Dodging Covid, dodgy dealings and a damp patch.  It’s been a strange start to 2021.

Like most people we weren’t sad to wave goodbye to 2020.  Resigned to our fate in Lockdown 3 we decided to focus on work in the house and garden so we would be ready for when all those visitors start to arrive……well it will happen at some point.

As if we needed it, we now have more logs!  A cherry tree very close to the house was a disaster waiting to happen as it was old, didn’t look too healthy and if it were to fall it would wipe out the greenhouse.

Harry ‘the tree’ and his apprentice arrived and had it down in no time. It was rotten through and through. He also pollarded a willow which was in danger of getting out of hand.  It also cast quite a lot of shade on our little patio outside the French windows so it was a double whammy.  More logs to split and stack but, hey, it’s good exercise. 

Renovation update – part 1

Work continued on the bathrooms but at a very slow pace as we limited numbers in the house to keep social distancing rules and we kept ourselves out of the way in the study (which was also a handy excuse to not start any more decorating…..tee hee).

The kitchen fitter, Paul, returned to fit the units & worktop in the utility.  A bit of inspired forward planning meant we had already got Dave the spark to move the ugly fuse box just a few inches to allow it to sit neatly inside one of the new wall units.  Over the Christmas period Cheryl spent a few days painting the floor as we’re not quite sure what to do with the flooring as it’s such a busy and mucky area incorporating the back door and entrance to the greenhouse.  Painting it will buy us some thinking time. 

It’s amazing what a bit of plastering, painting and a few cupboards will do to what was a dump. It looks so much better but we still need to get new skirting fitted and the pipework over and under the boiler neatly boxed in when Jake the chippy returns.

Stop right there

Monday 11^th January brought a shiver down our spines.  We had a text, the one nobody wants to get, from Stacy the builder who had been with us the previous Friday.  His wife works in the local pharmacy and her boss got the dreaded  lurgy.  She wasn’t feeling 100% either.   Whilst we had kept away from the tradies as best we could, it still gave us the heebie-jeebies. 

We immediately cancelled all the tradies due to visit and went into 10 days lockdown which was pretty easy as we had shopped just a few days earlier.  Milk was the only thing we would run out of.  Next day Stacy’s wife was tested and the day after she found out she was negative…..phew!  However, we decided to play safe and carry on with the 10 day isolation.  Kate from the little Axmouth bakery was due to deliver some of her delicious bread and we messaged her to say just drop at the front door.  A few texts later she volunteered to nip into the Co-op on her way and bought us 4pts.  It’s simple things like this why we are loving Seaton so much.

Buy one……get 9 free!!

Just as our 10 days was up a strange thing happened.  We weren’t expecting a delivery but we noticed a large van reversing up the drive.  Neil went outside and the young man, Sheldon, got out and asked if we needed any Teak Garden Furniture.  He pointed out that most of his business came from trading at local shows but obviously due to Covid this wasn’t happening.  So, to stay afloat, he had resorted to good old fashioned door knocking and to his surprise his luck was in.

We do need some better garden furniture but it wasn’t going to be on our radar for several months.  This was a golden opportunity to just get it done without shopping around and going round and round in circles as we usually do when there is too much choice.  This was to be man shopping. 

We had a poke and a prod at the samples in the back of his van – it looked good but we needed to check out the prices and we told him what we wanted.  He came back a few days later with 6 stackable chairs to go with the big table we bought last year, a table for our new patio plus 4 matching chairs and a Lutyens style bench for the front terrace. 

He unloaded it and went away for an hour for us to check it over and choose the best items.  Then we did a deal on the cardboard packaging!  He would have to pay to dispose of it, we don’t, so we kept hold of the packaging and in return we got a folding table for free that goes with the bench…..result! 

Whilst we wouldn’t normally pay cash to some ‘diamond geezer’ who appeared in the drive from nowhere, it seemed like a deal not to miss.  Anyway, his van wasn’t painted with Trotters Independent Trading Co so it was bound to be kosher.  The same furniture on the internet was around 30% more expensive.  The real plus point was that we got to choose the best items from the van.  If we had shopped on the internet or local garden centre we would have had to accept whatever furniture that was delivered.  We haven’t had a visit from the boys in blue……..and the furniture is still in the garage …….so all seems well for now.

Double Vision

Piotr the pheasant is now a regular feature in the garden.  Neil is trying to get him as tame as Phileas who last year was ‘outfoxed’.  He is able to get to within a couple of feet as Piotr pecks away at his food.  Hopefully, he’ll get him feeding from his hand before the summer is over.

Surprise!  We spotted two pheasants together so not only do we have Piotr we also now have, most days, Rufus the Red. 

It wasn’t until Rufus arrived that we realised that Piotr has got quite a lot of beige/brown especially on his wings.  Rufus’s redder colour is spectacular, especially when it glistens in the sunlight, he is bigger and it appears that he is the dominant one although we haven’t seen them fight.  Piotr roosts next door in the top of the conifers but we’re not sure where Rufus spends the night.  One day Piotr wasn’t anywhere to be seen and when Rufus couldn’t find him he was frantically pacing up and down the garden looking for Piotr like an expectant father.  We don’t really understand their relationship yet as we thought males were territorial, but these are probably juveniles and seem to tolerate each other quite well.  Let’s see what happens when the mating season starts and hormones start to kick in. 

Renovation Update Part 2

Not really a great deal more to report as work had to be put on hold while we isolated.  Jason finished off his excellent job on the tiling and we rebooked the floor fitting in the bathroom.  Matt the plumb returned at the end of the month for second fix for the bathroom and to connect up the utility sink.  All was going well until we hit a snag with the toilet in the bathroom in that the pan connector will not stay on.  We think it’s a design fault, as he had no problem with the other 2 he fitted, but this one is a different model.  We have to wait until the technical team at the supplier come back to us. 

On the positive side, Matt had enough time to strip out the old wc and sink in the downstairs cloakroom so we can get started on that one when we have time.  That’s of course when we finish the hallway we have been putting off.  We ordered enough tiles for the upstairs bathrooms to allow for wastage during fitting and managed to blag a couple of extra boxes of tiles because some of them were broken on delivery.  Jason managed to use virtually all of the broken ones where half tiles were needed, and he didn’t break any more so the upside is that we should have enough to do the downstairs cloakroom.  We’re now waiting for the first bad day when he can’t work outside.  We’re really pleased with our choice of bathroom flooring and we’ll probably put that into the downstairs loo.

We’re so pleased with the way it all looks so far and hopefully we can get these rooms finally completed next month and share pictures with all fixtures in place and the finishing touches like blinds, lights & mirrors.

Neil has been testing out the plumbing in the ensuite (details omitted for the faint hearted).  It was all going well until he broke the bad news that he had spotted that the top of the wall behind the bed in bedroom 2 had a large and growing damp patch – b*gger!  We seem to have a new problem as we think its to the side of the old chimney, and it could be the explanation why that particular part of the wall took so long to dry out when it was replastered.  We will have to get Stacy back to investigate.

Reasons to be cheerful

1 – We didn’t get Covid!

2 – Probably the best news we’ve had in months is the arrival of the vaccine.  The rollout is going really well in Devon, and we are lucky to have a local vaccination centre in the old Seaton Hospital site, as well as 2 mass vaccination sites within a 25 min drive.  Neil should get it around March and Cheryl a month or two after.  The UK is well ahead of the rest of Europe because the ‘Gnomes of Brussels’ took several weeks longer than us to place their orders and longer to approve the vaccines.  Well done UK!

3 – On the back of the good news on vaccinations and in a moment of unbridled optimism & recklessness we’ve booked flights!  We’re heading to Goa, we hope, for what should be a massive reunion with our friends to celebrate New Year 2022.  Hurrah!

A very quiet Christmas and New Year thanks to that pesky Covid……Bah Humbug!

December began with the return of The Destroyer, but this time the action was in the garden. Mark brought his chainsaw and he and Neil got to work taking down some hideous conifers at the back of the garden adjacent to the vegetable patch and fruit cage.  In tribute to the late Dame Barbara Windsor, Cheryl didn’t miss the opportunity to ask Mark to trim her bush at the front which was also getting a bit overgrown…..tee heee!!

It was whilst Neil and Mark were bringing down the trees that Neil noticed half a dozen raspberries on the canes.  They were small and a tad sharp but, hey, raspberries in December?  Our tomatoes continue to amaze us.  Our Christmas Day breakfast of smoked salmon and scrambled egg also included the last of our greenhouse tomatoes.  It just seems unreal to be picking tomatoes in December.

A still evening was all that was needed to burn all the debris and the weather was very obliging. Just as well as there was another batch of felling and burning to do at the end of the month.

It’s Christmas……but not as we know it

It was becoming clear that things may not be as we would have hoped for owing to the rising number of Covid cases. We set our expectations at low so were not devastated when the inevitable announcement was made. We decided from the start of December that we would try and celebrate as best we could so the tree was up and decorated and lights strung up in all the windows.

As we’ve reported before, we’ve been having regular takeaways in an effort to support local eateries.   We extended our shopping to the lovely Hideaway Café on the West End of the Esplanade.  It’s a delightful place serving quality cakes and light meals using locally sourced ingredients.  It’s become a favourite place for a treat including one of Neil’s travelling favourites, proper Vietnamese Coffee served with condensed milk.  It sits at the very end of the promenade with glorious views across the bay.  They have had limited opening recently using the outside seating which is of course very weather dependant.  However, businesses continue to be innovative through this crisis and they carried out a baking frenzy and advertised boxes of takeaway mince pies with clotted cream and Christmas cake. 

We ordered a box of pies and half a Christmas cake but even that weighed over 1Kg!  We ate one pie each straightaway, just to sample the quality of course, and Cheryl immediately messaged them to order some more.  There are mince pies and there are  mince pies but these are the mince pies to die for.  The cake is equally delicious and the added bonus is that it doesn’t have icing which neither of us like. Just take a look at the picture, delicious it is but it’s also a work of art.

Neil also managed to get some quality time with Paul, Miranda and the grandson that he so misses.  A couple of weeks before Christmas he met them at Stourhead National Trust Property for the Christmas garden light show.  They had met Miranda’s father during the afternoon for an outdoor Christmas get together as Simon was taking no risks having been in hospital earlier in the year.  It was great to see everyone and the light show, despite the very damp weather, was excellent.

A week before Christmas we took the twilight Christmas Tram special with Diane and Glyn for a socially distanced journey to Colyton.  On the outward tram Glyn produced a flask containing mulled wine – perfect as it was quite cold.  On arrival we had a Christmas dinner in the platform cafe including another glass of mulled wine and a full bottle of red wine which by now we really didn’t need!  The journey home was on an open top tram which was very cold but not a problem, Glyn pulled another rabbit out of his backpack, single malt whisky and a bottle of port. We were no longer cold!

On Christmas Eve the day’s weather was forecast to be cold but dry and sunny.  ‘BBQ’! Neil said.  So after several text messages it was agreed that Bob and Sheila and Paul and Maureen from across the road would join us on the terrace for a socially distanced get together of mulled wine, beers, gin and Ron’s festive BBQ sausages followed by Sheila’s homemade mince pies and clotted cream.  Yes it was cold but once we got a good fire going in the BBQ we sat out until dusk.  What a great way to start Christmas.

Like most of the world Christmas Day was celebrated in a most unusual way.  We’re normally surrounded by friends and/or family but this year, for the first time ever, it was just the two of us. 

We were treated to a stunning Christmas morning sunrise and we had breakfast in bed.  With no itinerary to meet we didn’t get up until it was time to start cooking lunch.  The small turkey crown was put in the oven and the vegetables prepared including the double cooked roast potatoes. 

Then it was time for Neil to grab his first beer and head to the study for his regular private time to sit and remember his mum and dad.  He watched the family video put together from his dad’s cine film going back to the mid-sixties.  It also included family photos and it reminded him just how lucky he and his siblings had been to have grown up with such devoted parents.   

We had decided on an early traditional lunch of turkey and Christmas pud to give us time for a long walk to help counter the excess calories. 

It was a beautiful day and the walk took us through the lanes to Seaton Hole and along the beach to Axmouth Harbour.  Then it was back along the promenade before dark where we bumped into our favourite singing builder Stacy walking his dog.  Once home, we poured a beer and sat down and watched The Queen’s Speech plus the Channel 4 spoof speech. 

Like many others, we connected with our family using facetime and zoom which wasn’t the same as being together, but we are hopeful that normality will resume next year.  Supper was delicious sourdough bread with a selection of cheeses washed down by most of a bottle of port.  We slept well.

Boxing Day was very similar, lazy, breakfast, light lunch after yesterday’s blow out followed by an even longer walk along the prom and up over the golf course.  As the club was closed we were able to walk across the course right to the cliff edge to see some great views of Seaton, the mouth of the river and the harbour and a striking sunset.  Just how lucky are we. 

Renovation Update

Work continued through the month as, let’s face it, we don’t have a lot else to do with our time! The rather grotty looking utility room that we inherited got it’s first makeover when Paul the plasterer came in to give the messy walls it a bit of a tart up.  It took a while to dry but as soon as we put a coat of paint on it was just a different room altogether.  It is amazing what a skim of plaster and a lick of paint can do.  Cheryl started to paint the grim green floor with a more appropriate grey which will be finished after the cabinets have been installed in the new year.

We finished the preparation of bedroom 2 and the bathrooms in readiness for Stacy and Co. to come in to complete the remaining woodwork and start the tiling.  Things were moving fast and after 3 days of action the ensuite was tiled just in time for the bedroom carpet and ensuite floor to be laid before the flooring business closed for Christmas. 

Matt the plumb arrived the following day and fitted the sanitary ware, shower screen and radiator.  We are very pleased with the finished product and even Stacy came to take a peek after his brother Jason had told him how good it looked.  It was a rush at the end but we would have been ready for visitors for Christmas after all if we had been allowed to have them………….apart from a few finishing touches like having a door on the ensuite!!

Jason the tiler then started on the family bathroom before the Christmas holiday took over and all the renovations were put on hold until 2021.  We did actually enjoy the break from sandin’ ‘n paintin’ which by now were becoming a chore rather than ‘wow’ what a difference, that looks great.

The Christmas celebrations continued on the 27^th with a journey to Weston-Super-Mare to meet up with Paul, Miranda and a very chatty grandson.  We chose Weston as it’s a similar journey time for both of us and the beach offers endless excitement for a toddler, an enormous sandy beach for Lexy the dog to run on and what does Weston also mean? – fish ‘n chips!  It was cold, windy and showery so we ended up munching our lunch in the shelter of the bus stop – not the most romantic of settings but well within the current guidelines. 

The weather didn’t spoil the day and we had a great time playing with the incoming tide, getting wet feet and only had to pick up grandson twice following the inevitable stumbles into the sea as he tripped up trying to outrun the tide. He learned an important lesson that day – wellies don’t keep your feet dry when you are face down and lying in the water!

The next few days were taken up by a much neglected garden.  The renovation had meant that we didn’t do as much in the garden as we really should have.  So, with relatively cold and dry weather we got stuck into the several mounds of chippings that had quietly been composting after we chopped down all the trees in February.  It was very satisfying to see our piles disappear whilst getting some good all round exercise.  

A still evening meant we were able to burn yet another pile of trees and shrubs that had been chopped down a couple of weeks ago. It was a difficult task as the piles were a bit soggy and Neil finally came inside more than three hours later. Next morning he found that despite the freezing overnight temperatures the remnants of the last pile were still smouldering. 48hrs later, New Years Day, the fire was still hot and gently smoking. Neil is no longer The Destroyer, he is now Twisted Firestarter!

As with Christmas Day, bringing in the New Year was very different.  There was no dancing on the beach until the early hours, watching the fireworks and generally having a good time.  For us it was a quiet night in, some good food delivered from Indian Restaurant Ragini and fine wine. Neil was in bed before midnight and Cheryl just about stayed awake to greet the New Year.  Are we rock ‘n roll or what!

Reasons to be Cheerful

What a year it has been.  Probably not the one that anyone could have predicted but one that will certainly leave its mark.  We planned to have a different year in as much as we weren’t going to live our normal nomadic lifestyle.  If ever there was a perfect time to decide to settle down and buy a house, this was it.  But as we have said on a number of occasions, ‘lucky’ is Neil’s middle name. 

We have been busy counting our blessings, and for us they are many.  We have lost friends this year, and we know that some have been very ill, but we hope that everyone has made the best of what this year has thrown at them and is looking forward to a much better and brighter 2021.  

Life in lockdown 2, steady progress on the renovation, more deliveries & Neil burns his piles in the garden.

Like most people we weren’t happy about the prospect of another lockdown, but, if that’s what it takes to control this virus then let’s just get on with it.  It was frustrating to put the already limited socialising on hold but as the month progressed we could see that even here in East Devon our case numbers were rising at quite an alarming rate.

We continue to support the local businesses who deliver, so the hardship has been relieved by regular packages of sourdough bread & delicious Indian food and Tapas.

It wasn’t all gloom as we had the exciting delivery of our dining table and more furniture for the living room.  The two delivery guys really struggled to carry the table top up the steps and through the front door.  ‘How heavy is it?’ asked Neil.  ‘Over 100kg’ said one of the delivery men as he breathed very heavily.  It’s solid oak and 10ft long and it fits into the room perfectly. 

November 4^th brought our first winter frost, it also saw us picking our last comice pears, boo hiss, which is really sad as they were so tasty.  We’re still picking tumbling tom tomatoes from the greenhouse – these plants are amazing as all the other tomato varieties died off a while ago.  November 5^th, Guy Fawkes Night, was an opportunity for Neil to burn masses of shrubbery from the garden without allowing some of the neighbours an opportunity to moan about the smoke.  We try to shred & compost as much as possible but the amount of cutting back we need to do is huge given both the size of the garden and the extent it has been allowed to grow unchecked. 

Renovation Update

This is the first time we have tackled bathrooms from scratch and it’s a complicated process as so much has to happen at different stages. 

It’s been a busy month starting with stripping out tiles and the remaining wallpaper before Stacy & Jake arrived to construct the studwork for the ensuite and the bathroom extension.  Each one has been designed to fit snugly around the shower trays and each has a built in recess for toiletries.  Stacy calls them ‘Nitchees’ and this is now their official name.

Bathroom fixtures were ordered and delivered and as this is typed we are surrounded by boxes of sinks, rads, toilets, tiles and shower screens. 

We got a great trade deal and decided to also replace the very cheap wc we had to fit in the separate toilet back in February when the old one was damaged.  This meant another visit from our friendly farmer bearing more gifts of cider and joints of pork for the freezer to trade for our surplus wc.  We’re getting to like this bartering, although Neil had to go steady with the scrumpy as it was extremely strong stuff.

Next in was Matt the Plumb to disconnect the old shower for re use in the ensuite, put in first fix pipework for taps, wastes and radiators and take out a lot of excess plumbing from under the floorboards.  Then it was Dave the Spark who  dropped in cables for the shower, shaver sockets & lights above the sinks.

Despite planning for ages we completely forgot that the change of shape for bedroom 2 meant the centre light wasn’t central anymore – oops!  Never mind we will take out the old one and  Dave can sort that later.

The following week Paul AKA ‘Arnie’ was back with his brother Tony to put up the plasterboard, fill in any holes and get on with the really messy plastering stage.  The dust gets everywhere, which is a great excuse not to bother dusting for the entire month.

There was another visit from Matt to fit the shower trays and bath and for Neil to construct a framework for the shelf at the end of the bath.

We had a week off while waiting for the plaster to dry out then it was painting next for us, yes, that’s right, more bloody painting.  Drippy, splattery mist coats first, then yes, you’ve guessed it, out came the white paint again.  We’ve also had one patch in bedroom 2 where the plaster is taking ages to dry out for no obvious reason – hopefully there isn’t an underlying problem we haven’t uncovered yet.  Another factor limiting progress was due to our screw up over the position of the centre light in bedroom 2 we could only paint in daylight.

Stacy returned to complete the exterior pipework as the old cast iron needed replacing.  The building control officer came to inspect and was happy with the new arrangements and just asked for pictures of the finished bathrooms to get sign off.

Dave came back to put in the light to bed 2 and en-suite and fit ceiling extract fans.

Finally, Matt returned to replace the radiator, remove some old radiator pipes we forgot about under the window, and check final placings for the sanitary ware.  It was crucial to get this right as we need to get the floors down and finished before the final fix. We can really see the vision for the rooms coming together and It’s amazing how quickly things progress when you get the timing right.

We’ve pencilled in the floor fitting and Matt’s final visit but all rests on getting Jake the Chip and Jason the Tile to come in early next month.  Hopefully we can get it all done before all Tradies stop for Xmas on 18^th December.

Surprise Surprise

We did have some time off!  November 26^th brought us to Cheryl’s birthday.  She was a bit miffed when lockdown 2 was announced as this meant we couldn’t do anything as everything was closed.  Neil had planned a day of enjoyment only to see it kicked into touch by the damned virus.  He had a plan B and that got torpedoed and even plan C was scuppered.  Neil was beginning to think that Covid was smarter than everybody thought.  If it couldn’t get to him to make him ill it would get to him to make him sick as a parrot.

Whilst it was very frustrating for Neil to begin with it all turned out well and we had a great day.  He delivered Cheryl’s favourite breakfast, smoked salmon and scrambled egg, to her in bed.  Neil’s not normally known for his artistic abilities but his home made card was impressive, and made good use of all that white paint. There was a secret delivery of flowers by post from Alex & Freddy then Lunch was a special surprise delivery of our favourite sourdough baguette for a cheese fest lunch.  This was followed by a long walk to Beer with the stunning sunset on the way back. 

Another surprise was a brief visit from Diane & Glynn to drop off a card, flowers & chocs.  Then finally another special surprise home delivery of tapas from our favourite restaurant for dinner. Of course there was the odd glass of alcofroll to wash down the cheese and tapas. 

So, a washout day became a brill day with the icing on the non-existent cake (you can’t eat everything even if it is your birthday – something has to give) of video calls from all three children and our favourite grandson who wished ‘Happy Birthday Nana’, yes true he did, just once but hey, not bad for someone who is only just over 2.

Next morning there was yet another surprise and a mystery.  A card arrived with no message at all in it.  First thoughts was that this was Leanne’s card which hadn’t arrived yesterday.  No that wasn’t it as she also ordered Belgian Chocolates to go with it and they were both found left in the porch.  A secret admirer maybe?  No, Cheryl eventually tracked it down to June who completely forgot to put a message in!

Reasons to be cheerful

1  We lit the log burner for the first time in the living room – and Neil didn’t burn the place down!

2  Piotr Pheasant returned to the garden

3  Amazing sunsets and sunrises over the sea

We gave up ‘normal’ life to go travelling back in October 2008.  We’re usually on a plane by now heading off for fun and adventure far away from the prospect of a chilly British winter.  While we were away last year, way before the pandemic hijacked everyone’s ‘normal’, we had decided we weren’t going to go away this month, as we usually did, as we wanted to experience a full year in our new house and town.

It’s strange that even though we planned to not go away this month, the fact that it’s not possible is really bugging us!!

Here we are at the start of chapter 13 and Covid is still with us in a big way.  Perhaps this is our new normal as we are about to enter another lockdown.  Vast swathes of the North of England have already been under tighter restrictions for a while whilst here in Seaton we’ve continued to enjoy very low infection rates.  When we see young people on the TV partying on the streets of Liverpool, Manchester and Nottingham without masks or any social distancing we have little sympathy.  You reap what you sow but it’s just a pity that the minority of idiots have now forced the whole of the UK into lockdown even where the new cases are very few or even zero in some places.

We weren’t going to abandon all our travelling but as Covid has dictated that we won’t be getting on a plane for the foreseeable future, one of our first tasks of the month was to cancel our flight to Mexico which was booked for January 8^th next year.  That also means no rendezvous with friends Tim and Sandra for a tequila or two before they leave after their trip.  They have just heard that their upcoming flight has been cancelled.  There is no way we’re getting on a plane for 10 hours to wear a mask with the added risk of travelling through airports at both ends and breathing possibly infected air on a plane.  Planes are definitely off the menu!

Feeling sad about not travelling inspired Neil to contact our friends in Goa to find out how life is for them and for the village of Benaulim which had become our winter home.  We’ve developed some strong friendships over the past few years with both fellow travellers, locals and the people who work in hospitality out there.  It was during the money crisis in November 2016 when we were overwhelmed by the generosity of the Indian people.  No one could get hold of cash but the staff just said, ‘’come in, eat and don’t worry, you can pay us when you can’’.

We got a lengthy reply from Bee and Dave and also our favourite young shack owner Alton.  Life in Benaulim is going to be very different this season with very few western tourists and, possibly, a limited number of domestic tourists.  It’s looking like a very tough year for all those who rely on tourism for a living, especially the majority of workers who travel to Goa from the North and Nepal.

Life in a Southern Town

October began wet ‘n windy and went out with a big hoolie, winds of 60mph and buckets of rain.  Still, by UK standards it was warm rain.  The wet weather along with mild temperatures gave us some beautiful Autumn flowers in the garden and stunning colours in the trees.  Yup, the garden just keeps on giving and not just colour.  At the start of the month we had delicious Cox’s apples followed by a big crop of conference pears.  We’ve picked our last cucumber but there are still some tomatoes to come. 

Whilst on the boat last month we picked lots of sloes and made several bottles of sloe gin.  These have been stored in the pantry along with the several bottles and jars of raspberry gin, redcurrant gin, gooseberry gin and blackcurrant gin that we made from the surplus soft fruit in June.  Christmas and New Year, in whatever format they come, are likely to be something of a blur!

We’re getting used to our new normal in Seaton.  We’ve got a recently opened fruit and veg shop called Squirrel and £5 gets you two very large paper bags of assorted Devon grown seasonal vegetables.  Another local small business that we have started to use is Hand to Mouth.  It’s a small time enterprise run by a young couple who only bake twice a week.  Many of the local restaurants get their bread from them and we’ve now got ourselves on the delivery list.  £2.50 gets you the most delicious sourdough loaf that is highly dangerous – it’s like a tube of Pringles, once you start you can’t stop!

With Covid infection rates very low here we decided to try and eat out once a week.  Our first outing was to our local Tapas place, The Caper.  We last ate there on the evening that lock down was announced back in March.  We had a good chat with the owner who was pretty upbeat in the circumstances and had even sourced another former café unit opposite where she plans to expand when things get back to normal.  Half term week was obviously different as there were a lot of tourists here so we decided on our first Chinese takeaway in years with Diane and Glyn. 

Paul and Maureen from directly opposite came round for drinks and a ‘get to know them’ chat.  They moved in around the same time we did and they too have been busy on changes.  It’s a relatively modern house but it was poorly built meaning that, like us, they discovered things they hadn’t envisaged due to poor workmanship rather than old age. 

Bob from a little down the lane happened to ask Neil if he played snooker.  Neil said ‘yes, badly and not for more than 20 years’!  So off they went to the  village hall in Branscombe and enjoyed a few hours playing snooker.  They’ve introduced Mike from next door and Don who lives next door to Bob.   The Four Snookerteers agreed to go every Tuesday night, government restrictions permitting, for snooker, beers, laughs and the opportunity to rectify the world’s problems.   

Demolition Man

Phase 2 of the renovation is now officially underway.  Starting with decorating and adding an en-suite to bedroom 2 and a much enlarged and improved family bathroom.  The existing main bathroom contains a yellow bath which doesn’t match the huge shower and the tiny curved sink unit. There’s also a separate toilet in a fetching shade of pink. We spent days, not hours, but days, planning the layout, taking measurements and even as Neil types this on the 30^th of the month Cheryl distracts him with yet another design change for him to stew on….ho hum! 

We also spent days, not hours, but days trying to source the suites.  However, it all paid off as we managed to save more than 30% by switching sinks and baths, checking shower trays and screens and Cheryl getting a trade account and using her charm on her newly acquired account manager at VictoriaPlum.  

The destroyer was back and spent a week removing the shower cubicle, basin and radiator, destroying the old bathroom stud walls, smashing up a cast iron bath and hacking the tiles off the wall…..so satisfying.  We try not to trash anything which could be re-used and managed to sell the small sink & vanity unit and swap the shower enclosure for a joint of free range pork.  Unfortunately the bath was just too difficult to shift, we think it weighed well over 100kg, and so it had to be collected for scrap.

Cheryl tackled the remaining bedroom and spent several days steaming off the layers of wallpaper.  There were two signatures this time, but sadly not legible.  We think one was probably Tim Moulding again as it was dated 1957, which was the same time as his signature in the back bedroom.  The other message told us it took 8 rolls of paper in 1981 so you could say that it‘s about time it was redecorated!  Sadly we will be the last ones to see these little messages from the past as the walls aren’t in great condition so the whole room will be replastered before we can paint.

We’ve also moved on from using graph paper and cut out shapes for planning.  We’re now on real size mock ups to make sure we have allowed enough space for everything including allowing doors to open. 

Before you start thinking they’ve gone mad – no we aren’t planning to have a suitcase in the bathroom! The sanitaryware won’t arrive until next week so we used cardboard templates and various props to get an idea of sizes.  Did you know there are recommended acceptable standards for space requirements for toilets, sinks and baths?  For those of you as sad as us or are looking for something to do during lockdown you can look these up.

The house is starting to look at lot more cosy as the new furniture is starting to arrive.  We weren’t expecting anything until next month but the corner sofa was ready and delivered at the end of the month.  Regular readers will know that we took a long time to decide on the colour of the sofas and finally decided on something rather bold that would hide red wine stains!  Make sense?  We held our breath as they started to unpack.  If we got it wrong it was going to be a massively expensive mistake that we would have to live with for the next 20 years.  Result, we love it, it works fantastic in the room and we’re really pleased…..phew!

Reasons to be Cheerful

1 – We’ve finished planning and have started phase 2 of the renovations

2 – One of the sofas arrived early and we love it

3 – We spotted a pheasant in the garden.  He spent the afternoon exploring and found the seeds we put out for him.  The following day he was next door visiting Mike.  We’ve got our fingers crossed that he will return.

Stay Safe and see you on the other side of lockdown 2.

Shopping on a grand scale and getting away for a break on a boat.

September started with an interview for Cheryl.  No, not a job, but to become a co-opted Town Councillor.  It’s a long story but in essence she decided to stop criticising some of the things happening in the town and do something about it.  The council recently advertised that they were looking to fill a few vacancies so she applied and after a giving a short presentation on Zoom followed by a few questions she was duly elected next day.  So now instead of slopping up her morning cuppa in bed Neil has to tug the forelock he doesn’t have and say ‘your tea m’ lady’.  Ha, that won’t last!

Not much happened on the renovation front this month.  We’re still reluctant to get started on the next major phase so stuck with simple jobs. We had some minor window repairs and got Jake in to fit the internal doors downstairs.  After not having had any for several months it seems a bit strange although we still don’t tend to close them as it’s still warm.  We’ll really know the difference when it gets cold and we have the heating on. 

We’ve also put up a few more curtains and blinds and have almost finalised the designs for the en-suite to bedroom 2 and the family bathroom.  Cheryl had fun with graph paper and cut out shapes for the various option sizes for sinks, baths, showers and toilets as we decided on one layout then promptly trashed it for another bright idea. We’ve been round and around in designs so many times that we’re dizzy!

As the title suggests we’ve been spending again.  This time on the big items – sofas for the living room, a large dining table and chairs plus TV table and coffee tables.  This turned out to be surprisingly difficult for us to do. There are lots available to look at online but we wanted to actually sit and touch to help us decide.  Judging colours online is hit and miss, and we probably hold the record in returning the most packages to Dunelms, Argos & Next when it came to choosing the curtains.

Big items of furniture come with a hefty price tag so we didn’t want to mess up. We decided to take our time and ordered sample after sample as we dithered with neutral shades – who knew there could be so many greys, beiges, grey-beiges and beigey-greys? Eventually, inspired by our favourite prints and the fact we have chosen neutral walls and carpets we went for a bold colour. Then of course we found that size does matter – and the final layout of the furniture balanced by the features of the rooms. That narrowed down the choices as we worked out what could fit and where it was likely to go.

The time arrived to get to the shops and have what Cheryl calls ‘a poke and a prod’. Most retailers have very few on display and that’s assuming you can find a shop big enough to even have a display. Hmmm, maybe a move to the back of beyond does have it’s limitations? We had a couple of big days out in Exeter but really struggled. We didn’t like DFS and the other big chains, we also tried local suppliers but finding a comfortable sofa isn’t that easy.  Even Next don’t display everything they sell.  We wanted to try a new design but when we asked where the nearest one was that was on display we were told ‘Dagenham’! 

We’ve finally settled on sofas we know we’re going to like because both Leanne and Paul have the same model. We’ve also gone for solid oak for the other furniture but you will have to wait a while to see it all as it won’t be delivered for a few weeks. 

Three on a boat – again!

Our 2 weeks on the narrow boat was looming at the middle of the month and Alex & Freddy were only too keen to escape London again and come and house sit.  They arrived just before we left and they’ll stay for a week.  Paul, Miranda and numero uno will come and stay for the second week for a well deserved holiday. 

Our boat trip this year was to be from a marina near to Lichfield in Staffordshire.  We’ve joined forces with Gail again so we’re in for a relaxing time, lots of laughs and probably a little too much drinking.  On the way up we dropped in on June and Roy before shopping for the trip. 

After the abysmal weather of last years trip, in June, we set off in mid-September in glorious sunshine and over 20C.  Could it last we kept asking, the forecast says so for at least a week and so it was.  Just one day of heavy rain followed by a few days of windy but dry chilly weather.  By the time we had finished at the end of September we had one of our best trips weather wise. 

Our journey took us from a new marina, Kings Orchard near Lichfield, south along The Coventry Canal through Tamworth and Nuneaton but most of the trip was rural.  Rural worked for us as we were between Birmingham and Leicester which are two of the major conurbations under severe lock down rules due to Covid. Our boat this year was new to the Canal Boat Club and had the unusual name of ‘Fig Parrot’. Yes, there is such a thing – look it up!

Social distancing is pretty easy aboard a narrow boat and even at locks it’s very easy to stay 2m apart even if other parties forget the recommendations.  We had planned our trip around mostly rural areas to keep us away from people as much as possible and within our Covid bubble of 3 we were destined to be as safe as we could possibly be. 

Gail and Cheryl were chatting to a live-aboard boater at one of the locks and she suggested we take a 2 day detour to visit The Ashby Canal.  We did and we were rewarded with a very quiet and very pretty canal.  It was also, lucky for us, home to a very rare and endangered species, the Water Vole.  One morning, as we drank tea in bed, Neil noticed one on the opposite bank tucking into some crab apples. 

The picture is a little blurred but we were so excited to see a pair carrying on with their lives unperturbed.  The access and exit from The Coventry were both sharp and tight and Neil was smug with himself as he did both without touching the sides.   

Back onto The Coventry we took a sharp left on to The Oxford Canal.  Actually, rather than a sharp left it was a very difficult U-turn but yet again Neil managed it well.  This took us through rural areas to Rugby and down to Braunston and The Grand Union Canal.  We turned left to go through the Braunston Locks and the 2km Braunston tunnel before taking another left along The Leicester section to our final destination, the flight of locks at Foxton. 

We’ve been through this flight of locks before but it’s an amazing feat of engineering with two sets of five staircase locks and one passing place in the centre. The dramatic locks and surrounding scenery are quite beautiful.  The plan was to go through one day, moor for the night, and return next day as it usually takes a while as its only one boat up and one boat down at a time.  It was so unbelievably quiet that we decided go through, do a swift 180deg turn and head back up and moor somewhere a little quieter.  The lock keeper volunteers thought we were mad as we could have just turned around at the top. We love the locks and Foxton is one of the best so down and back up it had to be for us.

Sadly this was the first and only time we got flack from someone when Cheryl asked to be given 2m when she was trying to operate a lock.  As we said, Foxton is very pretty and draws lots of day trippers.  One particular individual, let’s call him Covidiot so as not to be un-PC, was less than polite when asked to move away from the lock gate arm.  He did move but not without protest.

The return trip is always interesting as you see things from a totally different angle and often see things you missed before.  You also get to see some of the weirdest things on canals, like tyre art, The Stig and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs……and why not?!  All in all, 2 weeks cruising in pretty good weather for the time of year was great fun and, as usual, we consumed far too much food, wine, gin and beer (that’ll be Neil then!). 

Back into the car on Sunday for the 3hr drive home to spend a few hours with Miranda, Paul and grandson before they left for the drive home to Bristol.  It appears that they, like Alex and Freddy, had a good time enjoying the delights of Seaton and free accommodation, free that is apart from the odd gardening chore.

September is over, the leaves are turning brown as Autumn approaches and we head for our fist full winter in the UK for more than 12 years.  That’ll be the next instalment, Chapter 13, yet another new phase to our blog.

Time for a well earned break from renovating the house.  With many countries now going through a second wave of Covid we had our own wave – not Covid but people, a series of visitors planned over several weeks.   

Alex and Freddy were first in line.  Having been cooped up in London for months they couldn’t wait to visit and spend a few days by the sea, out walking and enjoying Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s invitation to eat out and save £10/head care of the government.   The weather was excellent and Alex even managed a dip in the sea but it didn’t last long…..mad!!   It was great to have them visit, especially mum who was missing Alex a lot, and the meal we had in the garden of The Ship Inn at Axmouth was very good.  Thanks Rishi!

Alex also brought us lots of goodies.  They have moved out of their home in London so that the builders could move in and, basically, rebuild the house with a new extension, rooms and kitchen.  This meant that most of their belongings had to go into storage so Alex suggested that his smart TV, several smart speakers, coffee maker and lots of other stuff could be better used by us rather than sat in a storage container.  We like ‘free’ and so now we have wall to wall sound, the smell of fresh coffee, champagne flutes and even some espresso cups to go with the coffee maker.  Thank you lads, we very much appreciate them.

In between visitors we still did the odd few jobs about the place especially in the garden plus looking into buying furniture for the living room and dining room.  The furniture arrived for the bedroom so we spent a few days putting it all together and are getting used to having another complete room to enjoy.  We also finally said goodbye to the caravan which was collected from the storage compound and shipped off to a new home in Spain. 

The following weekend we had more visitors from London, this time Neil’s brother Bill, and wife Sue, plus children and grandchildren – Kate and Scott with Maisy and Jack and Sarah with Evie.  Bill managed a paddle but decided that swimming was out of the question…..smart boy!  The kids on the other hand couldn’t stay out and thoroughly enjoyed playing around in the shallows.  It was just a flying visit as they were on their way to Tavistock for a weeks holiday but it was perfect to have a house full, all bedrooms occupied, kids running around the house and garden and beautiful weather to sit outside and BBQ, eat cream teas and drink cold beer.

No sooner had they all left it was time to plan for June and Roy to visit later that week.  The weather held and we ate our meals outside, went walking, enjoyed more food at The Ship and just generally hung out and chatted as we hadn’t seen them since December.

Now, why Perfect Day do you ask?  The Sunday of June and Roy’s visit was also Neil’s birthday.  Leanne had said that she would be coming down for a day or so which was fantastic news as we hadn’t seen her since February.  Neil had always hoped that he would see Paul, Miranda and our very first grandson too but they had to maintain strict Covid rules for several reasons so, realistically, he didn’t think it was going to happen. 

Unknown to Neil, about a week before his birthday Miranda contacted Cheryl about springing a surprise.  Leanne was also involved in the myriad of messages and calls that took place behind Neil’s back – he hadn’t got a clue that his wife of just 2 years was plotting!  June and Roy were also in on the subterfuge and almost gave the game away on a couple of occasions – yet again Neil didn’t put two and two together.

In the build up to his big day Neil was trying to put things together so that they could ‘do something’ after Leanne arrived.  ‘Let’s go to The Ship for lunch’, ‘let’s go on the tram and have lunch in Colyton’ and so it went on.   Cheryl was less than enthusiastic, June suggested that they should all just ‘hang out and have a BBQ’ as we had all got lots to talk about.  Once again, Neil didn’t smell a rat.

The day before, Miranda threw a curved ball and suggested a facetime chat sometime during the day to coincide with the eating, sleeping and playing routine.  Even on the day when Cheryl got a very large amount of lamb chops, burgers, sausages and chicken skewers ready for the BBQ he still didn’t suspect there would be extra mouths to cater for. 

After trying to be patient Neil was beginning to get edgy as Leanne was very late.  A secret prompt by Cheryl triggered a message from her that the motorway was very busy with ‘bloody caravans’.  Yet again, Neil proved what a loser he really is and why he didn’t become a detective – defective maybe!

Eventually a car finally came up the drive.  ‘Leanne’s got a new car’ said Neil.  Then he saw the registration as the car arrived at the back of the house.  ‘That’s Paul’s car!’ said Neil. 

Then it was out of the bag, actually out of the car, as Paul, Leanne, Miranda and our pride and joy emerged from the car.  We hadn’t seen them since December and Neil had always been worried that as it had been so long number one grandson might not be quite so receptive to this strange man.  He needn’t have worried as, albeit a bit overwhelmed by the occasion, he was happy to be whisked up into Neil’s arms.  Neil just filled up.

We had a great day, showing the family the house, opening a beer or two or was it more?  The BBQ went well and all the extra meat Cheryl had produced was consumed along with some that Miranda brought.  Then we ate cake…..mmmmm……yummy…….thanks Leanne.  Finally, we played croquet in the garden for the first time since we moved in.  It was the Perfect Day.

Well, we thought we’d spent a lot of time sanding and painting at the end of last month.  Think on!  This month has been torture, 8 hours a day 7 days a week of more of the same.  Worth it?  You bet.

We needed to vacate our bedroom for the works to continue so we managed to squeeze ourselves into bedroom 2 along with all the furniture from all the bedrooms. Chests of drawers, dining room chairs, spare beds stacked up, mattresses and pictures and mirrors.  You can see from the picture of Cheryl drinking her morning cuppa that we were literally climbing into bed.  However, it was for only 3 weeks and helped us make monumental progress this month. 

It started with Paul finishing off most of the plastering in the dining room, hall and in our bedroom.  We discovered more names written on the walls but not clear enough to be able to make out who it was but one was definitely dated 1957.  Cheryl stripped the wallpaper off the wall between our bedroom and the ensuite to reveal that there was an archway there many moons ago.  This was probably when the house was split into two apartments but we’ve given up trying to understand things in the house.  The stripping was going really well until one wall revealed the dreaded many layers of painted wallpaper lurking beneath the top layer……aaarghhh!  2 days later it was gone.

Then Climax windows arrived with our French Doors and proceeded to install them.  It took a few days but Andy the builder made very little mess and they now look great.  The area just outside is a real suntrap early in the evening so we’ve been making a lot of use out of the new doors.  

Afterwards Stacy arrived to remove and brick up the old door and he also brought Jake the chippy who started to install skirting and architrave to those naked areas.   Finally Paul returned to make good and plaster the wall in the living room.  Wow, we have a living room again.

This house has been through many iterations which means that the profiles of the woodwork vary.  In one case, the bullnose skirting in the kitchen varies from about 3’’ to 6’’.  Jake installed 3’’ to match the skirting in the pantry area but Cheryl decided it should match the opposite wall near to the door from the hallway.  ‘No problem’ said Jake, ‘I’ll get some tomorrow morning and fit it’.  So, next morning he wrenched off the low profile skirting only to get showered.  The day before, and without knowing it, he’d nailed up the skirting and put a nail through a hot water pipe.  It wasn’t his fault there was a pipe in the wall but we think his pride was hurt.  In hindsight, it was probably a good idea for Cheryl to want it changed as we would never had known until the pipe slowly began to leak, possibly several years down the line.

While all this was going on Imran and Paul arrived to fit the carpets to spare bedrooms and we managed to give ourselves a bit more breathing space by putting some of the chests of drawers and beds into the spare rooms.  It’s amazing how putting a bit of carpet down and putting a bed on top makes the whole house feel likes it’s lived in rather than a building site.  We also finally had rooms that were complete, curtains ‘n all – woo hoo! 

By now things were flying.  We were putting in even longer days to be ready for more progress.  The hallway, dining room, living room and our bedroom & ensuite were decorated.  Endless days spent sanding old woodwork, filling holes, more sanding and painting, painting, painting.   The dust and mess got everywhere, especially when the last remaining door downstairs was taken out so we could prepare the opening for the new ones to be fitted.  The new ones haven’t been ordered yet – but we’ve been living without doors for so long now we don’t even notice.

Finally the day came for the flooring installation.  The kitchen floor was a mess of concrete in the pantry area where the house had been extended years ago and the original old floorboards in the main kitchen plus another patch of very uneven concrete which was the base for the AGA.  The main floor was overlaid with plyboard and then the whole lot covered in a latex based screed to level it off and left to dry overnight. 

The next day the kitchen floor was fitted and the carpets laid to the living room, dining room and our bedroom. From chaos to order again, after lots and lots of cleaning and dusting. The bits and pieces of furniture look a bit lost in the rooms and we do need curtains, lampshades and all that stuff. We’re also looking forward to putting up some pictures on those very empty looking walls.

Now to move onto a completely different subject.  You will know that for the last 12 years we have escaped the UK winter overseas and spent the UK summer in our touring caravan.  We have loved living a mobile life, exploring some of the finest scenery in the world and been to places we’ve never been to before.  Alas, no more, our wandering days are over…..for now.  With the house project taking over our lives we decided to sell the caravan to concentrate on our new home.  Then lockdown came and we thought that that was the end of it, we’re never going to sell the van now.  Wrong!  It has been sold, for a good price, and it’s to become the winter residence in Spain of a newly retired biker from Durham.  It’s a long story, but he’s paid his money and he should be collecting it in early August.   

What a month we’ve had.  We had originally planned to take our time and do things in a sensible order but you all know what happens to the best laid plans.  We’ve had to grab whatever trades were available and when we couldn’t get a decorator we had to roll up our sleeves and get on with it.  From what seemed like ages waiting for things to happen we then went into a frenzy of activity to keep up with deadlines for fitters & deliveries.  We’ve had so much to do we’ve hardly left the house………..we got out more during lockdown! 

We now have a nearly normal house and realised yesterday that we last sat down in the living room at the end of February. We will get the new doors fitted downstairs but the rest of the renovation, including the main bathroom, bedroom 2, study and hall, stairs and landing will be done as phase 2. There’s still plenty for to do now but it’s the pleasant stuff like choosing new furniture and getting the finishing touches and a bit of colour here and there. 

Enjoy what’s left of the summer, take care and stay safe!

Its been all go this month – lots of plastering, endless sanding and painting, more stripping and finally the big news – we have a kitchen – yay!

Before we get to the details here’s a round up of our other news. The scaffold has gone but not before we installed some extra bird deterrents to keep those pesky gulls off the chimneys using spikes from Toolstation and some very special glue.

From what we understand they usually make a nest on our flat roof and also on the chimneys of Julia’s house next door. By means both fair and foul Neil has made their life a misery and they’ve decided to bring up their families elsewhere. Having said that, there is a definite dearth of seagulls everywhere this year which many people are putting down to the pandemic and the lack tourists leaving fish ‘n chip leftovers in the waste bins and for them to dig out. Whilst gulls come with the territory of living by the sea their absence is not missed by many people. We’ve also recovered a tiny fraction of the money we’ve spent. The old wood burner that was to become our fire pit actually got sold for £200…..bingo!

Out of the blue Neil received a letter from the NHS to tell him that he had been randomly selected to take part in a Coronavirus testing survey with Imperial College London.  He was advised that the test would cause some discomfort but that he would have his results back in less than a week.

The test was actually pretty horrid.  It can be self-administered  but when Cheryl knew that she could inflict satisfying gratuitous pain she insisted in doing it for him!  Head back, mouth open and poke a swab to the back of the throat, tickle the tonsils for 10 seconds hopefully without gagging.   She was very, very lucky not to get smothered in a projectile overcoat.  Pain still not over.  Now take the same swab and shove it up the left nostril as far as you can stand it and spin it 5 times then do the same up the right nostril. The results arrived a week later and you will be relieved to know it was all clear.

On the social front, as the lockdown has been slowly easing we met and socially distanced in Cliff Gardens with Glyn and Diane to celebrate his 65^th birthday.  A bottle or two of bubbly plus some snacks made a very pleasant evening overlooking the sea.  Sadly for Glyn he has to wait for another year before the pension fairy arrives in his bank every month.

We also had drinks across the road with Bob and Sheila and their neighbours Don and Pat.  At the end of the month we decided to host a BBQ for the neighbours of Ron the butcher’s homemade sausages and burgers.   The weather was great, hot and as the UV was forecast to be very strong it was all in the shade.  It was a great success although as you can see from the photograph we forgot one important thing.  This was to be the first real party/BBQ in our house so we carefully set up the camera so we could capture the moment.  The trouble was the event went so well we forgot to take a picture.

We still miss Phileas and Philomena but maybe when nature sees fit we’ll get some more pheasants in the future.  Whilst there’s not much more we can do to encourage them we are working on getting a rescue hedgehog.  Cheryl has been in contact with a local volunteer, giving money to her charity to smooth the way, and Neil has built three hog houses to put in the garden.  They’re easy and quick to build and once covered with logs and leaves they look very inviting and any self-respecting Hog would be pleased to call it home…….well we hope so.

There’s still no sign of life in the pond even after introducing some tadpoles.  We’re not sure what happened to them as the pond is well established with lots of oxygenating weed and lilies.  We keep on hoping and next year we’ll try again or, ideally, some amphibians decide to call it home in a natural way. 

We’ve previously reported that the garden has continued to amaze us with it’s flowers.  Now we are equally amazed with the soft fruit that we are picking from the fruit cage.  Masses of delicious raspberries and blackcurrants and we’ve just started to harvest our first tomatoes and cucumbers from the greenhouse and cucumber and courgettes from the garden.  The slugs have decimated the brassicas and something continues to steal the strawberries but, hey ho, you can’t have it all.

Renovation Update

Things have progressed a lot since last month. 

The hallway also revealed the name of another previous decorator.  As Cheryl stripped the wallpaper the name of Max Dack was revealed and signed on March 2^nd, 1997.    Neil sent a photo to Stacy Dack who did the chimney repair and fireplace move, and he replied ‘that’s my Uncle’!  

Paul, AKA Arnie, managed to get hold of 30 bags of good UK plaster and plasterboard which meant he was able to finish the 3 back bedrooms, the downstairs hallway and to board and plaster the ceiling of our bedroom and board the ensuite.  The plastering of our bedroom walls has to wait for more plaster and final paper stripping so we’ve moved into the last useable bedroom and just about manage to climb into the bed as it’s surrounded by stacked up furniture from all the other  bedrooms.  This chaotic order of events wasn’t in the original plan but we’ve learned to grab any trade and whatever progress we can during lockdown and put up with the inconvenience.

The living room also saw some action.  One wall is plastered but Paul needed help to do the ceiling.  Firstly, Neil signed up as an apprentice to help him board the ceiling and as it’s such a large surface he couldn’t manage the plastering alone so in came his brother Tony.  Tony is nothing like Paul, and just like the film Twins one tall and muscular and one short and average.  That didn’t matter to Tony as he arrived carrying his stilts and proceeded to get on with the job. The remaining wall can’t be plastered until the French doors are installed which hopefully will happen in July.

With Arnie gone we started on the mammoth task of painting, beginning with the messy mist coats on the back bedroom walls.  To make things easy we’ve decided to paint all rooms matt white so no decisions on colours or tricky cutting in required.  Great idea although we are starting to go a bit snow blind!  Another two of the Dack clan, Jason & nephew Jake arrived to re instate coving and skirting board where we’ve altered the doorways and removed the huge fitted cupboard.  That’s left us with the tedious sanding & painting the woodwork and maybe we are in spitting distance of getting something finished.  The carpets have arrived and are sitting in the dining room ready to be laid so we are under pressure to get on with the decoration.  

The big big win was the kitchen, delivered and installed….yes, yes, yes, after 3 months we finally have a kitchen!  The cabinets and worktops arrived at the beginning of the month and Paul Emmett arrived to do the fitting.  Within 2 weeks it was done but not before there was lots of grunting and groaning as Paul and Neil picked up the worktops and loaded them onto the bench for cutting and sanding.  Luckily Arnie was still around and was able to help out as well.  They are solid resin called Minerva which makes soft curved edges easy to achieve.  The drawback is that each 3m length weighs 100kg.  The joins are also easy to do.  They are stuck together with the same sort of resin and when sanded it’s virtually impossible to find them.  It was just as we envisaged all those months ago when we bought the house.  Each time we walk into the kitchen we just go ‘wow, are we tickled pink or what’?

An interesting footnote.  We kept a note of the last time we filled the car up with fuel, February 28^th. That means that in 4 months we travelled less than 400 miles.  What a difference a pandemic makes and, surely, now we must be on Greta Thunberg’s Christmas card list, home made of course and from recycled card and flown over from Sweden by pidgeon.

Fabulous weather, some progress and sad news

Two months on and life in Britain is still largely on hold.  We are both still fit and well and East Devon has had a remarkably low level of cases & deaths from Covid 19.  A total of 140 so far and, as we type this on May 31^st, no new cases for over a week.  People have been pretty good at distancing and very polite with a smile or nod to acknowledge when getting out of the way.  It’s probably the sunniest and driest May on record and it’s forecast to continue into June.  It reminds us of those endless sunny summer days you remember from your childhood.

The government is beginning to release the lock down guidelines which has meant more people taking trips to the beach.  Unless you’re very early, not Cheryl’s strong point, or very late, not either of our strong points, it’s too busy to walk the promenade. So we’ve had a good look at the Ordinance Survey maps and discovered lots of new footpaths and lanes that are almost deserted and if you do need to social distance it’s easy.  We’ve also noticed how much the air has cleared since lock down.  Portland, around 25 miles away as the crows fly, used to be visible on rare days and then only just in the haze.  Now it’s very clear considering the photo was taken on Neil’s phone rather than our camera.

We continue to try and support local businesses by getting beer from The Hat, home delivered curry from the two Indian restaurants and take away fish ‘n chips from Coast Café and Bar.  We’ve decided that Monsoon provides the best curry and the f&c’s from Coast are absolutely delicious.  We’ve also discovered that out favourite tapas restaurant, The Caper, is opening for takeaway’s in early June.  BBQ food, i.e. delicious homemade sausages and burgers plus minted lamb and other delights, still come from Ron the Butcher.

We have a few positive milestones to record apart from the weather.  You will be pleased to hear that Neil’s unfeasibly large piles have finally cleared up after only 5 months.  TMI? Not really, we are of course referring to the piles of bricks and debris after the walls came down.  We’ve been slowly barrowing and dumping them at the front of the house behind the hedge in the bank.  We’ve also lost a lot in the now completed raised beds in the greenhouse.  The greenhouse looks great, the yard looks great and the bank is well hidden from view. 

Sooty & Sweep

Before lock down we had agreed a price to drop flue linings into both chimneys and install a new stove while the scaffold was in place but the firm we chose had furloughed the staff so weren’t working.  However, we kept the owner informed as we completed the work to reopen the original chimney void in the living room and then the price started to creep up due to ‘this and that’.   With the work completed on fixing the leaky chimneys we were under pressure to get this last bit of work done in case the scaffold firm wanted to dismantle soon.  With the price creeping up we decided to sanity check the quote and found Stuart the Sweep, who was considerably cheaper and ready to start.

The sweeping went well, and it turned out to be very timely as the one with the stove which we used while the boiler was replaced was just one or two short of a potential chimney fire.  With the amount of soot released Stuart looked a bit like Dick Van Dyke when he finished!   

The flue liners were a different story.  The liner went in the top but quickly got stuck as it  appears we have a less than smooth bend in both chimneys and the 6” liner was too big and couldn’t even be pulled out without shredding it to bits.  Plan B was to come back again and try a 5” liner.  Fingers crossed he tried again but this wouldn’t go down either.  Dropping a camera into the chimney revealed a number of jagged edges to the bricks at various points making the use of liners, which is the current best practice for stoves, simply not possible.

We had three choices.  The first was to forget having wood burners all together and the second was to accept that we could have them using the existing chimney voids and have the chimneys swept possibly twice a year depending on use.  The third was to pay another £1000 for Stuart to hack out the chimneys from the bedrooms to clear the blockage with no guarantee it would only be £1000.  Having spent the last few months sawing, splitting, barrowing and stacking logs (around 20 cubic metres), which are now seasoning in the wood sheds, what would you do?  Certainly not pay any more.   So, we choose option 2 and now have two brand new DEFRA approved wood burners and the ugly old wood burner is set to be our fire pit for those colder evenings around the BBQ.  Hey, we like Stuart so having him back to sweep the chimneys is a bonus. Another big win is that the stoves are manufactured in nearby Axminster so we have supported another local business.

Now the scaffold can come down at last…..3 cheers!  It’s been up since the 19^th of March and almost feels part of the house but we can’t wait for it to go.  We did take the opportunity to go to the top to take in the views and get some great photos.

At the end of the month we heard from Paul the plasterer that he had got hold of some ‘alternative’ imported plaster.  Yay!  He also brought plasterboard and made a start on one of the back bedrooms.  Success was short lived as the plaster was rubbish – boo hiss.  He continued with the preparation of the spare rooms and parts of the lounge and hall for plastering  while we wait for supplies of good old British Gypsum plaster to resume.  Now that he’s boarded the ceilings and prepped the rooms it should be pretty quick once he starts.

Finally, with time on our hands once again we’ve removed the weird wall of glass and bricks between the loggia at the side of the house and the greenhouse.  It does look much better as one big space but we’ll really notice the difference when the scaffolding goes.  On another positive, Neil spent half a day breaking the glass out and half a day hammering the brick work with a rented masonry breaker and received zero injuries…..wow, that must be a first!

For those of you that are also checking their activity levels Neil’s average daily step level for the last month is over 15,000.  This relatively high step level, plus gardening and renovation work, has meant that at the end of this month we are both lighter than we have been since October 2018.  Yes of course we are pleased, especially as we have still enjoyed gin, beers and wine, but it’s not in itself anything to be too proud of as we shouldn’t have allowed ourselves to get to that weight in the first place!

Nature bites back

A few days after writing the last blog  with the picture of Philomena’s nest full of eggs we were aware that we hadn’t seen or heard Phileas.  Not unusual as he has wandered off for a couple of days before so we weren’t concerned.  Then suddenly at lunchtime on Saturday, Philomena who had previously been diligently sitting on her eggs all day, came running across the front lawn at a speed that Roadrunner would be proud of.  That’s not good we thought.

She did return about ten minutes later and worked her way back carefully along the boundary hedge to the nest.  The following morning Neil found her contentedly pecking her way around the garden.  It’s not like her not to be sitting on the eggs so Neil went to look at the nest…..empty!   2 days later, after being fed for a couple of mornings, she disappeared too.  We suspect it was a fox and that the cubs have been licking their lips.  Bloody nature indeed.

Life under lockdown, new discoveries and unexpected progress on the renovation.

Six weeks in and we have a new normal. Who would have thought that the nation would be obsessed with PPE, graphs and flattening curves? Reducing the R rate to below 1, standing outside on a Thursday evening at 8.00pm to clap for front line staff and a trip to the supermarket was the riskiest thing you did?  Could you imagine a war veteran raising £32 million for the NHS, have a number one record, a special postmark, a train and a boat named in his honour and achieve status of National Treasure all by his 100^th birthday?  Respect to Colonel Tom Moore.

When we wrote the last diary entry we were left in a building site with a ‘temporary’  kitchen set up in the hallway, all work ground to a halt and the realisation that this could be it for months to come.  We had just entered the strange world of lockdown and getting used to all that meant to daily life.

As you would suspect in the current circumstances there’s not a lot to report on Seaton life.  We’ve been enjoying our walks in what has been an extraordinary run of sunny weather, and we have been exploring some of the residential streets as well as the usual walk along the Esplanade.  The town has been pretty quiet and most are observing the social distancing rules with a friendly nod or hello as we pass by. 

Being selfless types we’ve done our bit to help any businesses which are still managing to operate.  The Ship at Axmouth has provided Sunday roasts, Gary at The Hat drops off beer twice a week and Passiflora delivered a vegan salad lunch and chocolate brownies.  It’s been tough but someone has to do these things!!  We also donated the face value of all the film night tickets we bought for the Gateway. 

Reasons to be Cheerful – Part 1

Our garden just never ceases to amaze us.  We knew the previous owners were keen gardeners and we are really appreciating the results of their hard work and considerable expense. It just keeps on giving week by week with magnificent blooms with a variety of colours.

With little prospect of getting on with the renovation we had time on our hands so decided to get some veg planted and use the greenhouse.  The garage at the top of the hill supplied a mega bag of compost and we found seeds in a shop in the town which mainly sells pet supplies.  The hunt for tomato plants lead us to a very small garden centre in the nearby Village of Colyton.  There’s a local Facebook page which has been great for finding out which businesses are still trading and helped when we needed a few more seedlings but didn’t want another trip in the car.  A very generous lady was offering her surplus plants for free and we collected ours from outside her house as part of our daily walk. 

We’re also  are getting to know the delivery guys by name and usually have a chat when they drop off a parcel.  Items from Toolstation, Screwfix in fact anywhere that will supply us what we need.  We’ve even got Mark the gardener to collect stuff for us as he lives in Honiton where most of the bigger shops are.  

With no chance of work continuing downstairs we focused on what we could do.  Cheryl has been busy stripping……..mmmm….. wallpaper that is.  Lots of it and mostly well and truly stuck and under several layers of paint…….she has the patience of a Saint.  The back bedrooms which had previously been low priority provided lots of scope for work. 

In the process she found some interesting writing on the wall of bedroom 3.  A signature was revealed beneath the fourth layer of paper. 

Tim Moulding had signed the wall while hanging the wallpaper in October 1957.  It was the tradition, in those days, (and possibly still is) when wall-papering, for the decorator to sign the wall beneath the last piece of paper he hung – which was obviously the case here.  We put his name into Google, found an obituary which led us to his son who is a local councillor in nearby Axminster.  When Tim came out of the air-force at the end of WW2 he worked for the family building contractors, R Moulding & Sons Ltd, as a painter and decorator.

We’ve also had time to start loading some of our old travel blogs onto this site. When we started back in 2008 we used ‘Get Jealous’ which was a popular site for travel blogs. We would like this site to be a complete record of our travels and change of lifestyle so over the coming months you will see these early years being added. Our very first blog – Chapter 1 Carpe Diem has been recreated under the previous chapters heading on the menu. If you would like to see where it all began, and have a snigger at Cheryl’s hair turning grey and Neil’s old teeth, take a look!

Reasons to be Cheerful – Part 2

We found that some of our local tradies were prepared to work as long as we kept the social distancing rules.  Hurrah!

The work to waterproof the chimneys got finished off and the builder, Stacy, was also able to open up the original fireplace properly and move the surround with only minimal damage to the stonework. 

Whilst he was doing it we found yet more evidence of workers from the past.  On the back of a piece of skirting board near the fireplace was a signature of W F Goddard, May 1960.  Sadly Google couldn’t help us this time. 

Before the redundant fireplace opening was sealed off, we decided to follow the example of the signatures we found and hide our own time capsule.  Our surprise package, should it ever be discovered in the future, contains lots of ‘stuff’ about Seaton in 2020, a leaflet on the local measures taking place for Corona Virus and a letter from us explaining what we have discovered about the house and why there are two fireplaces side by side!

The original doorway into the living room was blocked up and two dodgy bits of crumbling plaster & render hacked off, the cause of the damp fixed and the walls rebricked all now ready for plastering.  Stacy also had a chippy in the family and he came along to refix the door jambs for the two sets of double doors.  This is as far as we can go now with the living room as until the French doors are fitted to replace the existing window we can’t start on the finishing off.  We were on a 12 week lead time for the doors before lockdown started so we could be waiting quite some time for that to happen.

More excitement for us when the kitchen fitter wanted to know when he could start.  Slight problem, we said, was that even if the worktop manufacturer started production and Howdens started deliveries again, nothing could happen until the walls were properly finished off and most of the kitchen was re-plastered.  Well, he said, I was a general builder before specialising in kitchens, and, as I need the work I could do that for you.  Woo Hoo! 

He also managed to get the materials from the local builders merchant delivered the week before he could start.  The only downside was that due to the social distancing rules the delivery was to the bottom of the drive.  We had our daily exercise at home that day as we moved 20 huge sheets of plasterboard, several lengths of wood and bags of plaster up into the house.  We hacked the tiles off the walls and got the plumber back in to move the sink & dishwasher to their new position.  It wasn’t pretty but it would be functional for as long as it takes to get the proper kitchen in.  We got him back again a week later as we realised that despite our best planning we forgot to allow enough space to get the plastering done on the wall behind.  Well – you can’t get everything right first time!

The transformation was awesome as the bare brick, steels and lintels were hidden beneath the plasterboard.  The ceiling was also a bit of a mess from the AGA flue and the spotlight that was removed, and of course the textured finish, so that was also boarded over.  Once the top coat of plaster was applied we had a proper room again. 

Paul the fitter had a mate who is a plasterer, also called Paul, who was needed to get the boards in place for the ceiling and to get some of the plastering done.  He was keen to help out with the plastering needed in the bedrooms where the sinks were taken out and the doorways remodelled, but here our luck ran out as all the local suppliers were out of the materials we needed.  From what we can understand there probably isn’t a bag of plaster in the entire UK!!  Paul Arnold is the plasterer and its obvious he likes to go to the gym.  When Cheryl came down the stairs on his first day and caught sight of him in the kitchen she remarked in private, ‘shit, he’s got muscles on his muscles!’  As we have two Pauls we call him Arnie, and we hope he’ll be back!

We had planned to use a local spray painter, especially for the messy mist coating of the bare plaster but he wasn’t working during lockdown.  As regular readers know, we have been decorating the rentals over the past few summers so it was time to roll up our sleeves and get stuck in.  It took a week or so to get the painting done – and to make a start on getting rid of the 70s pine sauna/ski chalet vibe in the former breakfast area.  Neil also surprised Cheryl on Friday afternoon as she was listening to Steve Wright on Radio 2.  We got a shout out, including the fact we had no kitchen since lockdown, ‘Serious Decoratin’ – no G’

What a month it’s been.  We started quite despondent but determined to make the best of it, especially as our problems were minute compared to what some families have been going through.  As it happened we have been lucky enough to get further ahead with the renovation, and, if the lockdown is gradually lifted in the next month we won’t be massively behind schedule.

Neil also stumbled across (and nearly stood in) this amazing nest – Philomena has laid a clutch of 18 eggs so fingers crossed that next month we may have the patter of several tiny feet in the garden.

Stay safe.

No sooner had we published the February blog we were contacted by Carl who is going to do the serious structural work.  We can start next Monday!!!  Yes, oh yes, that’s serious progress at last.  We were excited and apprehensive as this was the start of living in a construction site with all the dust, noise and mess that goes with it.  Still, it’ll only be for a short while we thought………

You will all know by now why we thought wrong, and we won’t dwell on it here.  Suffice to say that we hope you are all keeping well and safe during these exceptional times.  Maybe some non Covid news will be a welcome escape.  Read on to see what we got up to in the most  extraordinary month we have experienced.

Before we could get the walls down we had to get the major plumbing work finished.  Matt arrived and swiftly removed the old boiler and that meant no heating and hot water for a week while the new boiler and radiators were fitted.  Of course we chose a really chilly week but managed well with the log burner in the study.  Our new boiler aka ‘big boy’ is great and the house is significantly warmer where the newer bigger radiators have been fitted.  We’re still a few short as these can’t be hung until the wall reconstruction is done.  Matt worked so hard and found the existing plumbing in the house something of a challenge.  Cheryl escaped to the Gym and after almost a week without a boiler Neil stayed in the shower for days! 

The garden is bursting into life and so is Phileas.  We spotted a hen perched on the fence and soon saw Phileas trying his best to impress her strutting his stuff and doing his sexy dance but unfortunately we don’t think he was successful as she hasn’t been seen since. 

The first weekend of March brings a major event to Seaton.  It’s Grizzly by name and Grizzly by nature. The 20 mile Grizzly and the 9 mile Cub races present tough challenges over a multi-terrain route including bogs, streams, pebble beaches, clifftops and ascents/descents up/down steep hills.  We took part in the fundraising quiz at the Gateway on the Friday, and our team won – yay! We’re not quite up to taking part but did our bit to support the runners by watching and cheering the start and finish on the esplanade.  Sadly, but not surprisingly, there were a number of casualties as the weather both before and during was horrid.

Progress at last

It didn’t take long to prepare for the builders.  We quickly moved what was left of the kitchen into the study, along with a small table & chairs and sofa.  It was a little cramped but a lot more space than we used to have in the caravan.  All furniture, apart from the sofas, was cleared from the living room and the carpet was carefully peeled back and placed over the top to cover them up.  The dining room was also cleared just leaving the glass top tables stacked in the corner.  Not having very much in the way of furniture and the usual household clutter was turning out to be a real bonus.

We were under no illusion about the potential dust & mess but the wonderful crew who arrived were incredibly conscientious about keeping the mess and noise to a minimum.  They put up plastic sheeting and gaffer taped the door frames leading to the hallway which was really effective.  The last day included the final removal of walls for double doors into the hallway so on that day we found ourselves sealed in with a taped door for a few hours.  We had one mishap when the guys sliced through a pipe hidden in the wall and our walls turned out to be a little more complicated than they had thought so the 3 to 4 day job turned into 6 and straddled a weekend.  We got used to living in our one room during the day with a good long walk along the beach to keep us from going stir crazy.  Looking back, it was good training for what was going to come.

Neil’s sister June and husband Roy had planned a visit to us for the weekend of 21^st March and we had booked tickets for a 60s & 70s band, The Zoots, at the Gateway.  The building work was starting to overrun and with no kitchen and the extent of the mess and dust we were starting to have second thoughts as to whether we should postpone.  People were starting to talk about what was happening in Italy and Spain and the news was filling up with cases of Corona Virus in the UK.  Normal life was still continuing and Cheryl met up with Diane for a film & picnic night at the Gateway to watch The Personal Life of David Copperfield on Friday 14^th March.  On Monday 16^th Boris Johnson advised against non-essential travel and suggested people should not go to pubs, theatres and restaurants.  There was also a suggestion that those over 70 would be asked to stay at home.

The builders finished work on Tuesday 17^th and we finally could see the full extent of the destruction.  The result was worth the dust and mess.  The space has been opened up, the light level in the kitchen has vastly improved and we can see the beautiful garden from every angle.  Wow – it’s still a long, long way from being finished with exposed brick and broken plaster and cables hanging out of the walls but to us it looked wonderful and we were so excited to get things started.

Next day the scaffold for fixing the leaky chimneys arrived and we soon had two large erections either side of the house (oooer missus!). 

To make the most of the cost of the scaffolding, which stays in place for a minimum of 4 weeks, we got a quote to drop a flue lining into the living room chimney for a log burner (to be installed next year) and to put in a flue for the existing burner in the study.   Ah, nearly forgot that the original fireplace had been bricked up and diverted when the previous owners shifted it. Just managed to get another builder lined up to deal with it and went ahead with the deposit for the flues so they could start work two weeks into the scaffold hire.  First of all the chimneys had to be cleaned, repointed and painted with ‘Storm Dry’ a freakishly expensive waterproof coating used on lighthouses and guaranteed for 25 years.  Work on that was starting on Monday 23^rd March.   Everything was starting to come together at a really good pace.

Wednesday 18^th March and the Gateway announced that the events planned for the weekend had been postponed.  We had a phone call with June & Roy and decided that we should postpone their visit until later in the year.  We realise now that was definitely the right thing to do.

Friday 20^th March Jules from Howdens came round to check measure the kitchen following the work to remove the dividing wall and lose the arch wall.  We talked about putting in some display units either side of the dining room double doors and checked lengths of worktop & upstand as these were being ordered from a separate source.  Just needed the kitchen fitter to confirm the depths required and all that could be ordered with a lead time of 10-14 days.  That left getting the walls finished off and we were good to go.

At 5pm that same day Boris Johnson ordered all bars and restaurants to close at midnight. Things were beginning to change but the enormity of what we were facing was still not sinking in.

First thing Monday morning Dacks & Sons turned up to start work on the chimneys and we tackled stripping wallpaper from what remained of the kitchen walls to get the finishing off underway.  The worktop order was placed and we thought about getting the Howdens order set up but decided to wait for the revised quote to include the additional units.

Monday 23^rd March at 8pm normal life in the UK came to an abrupt halt

Our house is in a mess but it doesn’t matter.  We were getting close to having a proper kitchen but that’s not going to happen in the foreseeable future.  The worktop factory has closed and Howdens has shut down.  However, we had the oven & hob delivered.  The chippy started work on constructing door frames and the electrician also arrived to do the first fix.  The builder lined up to remove the bricks from the fireplace called off.  The chimney repair is on hold as the company has decided to stop work.  The scaffold firm have suspended all work and have assured us the scaffold will stay in place as long as we need to complete the work.  We had just paid £1000 deposit for the chimney flues and were amazed when the stove company returned it immediately. We also think we are probably the last people in the country to have our phone line reactivated so we now have broadband which we think we are really going to need in the coming months.

The first week has been interesting.  It’s funny how you get used to things after a while.  The first days of not being able to go out unless it’s for food or exercise felt really strange.  People are getting better at social distancing and Tesco’s has calmed down a little.  We may moan about the hold up to our renovations but we are well aware that we are truly fortunate.  We are so lucky to live in a beautiful part of the country in a small town beside the sea.  We have plenty of space in our house, garden and in the town, especially the glorious expanse of beach and sea.  On top of that the sun has been shining for almost a week non-stop.  We realise life has not been easy for a lot of people and have nothing but admiration for all those working in the NHS and all key workers who are keeping things going for all of us.

Well what a month this has been.  We were really excited about posting this blog two weeks ago as we wanted to share the progress on the house.  Now as we write it all seems so unimportant and trivial in the midst of what we face now.  That said, we have seen a number of positives emerge as people seem to be communicating from afar with more frequency than before.

To cap it all Gary at The Hat is doing his best to stay afloat.  He’s offering a home delivery service of his finest beers and ciders.  Needless to say we are going to do our best to help him stay in business and to be there for us when this whole mess is finished.  We also vowed to have 2 takeaways a week to help the restaurants to get over the crisis.  Many started to offer but new restrictions and regulations mean that there are only one or two offering home delivery. 

So, the world is totally stuffed, we’re living in a building site and it’s all going to get worse before it gets better.  However, we’re counting our blessings.  So far our family is fit and well, we have a large beautiful house to live in, the garden is blossoming, our friends stuck overseas are so far OK, we’re not self-isolating in a tiny rented flat in a big city and this morning we noticed that Phileas had a new girl-friend. 

Life goes on – just not as we know it!  Stay safe.

Do any of you remember Saturday Night at The London Palladium?  They nearly always had a variety act who would impress the audience by keeping multiple plates spinning on cane sticks.  The more plates he could spin before they fell off the more the audience clapped.  Well, that’s how we feel, spinning plates replaced by managing plasterers, plumbers, builders, sparkies, chippys etc etc etc…..phew!

Talking of variety acts, we went to the Cinderella Panto in Seaton…..oh yes we did!  It was a delightful evening and featured all the things you expect – ugly sisters to boo and hiss at, obviously two men in drag, cheesy slapstick routines, lots of kids singing and dancing and some great performances from the enthusiastic local cast.  The show was hardly likely to make The West End but it was great to see average looking people, in all sorts of shapes and sizes plus lots of small children strutting their stuff.  To be fair, one or two were pretty damned good.

We also went up to Gloucester to have a lunch with Neil’s siblings.  As it was about 2hrs drive we multi tasked and hired a van so we could swing by Bradley Stoke and collect the remaining bits of furniture cleared out from Cheryl’s house and flat.  It was a long day but lovely to see June, Roy, Bill, Sue and Bob.  The M5 was kind to us and we managed to get back in time to unload the van and return it that afternoon.

We also had a visit from Leanne and ‘middle aged’ Neil.  Yup, they have a new friend who is now ‘young Neil’ meaning that Leanne’s Neil has been elevated to ‘middle aged Neil’. We knew they were arriving late on the Friday evening, which was the same day as our trip to Gloucester.  We started to worry when it got much later and they didn’t arrive. 

Oops! We had the phones switched to silent night time mode and managed not to hear them knocking at the front door.  They had instructions to let themselves in just in case we were late back from getting the furniture and found the key from the key box but couldn’t get it in the back door as our key was in from the other side.  When we finally thought about checking for messages we found they had gone to find a pub to wait in until we got back.  At least they did us a favour as the pub they found turned out to be a bit of a dud and saves us the bother of checking it out.

It was great to see them and to show them the ‘before’ house as well as some of our plans.  We also had a lovely night out starting with a drink in the Hat and followed by excellent tapas in The Wild Caper.

Phileas is still a regular visitor to the garden. There was quite a racket one day and we watched a turf war going on……luckily Phileas won! ……well we think it was Phileas as it’s quite difficult to tell them apart.

Getting plastered

Our bedroom had an unusual feature of narrow shelves hidden behind ‘secret’ doors which had been covered with wallpaper.  This explained why the previous occupants had placed two enormous wardrobes slap bang in the middle of the wall.  Regular readers will remember this was where we were left with wallpaper hanging off when they took the wardrobes away.

We thought about exposing the shelves and decided to strip off all the damaged wallpaper to see how we could make a feature of them.  We then discovered the house originally had picture rails which sadly were all stripped out.  The plaster on the wall wasn’t in great condition and we finally decided that the size and position of the alcoves was making it impossible to have a sensible layout of bedroom furniture.  They had to go, and we needed a plasterer to cover them up and re-plaster the wall. 

Quite some time passed with several attempts to get plasterers to turn up and quote.  In desperation we searched again and found Pawel the Plasterer who gave us a good price and was available – hurrah!

We had also lined up a guy who can spray paint rooms and decided to give this a try as it can be effective covering over existing wallpaper.  Every wall in the house is papered so if we can avoid the work involved in stripping and remove any risk of pulling off plaster in the process…..winner all around!   We had been prepared to do the decorating ourselves but if the spray man can get it done as fast as he says, and at £120/day, then it’s not worth us getting the rollers dirty.  We got him booked in the start the week after the plasterer and felt pretty pleased that at last we were finally getting somewhere.

Pawel did a great job with the wall and a few days later it had dried out to a pale pink.  We cleared everything out of the bedroom and moved into the spare bedroom.  The day before the painter was due Cheryl glanced up at the wall which had developed a strange dark patch at the top which looked a bit damp – bugger, yet another step backwards!

This was the weekend of Storm Dennis and whilst Seaton escaped the worst of the weather, the combination of wind and constant driving rain had resulted in water getting in around the chimney stack.  We looked carefully at the wall in the spare bedroom – and that too showed a damp patch which was less obvious on the wallpaper.

We cancelled the spray man and moved back into our bedroom.  We need to get scaffolding and work to repair the flashing and possibly repoint both chimneys – another potentially huge unforeseen expense.  Scaffolding will cost around £1500 and as I write we are still waiting for quotes for the repairs.  To say we were a bit pissed off is a massive understatement, especially as we felt that we were getting close to having one finished room.  It’s also another piece of work that will need to join the plate spinning as once the scaffold is up it stays for weeks and will block the driveway so no other workmen can get their vehicles in.

Always look on the bright side

On a more positive note, we have had some progress.  The engineer completed his calculations and sent us some complex drawings which we didn’t really understand.  We were advised by the building firm that although none of our alterations need planning permission, we would need to raise a building control notice as the local council will need to sign off any structural work.  A straightforward online process but an upfront cost of £470, and hopefully that will be enough to cover all the site visits we need.

A week later the head of the building firm returned to mark up walls and calculate final costs for steels and lintels.  He also suggested he may be able to carry out the work in a few weeks time – fingers crossed on that one.

With the possibility that work could start at any time we set about getting rid of the kitchen units we definitely wouldn’t be reusing in the workshop. We don’t like to put anything usable into landfill so thought we would have a go at giving them away but weren’t confident as although it’s a good quality John Lewis kitchen it is a bit dated. We needn’t have worried as just after placing a quick ad offering a range of old units ‘free to collector’ Cheryl’s phone didn’t stop buzzing. A few days later, and the units were gone.

We also took out the diagonal tiled false wall which was behind the AGA and discovered some interesting 1950’s wallpaper.  The kitchen is a bit of a mess but still functional for the time being.  We have to remove the remaining units and worktop on the big wall which is coming down but that will wait until just before the work starts.

The Heat is Off

A decision was finally made about the heating & water system following several changes of mind over whether to get a combi boiler or pressurized system.  We’ve gone for a combi storage boiler – a clever halfway house which should be sufficient to meet our everyday needs plus the few occasions when we have visitors. We don’t need an additional water tank which means we don’t have to give up space in the utility and the door into the greenhouse can stay.  All of which saves cost – just as well given the new found chimney problem. 

Even better we found Matt the plumber who was able to quote promptly and is available at the start of March. We can’t start the structural stuff until the plumbing is complete as it involves repositioning of some radiators so that’s a real bonus.  He also comes with another big bonus.  For the last few years he’s only worked 6 months of the year, preferring to spend 6 months travelling like we did.  So, in a nutshell, he’s not VAT registered……yay, 20% off!

The replacement of the boiler isn’t straightforward as Neil needs to rebuild part of the wall where it will hang.  The old boiler needs to go before this can happen so the installation work will take a few days and mean no heating and hot water until its done and it’s not that warm at the moment.  It’ll remind us both of when we were kids, waking up in the morning with ice on the insides of the windows because we didn’t have central heating.  Luckily the wood burner in the study works so we will have one cosy room even if we do start to pong a bit.

Maybe next month we will have some real progress to report……….

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.  

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.

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. 

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. 

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!

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.

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.

Finally, the big day came, September 19^th 2019.   The sun shone brightly and Mike (aka Man With Van, plus mate) came to load up with our few belongings and bits of furniture…..one single garage full!  We drove on ahead to Devon expecting to find the house empty as the vendors had told us the week previously that they would be out by the night before.  As we turned into the drive we were greeted by a number of removal men still loading the van, the vendors pottering around and their stressed cleaner losing the battle to clean up behind furniture which hadn’t been moved for over twenty years.  This was Thursday and they had been loading the van since Monday! They had managed to clear most things from the house, but the garage & sheds were still full.

The previous owners, who are in their late eighties, were very apologetic that they hadn’t moved out in time and sadly admitted that as they removed one of their massive wardrobes from the bedroom a large piece of wallpaper peeled itself off the wall.  It did look bad, but we saw the funny side as we didn’t like it anyway and it wasn’t too difficult to stick it back up again temporarily.

Neil asked their removal men to shift the Luton van they were using to shuttle stuff from the house to the much larger lorry parked in a wider street nearby so our men could move their Luton van in to unload.  ‘How many vans have you got?’ he asked and was totally bemused when Neil said ‘one!’  The guy must have repeated his question three times before he finally accepted that we did have just ‘one!’

Amongst the chaos we got a visit from Alistair, the estate agent who sold the house to us, and he came with a lovely hamper full of local produce……a very nice touch.   We finally got their men out.  Our men in & out in less than an hour including a stop for tea & biscuits.  Their men back in to finish clearing the outbuildings and we got the vendors to stop hovering over us and focus on their remaining packing.  Finally a few hours later we were alone in our new home to start our unpacking…..phew!

It wasn’t long before it was time to start the process of getting to know people.  We started with The Hat for a couple of beers.  It’s run by Gary, a South African, and it’s a quirky micropub located in an old butcher’s shop.  The original tiles are still on the wall and the seating is at shared high tables.  They serve local craft beers, ciders and a selection of gins.  They have a few snacks, and mobile phones should be on silent.  If you want to make a call you go outside.  Orders are taken at your table and you have a hand written tab.   We ended our first evening in of the two local Indian restaurants.  It wasn’t bad at all. We think we’re going to like this town but, hey, it’s TBL if we don’t!

The next few days were spent getting used to the new place and deciding where to put the few things we brought with us.  We knew the house was big, but without all the previous clutter we could see just how big it is, and what a contrast to the past ten years spending our summers living in a touring caravan.  The empty rooms looked sad with faded patches where pictures had hung for years and numerous wires hanging out where the wall lights had been taken out.

Our second evening was spent with Glyn & Diane who are heavily involved in the town Twinning Association.  We met in the sunshine for a few drinks outside The Vaults, a pub overlooking the Esplanade, followed by dinner in the Malthouse, an independent Pub in the town.  We saw them again at the Twinning Association Quiz night the following week.  We’ve joined and hope to participate in the next visit to Thury Harcourt in Normandy which should take place in Spring 2020.

We had our first visitors at the weekend. Neil’s brother Bill and his wife Sue travelled from London and brought us some beautiful glasses as a house warming present.  The weather cleared up enough for a short walk along the esplanade and cliff gardens to see the view across the bay. We headed into town for a few drinks in The Hat followed by dinner in The Caper which serves Tapas from around the World.

Towards the end of their visit we made more discoveries about the house.  Bill and Neil went up into the loft and came down with some very old mirrors which we think were the originals from the bathroom and bedrooms, maybe going back to the 1920’s and we’re going to try and restore them.  The second discovery was less welcome.  There was absolutely no loft insulation at all.  The previous owner had the wall cavities filled and part boarded the loft but bizarrely omitted the loft insulation!!  Luckily we found a great handyman and a few days later with a few trips to Homebase and a delivery from B&Q we were deboarded and fully insulated to the current recommended level of 270mm, which is pretty thick. Neil was absolutely knackered from all the trips up and down the stairs carrying bales of insulation up and sheets of flooring down.

Week two was focused on getting jobs done – gutters cleaned, dusk to dawn light switch fitted for porch and driveway lights, electrics safety check and LED bulbs installed.  Do the remaining changes of address which only allow you to do once you have moved.  Opening a joint bank account for the bills, signing up with utilities, council tax and setting up all the direct debits done.  Meeting the neighbours and discovering no one else is from Devon! Participating in Fiverfest where the local independent shops had great special offers for a fiver all over town to encourage every adult to spend a fiver a week.

We got to know the gardener, Mark, and decided to keep him on over the Winter to keep the garden under control while we are away.  We had the local building firm in to discuss options for remodeling & getting scale drawings done so we can decide exactly what is possible and we want to do.  We met a kitchen fitter and got some initial designs done so we can start planning & budgeting.  We managed to get some plumbers in to quote for replacing the 20+ year old boiler with a more efficient one.  Lastly, a couple of assessments from a tree surgeon as a few of the trees have become way too big and need to be cut back or taken out completely.  Fortunately, all were assessed as being OK to deal with when we get back in the Spring.

Glyn & Diane very kindly agreed to look in on the house while we are away and met us on Friday to have a look around and get a set of keys.  We went for an excellent meal in the local steakhouse, The Shed, followed by drinks in The Clarence which had pretty good live music.

Week three was a little calmer and gave us more time to get to know the house and think about how we would like to change it.  We do want it to have a more open plan feel and to tone down the décor whilst being sympathetic to the 1928 character of the building.  The vendors did leave an enticing bundle of original deeds and documents which we haven’t had time to look through and we’re looking forward to discovering its history and its previous owners. 

Alex & Freddy managed a quick visit during our last weekend.  We had a long walk around the town, along the esplanade to Axmouth Harbour and back ending with tea, cakes & a Vietnamese coffee in The Hideaway Café overlooking the beach. Drinks in The Hat followed by dinner in The Caper on Saturday night. We took the stunning coastal walk from Seaton to Beer on Sunday and enjoyed a cream tea in the late September sunshine on the beach.

Our last week and a surprise visit from John & Yvonne, friends we met in Goa.  They had booked a glass blowing course in Beer and suggested we meet up for dinner.  Another evening of drinks in The Hat followed by dinner in The Malthouse.  A great evening and a good chance to catch up before we meet again in Goa.

Our last evening in Seaton was spent with Glyn & Diane, starting with, yes you guessed it, drinks in The Hat.  We ate in the other Indian, Monsoon which is BYO, and had better food than the other one in town.  It felt really sad to say goodbye to Glyn & Diane. Thanks both for welcoming us to Seaton and helping us settle in.

Saturday morning and it was time to pack our bags & get the house ready for the winter.  Our three weeks went by in a flash and we didn’t want to leave.  Seaton is a lovely place, its sleepy and the pace of life is slow, but everyone seems friendly.  We’re looking forward to the usual fun in Goa, but we’re also looking forward to going back to the house and making it our home.

The journey to Goa always starts with saying goodbyes to friends and family.  We spent a couple of nights in Bristol with Paul, Miranda and number one grandson.  He’s pretty stable on his feet now and such a happy little soul.  We will miss him a lot while we are away and look forward to photos and videos from his proud parents while we are away.

Next stop Gloucester for two nights with Roy & June.  June is recovering from a knee replacement and gradually improved while we were staying.  We hope to see her running around by the time we get back!

On to London by train where we had dinner with Leanne & Neil on our first night.  We stayed with Alex & Freddy and on the Friday attended a very special ceremony in the Guildhall.  Alex was granted Freedom of the City of London and is now entitled to drive his sheep across London Bridge! He was invited to become a member of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists a couple of years ago and this was the formal ceremony to make him a Freeman. We had an interesting and informative  talk on the history of Freemen (and women) and were shown certificates and signatures of many previous and current holders.  Next stop was to the pub with friends to celebrate followed by excellent food in their local Italian restaurant. 

It was soon time to head to Heathrow for our flight to Goa via Mumbai.  We wonder if Benaulim has seen any changes this year?

Since the last posting we’ve been treading water to some extent.  Moving house for many people can be quite stressful as you don’t realise how much ‘stuff’ you’ve collected until you start to pack things.  As we haven’t had a formal home for 11 years for us it was easy.  We don’t have many personal possessions like clothes, nick-nacks and furniture……our world fits into a single garage with room to spare. 

In August we had a visit from Tony and Brenda which was great fun, hey, it always is when we get together.  They had never visited Bristol before, so it felt quite strange for us being tourists in our own town.  We caught the bus and wandered around the centre, listened to the choir practicing in Bristol Cathedral, visited Cheryl’s old school and Bristol Central Library where the little swot spent much of her time, walked over the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge and had a fine lunch in The Commercial Rooms on historic Corn Street.  Like a lot of people, we live on the outskirts of town and rarely explore the city centre these days so we discovered things in hometown Bristol that we didn’t know existed…………..and now we’re leaving!

We took another trip down to Seaton to visit the house again and get some instructions on how the heating works, how to operate the AGA and where various switches were.  We had great weather making this another BBQ trip, superb walking along the coastal path and enjoying the masses of blackberries that we have this year.  On the way home we dropped the caravan off at the new storage compound which will be its new home for the winter. It was meant to be a quick stop but the owner, a delightful old boy with a Devon accent as thick as clotted cream definitely wanted to chat so an hour and a half later we were on our way.

We had another ‘sibling lunch’ with Neil’s brothers and sisters and their partners.  Whilst the food was mediocre the company was superb.  We met in the historic Highwayman Inn that Neil frequented when he was in his late teens.  In those days if you wanted to impress a girl this was one of the country pubs you went to. 

It was also time to get all things medical done before we move.  We won’t have much time in Devon so getting eyes tested, an MOT at the doctors, flu and pneumonia jabs for the old pensioner (AKA Neil).  We’ve also started the process of changing our address on memberships and less important things.  Do you know how many things you have to change?  We have at least 50!!   If there is one good reason not to move house it’s the number of addresses you have to change.  To make it all worse, the financial institutions are particularly anal about the process and the timing of the changes.  ‘Jump through this hoop, skip through that hoop and provide your inside leg measurement’ before you can even start the process.  

The final planning for the packing concentrated our minds plus the general logistics of what goes where, when it goes there and the question of will everything fit into the removal van and the car.  They do say that to help stave off dementia keeping the mind alert helps, well moving to a new house certainly ticks that box. 

Just a day before the move we had a visit from our old friends from Sydney.  Chris and Viv were on their annual trip to the UK to visit friends and family.  It was a flying visit as this time Chris only had two weeks, so we really appreciate them fitting us in.  Neil has known Chris since the early 70’s but nothing much has changed other than a little bit less hair and a few extra inches on the waistline.  Weather was amazing, 20C and blazing sunshine which for mid September was quite unusual.  It has been a BBQ summer and who else to have one final al fresco meal with other than a couple of Aussies!  Of course, a few beers were sunk, the wine flowed and the reminiscing brought about lots of laughing. 

This is the final blog entry to bring chapter 11 to a close.  It’s been a different year for us with most of the time spent in the UK focused on finding our new home.  Chapter 12 will follow as soon as we have moved and settled in.  It’s definitely a new phase in our lives and we are looking forward to being in our home and settling into our new community.

You may remember that back in May we were spending our days walking in The Forest of Dean.  What we didn’t tell you is that we took a couple of days out to go shopping.

We’ve not lived a conventional life since we started that first six month trip back in 2008. Living a nomadic lifestyle split between long winter trips overseas and summer tours of the UK in our caravan has become normal for us.  However, over the last couple of years we’ve spent our time looking at various locations in the UK to buy our first home together.   We looked at coastal towns as we both love being by the sea, as well as various locations mainly in the South West.  We both had our own set of ‘must have requirements’ meaning that compromise was always going to happen. 

One day Cheryl showed Neil a house on Rightmove that took her fancy expecting him to say ‘no, absolutely not, it’s too expensive, it’s a money pit and hadn’t you noticed it’s way too big for two people?’.  He said all of the above but did agree to see it so we booked a viewing and then went again the next day to have another look. 

Well, it’s certainly more than we planned to spend, it probably is a money pit and it’s definitely much too big but we just fell in love with it even though it needs lots of remodelling and modernisation to satisfy our ‘must have requirements’. 

It wasn’t plain sailing through the sales process and several times we thought it was going to fall apart.  First the owners hadn’t found somewhere to move to, and that process took a month.  Then two months later when we went to visit them, they revealed that the first purchase wasn’t in the frame anymore but ‘not to worry, we’ve agreed a price on a house today’!  So, that’s three months gone already.  Then they revealed that the house was the subject of probate and we knew that process could take months.  Fortunately, they agreed to move into rented accommodation if needed.  Then there was another sticky moment when the drain survey revealed one or two potential problems.  Again, the sellers came up trumps and agreed to split the cost of the repairs. 

The house is in Seaton in Devon and it was built in 1928.  It’s a 5 minute walk to the beach, town, pubs, tennis courts, a proper butcher, The Purbeck Coastal Path, gym, theatre/cinema, Seaton Tramway, Jurassic Centre, Wetland Wildlife Trust, in fact, just about everything.  The garden is a whopping 0.75 of an acre with stunning specimen trees planted by the current owners who are nearing 90 years old.  It has several man caves, a garage, conservatory, loggia and a summer house. We also have a proper Croquet Lawn – now all we have to do is buy a croquet set and learn the rules. 

Ah, almost forgot.  It’ll also need furnishing and as we’ve not actually had a traditional home for the last 11 years our entire world fits into a single garage.  This means lots of shopping………. ‘deep joy’ said Neil.  Who cares, we’re excited about knocking down walls, changing the kitchen and installing some bathrooms, excited about putting down some roots, excited about living by the sea and just generally, as you might have worked out, very, very excited. 

We’ve just exchanged contracts and move in mid September.  We have several spare rooms if you want to come and visit, just let us know. 

No posts for a while as we’ve just been enjoying the better weather since the boat trip and lots of walking.  We’re around Bristol so we’ve also had some house things to do.

We took a couple of weeks out to go to the south Devon coast in the caravan and did lots and lots of walking.  The coastal path here is stunning as it’s along the famous Jurassic Coast.  The campsite was a short drive to the coast and we found a number of walks towards Beer, Seaton and a particularly long stretch from Seaton to Lyme Regis.  We even got our running shoes on and found a quiet route along country lanes and footpaths from the campsite.  The perfect weather made up for the lousy weather we had on the narrow boat, 10 nights, 10 BBQ’s and 10 sunsets from the wonderful west facing view across open countryside from our campsite.

Leaving Devon on the day before School Holidays started Neil decided we should set off early and, as we were headed North we should miss most of the traffic.  How wrong could he be?  He couldn’t predict the fuel spillage which shut the M5 Northbound just before Taunton.  Google maps helpfully showed us that the detour route on the A38 was solid and suggested a great cut through using country lanes.  Unfortunately, with a caravan on tow we accepted our fate and crawled along with the rest of the traffic.  We eventually made it back onto the M5 and looked for the nearest services for a much needed comfort break.  Unfortunately again, this was the plan for the rest of the delayed traffic and the slip road to the services was blocked with waiting vehicles.  It was the same at each of the services we reluctantly had to pass by.  In the end a less than 2 hour journey turned into over 4 tortuous hours with bladders bursting.

The next week we headed to June’s for a welcome party.  Neil’s niece, Lisa, arrived from Melbourne for 4 weeks visiting family and friends that she hadn’t seen for 5 years.  We stayed with her family in Australia 2 years ago but it was great to see her again surrounded by her mum and dad and 2 sisters.  It was a great evening with yet another BBQ on the hottest day of the year so far!

Then we headed up to Cheshire to visit Leanne and young Neil where, oooo surprise, we had a BBQ……this time in the p***ing down rain.  Thank you for the covered area outside the house.  Leanne announced that she had two wasps nests under the facia boards at the front of the house.  Neil realised that they could be reached from the bedroom windows so at dusk the two Neils sprayed the nests.  The following morning there were no wasps flying in and out.  When Leanne looked out through the downstairs window there was carnage!!  Out on the terrace there were two huge piles of dead wasps…….result.

Sunday arrived and Cheryl and Leanne headed off to Champneys Springs Health Spa for a celebratory girls session with Lisa.  11 ladies (Neil used that term lightly) armed with their body weight in Prosecco and snacks descended on the hotel for 2 days of pampering, exercise, eating, drinking and laughing.  They had a hoot.

Watch out for the next blog issue, we hope to have big news!