keep going around in circles about kitchens, bedroom, carpets, knocking down walls and putting up walls.  We are waiting for quotes, drawings and calculations.  We also had to repair 30 metres of 4ft collapsed garden wall, 15m of 6ft wall to take down before it fell down and progress on replacing it with fencing has been delayed due to the constant high winds.  As I write this we have fencing halfway and the handyman has gone AWOL as he had other work booked in.  We think he will be back in two weeks to finish but stormy weather is set to continue.  So far this has been £3k not in the budget.

There have been some achievements.  Ten 80ft and potentially dangerous trees have been taken down.  This took 3 days to complete and was amazing to watch.  The guys abseiled up and down whilst taking the trees out section by section.  Not sure the locals enjoyed the restrictions on traffic along the lane, but near neighbours have all commented on their improved light levels.  Another £3k not in the budget!

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We now have enormous piles……..of chopped logs stacked ready to be sawn and split.  This leaves us with another decision….which log burner to buy?.  That can wait until autumn as the wood will take at least a year to season in Neil’s new log store.  He thinks we now have enough wood to keep us going until they carry him out in his own wooden box!  We also have several large mounds of wood chips in the garden which have to fester for six months before we spread them.

As mentioned previously we inherited a gas AGA, and we’re not big AGA fans (sorry to those of you who love them).  Although people pay thousands for one of these beasts, the second hand sales market is really difficult as the only buyers seem to be companies who recondition them and sell on for a massive profit.  Eventually we secured a deal and it was finally gone.  It took nearly 4 hours for two men to disconnect, dismantle and remove it.

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After several weeks, and a number of different options we have a kitchen design that works.  We also have a fitter we want to use.  However, we can’t start the kitchen until the structural walls are down which means we can’t schedule the very, very busy kitchen fitter until we have dates for the walls and we can’t do any of that until we select the builder.  We think we’re there but we are awaiting prices.  He comes very recommended but we know he’s not cheap so we have to wait for him to agree with the structural engineer about RSJ’s etc before he can price. 

We also need a new boiler as the existing one is probably older than Neil!  However, it sits in a narrow alcove which will need to be filled in before a new bigger one can be fitted. Can’t have a new boiler until we remove the old boiler, build the wall, let it go off, then fit the new boiler.  Don’t want to do that in February unless we can forecast 15C for a week or so. 

It’s been quite a frustrating month as we seem to be endlessly waiting for completed drawings, calculations for structural work and tradesmen to turn up and quote for jobs.  It’s all complicated by all the most recommended ones being busy with enough work for the next 3 months.  We were hoping to have an idea of when we could get started but that seems a long way off now.

Meanwhile, Neil is getting used to lugging, chopping and splitting and Cheryl is getting used to barrowing and stacking.  We’re using muscles we didn’t know we had.

One final thing, we have a new pet who is a regular visitor to the garden.

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