Last day of our 'holiday'

We've had a great week and a half, and today was another gorgeous day where we achieved a lot; really glad we decided to stay home & tackle the garden at Brookside, rather than heading to France - we'd only have been fretting, I suspect.  A change is as good as a rest, so they say, and it's all undergone quite a change.

We carried on hacking at the undergrowth [overgrowth?].  I resumed pulling out the brambles by the fallen limbs of the conifer nearest the outbuilding, whilst David strimmed [strum?] the edge between 'lawn' and brambles; it's easier to remove the prickly bits if they're not tangled up in the long grass.

I was enjoying the heady smell of 2-stroke mix - which took me back to the last time I lived in a place with a 'proper' garden, and helped Dad out by mowing the lawns/orchard [so about 30 years!] - when the pull-cord to start the machine went phut [or maybe splat, who knows?].

Happy Wedding Anniversary!

We so nearly managed to celebrate a wedding anniversary living in an "our" home [as opposed to David's or my home]; at least we spent time at Brookside on the day.

It's only taken us twelve years!

This year I won the "who, if anyone, will remember the anniversary" competition; I remembered yesterday, and would have snuck some fizz in the fridge had there been an open box.  As it was, I didn't want to rummage around in his wine rack, so made him a celebratory Post-It note, and caught him out that way.

It's a good job we care more about being married than presents or cards; we're both pretty rubbish about remembering some day over a decade ago.

Enjoying a celebratory pork pie!

We enjoyed a picnic on our cercle manoir, and shortly we will be having a glass of champagne (or two).  I can tell he still loves me: he brought me a cauliflower stalk to munch on whilst I am updating the blog.

Electrics, Day 3

David started the day off well: he asked British Gas if there was gas in our road [there is] and they are investigating and sending a price for connecting us to the grid and installing a meter.  They have also arranged a site inspection to quote for a boiler.

We had called in at Wards in Headcorn earlier in the week, hoping to see Emma (and say 'thank you' to her for all her efforts in trying to find us a house), but she wasn't there so we left the message with her colleague.  We were trundling through Headcorn today, and there were loads of green balloons outside the office (which definitely drew the eye), and I thought I saw Emma outside in a lurid green t-shirt, so I persuaded David to turn round; if it was her, I really wanted to say thanks in person...

Electrics, Day 2

We spent another seven hours at the house, working out what lights & power sockets we should have where...

Subject to the fact that we can't afford to do what I feel would be right; we're trying to come to the best compromises we can.

It is 'breaking our heads', but we feel we are making real progress...  It's an immense challenge to guess how we'd live in the house when we have barely spent more than a couple of hours there, but we've been 'playing house' with a stepladder acting the role of 'sofa', and a trug as coffee table; well, you can probably guess the rest.

You might not have guessed that we were holding a standard lamp up to the ceiling to simulate ceiling lights, but putting it on the coolbox is surprisingly effective.

Whatever we manage, there will be good points and mistakes, but I think we both know that, and short of knocking through solid masonry walls and changing the shape of the rooms, we can't make it as good as it could/should be.

With an unlimited budget, we would change the stairs, and make a proper utility room and gain a shower room as well.  As it is, we are likely to change the downstairs bathroom into shower/laundry room, with a freezer for good measure.

We will make it a really nice home, and knowing it is now safe feels like a huge burden has been lifted...  Although I did have a panic when we could smell burning!

Someone else's turn for the bonfire, I suspect.

Rain stops play...

Before it even starts.  We woke to rain & sogginess; not nice for bonfires or strimming/kneeling in long grass hoiking out brambles, so we did the various bits that needed doing in Maidstone and headed to the house for an afternoon's wrangling with the electrical plans.

In a way, the weather did us a huge favour: whilst it has been so good, we've really felt the need to press on with the exterior work, but with Steve suddenly available two weeks earlier, now the wiring drawings take precedence.

We got to the house about 1pm, and Steve was there dropping off his revised estimate; he's totally OK about re-using the salvageable items already in situ, and has priced for the cheapest 'contractor' standard fittings throughout, which has helped.  Any reclaimed socket/switch we can use will bring the bill down a little more each time.

First day of autumn

And, boy, did it feel like it this morning; very nippy for those of us still dressed for summer [i.e. same clothes to travel in as yesterday].  Having changed into my work clothes at the house, I spent at least half an hour wearing my gardening coat zipped up to the neck, and then another 40 minutes or so with my sweatshirt on; the rest of the week we have been in t-shirts when working, and only once put on another layer as we stopped for lunch

Monday, 22 September - Yay!

Steve came; that's not the yay...

I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to work with that bloke: I know he's come highly recommended, and can start immediately [which is setting off my hinkiness meter], but he does not shut up.  Sorry, that doesn't do it justice: the bloke DOES NOT STOP TALKING!

Cream-crackered...

But happy.

Not about UKPN, obviously...

But about the progress we are making on the garden and outdoors generally.

I cleared the brambles from the side of the lawn at the front of the house whilst David chopped up the last few trees I'd felled last night; I was too tired, and they were too big to move as they were, so I just left them clogging up where I was creating a space for the bonfire.  He finished that and we swapped places.  [We were still (stupidly) hoping that UK Power Networks wouldn't let us down again; fat chance - electrics remain dangerous, and we're paying more rent on a place because we can't move into a house we own.  Not chuffed.]

Steve came...

[Ouch!]

UK Power Networks didn't...

Friday, 19 September

UK Power were another no-show!

Allegedly, they will now come tomorrow and Sunday; we shall see...

I honestly believed that they were taking that sort of thing seriously, but it seems not.  Steve, who is coming tomorrow (to possibly horrify us with his estimate and, hopefully, fix us up with some power), told us of another property with an unsafe supply: they did make it safe fairly quickly, but then left the house without power for 17 days after - what's that all about?!

Thursday, 18 September

We went to Brookside to wait for UK Power Networks to come and make safe the electricity supply.

We called at Wyevale in Willesborough on the way, as I'd asked them to put aside the only extends-to-4m handle we have seen recently.  [We also picked up a small, vicious-looking bow saw, for me to carry on my tree chopping (we hoped that it would prove even better than my pruning saw, which it did).]  So I had another bash at the valleys on the roof.  I completely cleared the lead-flashed one, but there are bits of broken tile and mortar in the other one that I couldn't get past the two slipped tiles.  The 4m length is just long enough.  When we got home, the "other" end for my Wolf tool was waiting [a single hook a bit like a plough share], so that was the project for Friday; see if the narrower end would coax the debris past the blockage.

More tidying, lots of bleach

We bought a larger step-ladder, and a Wolf Garten extending tool handle and, after much debate, went for the 3m rather than 4m one [mainly because it was marked down to £20, the only one marked down].  Willesborough had hardly any of the interchangeable attachments, so we went to Ham Street.  The trip to the second garden centre found us an end that would be suitable for poking the rubbish in the valleys on the roof.

I'd seen an aerator tool, that I thought would be perfect, but we'd been buying an armful of stuff that day so I didn't buy it...  Now when I wanted one, neither Wyevale had one in stock.

The cultiweeder was pretty good, but where there were a couple of slipped tiles [another thing to ask Paul to have a look at, or maybe a roofer (there were a couple of lumps or render among the detritus, so I'm not sure about the integrity of the valley on that side)] the spikes got caught a couple of times.  The mini-hoe bit was excellent, though, for dislodging some of the more rooted weeds.

If we have to get a roofer out, I might ask him to price for re-doing the tiled valley - it was much harder to clean, and more clogged, than the one lined with lead flashing.  I got a full trug from the tile valley, and about two-thirds from the other one.

Asbestos, I laugh in your face!

We thought the asbestos would be our biggest worry - there is a section of guttering and a [broken] downspout that are asbestos...

I also found what I suspect is the rest of the asbestos guttering that had been replaced in the newly-accessible side part [annexe? (yay to hacking my way to that!)] of the garage...  And various bits of gutter and soffit board in among the 'flower bed' I was clearing.  I had been wondering why they didn't replace the whole gutter when they did the other three quarters, but talking with Steve (vide infra) later it's all dropped into place - the main electricity supply comes in on a bracket that is attached to the fascia board just under (and touching) the old gutter; I'm guessing it's that?

We will have to deal with it at some point, but everyone agrees for now that left completely untouched, it's causing no harm.  So, apart from clearing the guttering and taping together the downspout, we're going to 'let sleeping dragons lie'.

Martin's Septic Tank Advice

Martin, from MTS [which, having talked with him, we've decided stands for "Martin Trucks Sh*t"] ran through his Top Tips for not backing-up your septic tank:

• The usual for all lavatories: no sanitary products, no nappies, no wipes [and note to my friend's neighbours, the Moore family, who shared their tank: all of the above, plus no loaves of bread, no toys (soldiers especially), still no nappies (despite repeated requests)] - just normal behaviour;
• Use only liquid washing "powder" [the powder can form a concrete-like crust, as well as clogging up your washing machine], and do a very hot cycle (as hot as it goes) every couple of weeks - we do a hot wash for towels/sheets/tea towels anyway, but will have to buy liquid detergent;
• Bleach is OK in moderation - now I'm much less house proud, I can do that, too!;
• When it starts draining slowly/backing up, time to call MTS - noted;
• Keep an eye on the soakaway once the tank is filled [and fingers crossed that that works fine...]

So nothing revolutionary, but from the tales he was telling us it sounds as though some people really do need a detailed instruction manual on how to use a toilet!

[I suspect when you're on a septic tank and have to pay for MTS to deal with problems caused by individuals in your household, you get tough pretty quickly, and it's only the big utility companies who have to repeatedly get those guys in to clear blockages in the sewers... *Shudder* ]

Something bit me!

Or possibly several somethings?

It looks as though it (they?) got trapped under my t-shirt, and tried to chew their way out?

It certainly feels that way!

Toadstools

Water, water, everywhere...

Or not!

Having named this blog : "Our Life by the Stream", I went for a wander in the woods yesterday [and lowered my blood-pressure about ten points, I think] and actually made it to the far end of the land...

Because the stream has dried up, I could step across easily.  I was expecting to get as far as the stream and no further.  I'm hopeful this is just a blip because the summer has been mostly dry, but suspect it's not really a stream and just a run-off during wet weather...

All ponds on our land are also dried up [although a couple I could see on the neighbours properties had water, so maybe digging them out would be worth it?].

Oh, well.

Tabula rasa

The house and garden really are a "project" - we might be able to keep the bathrooms/sanitary ware [depending on whether I can get it clean (enough)], but everything else is going to have to be stripped back - we are just hacking back everything in the garden, and pretty much the same will happen in the house.  The wallpaper is falling off the walls in the "library" [we don't need a third reception room, but my books sure do need somewhere to 'live'], and there's only a sink in the kitchen [mounted on 2x2 legs, and a bit of worktop resting on the draining board (and more 2x2)], and some what look like 1950s cabinets.

It's going to be a start-from-scratch/blank slate job, and it's going to be exciting!

We met Paul and Claire there the weekend before completing; they had the contract to remove the last of the fly-tipping [a load of tree cuttings].  We're always mystified how people can cart a van-load of stuff into the countryside and then dump it, when all councils will take domestic refuse at the tip amenity waste facility.  You've got to load & unload, you've clearly got a vehicle, both are free, so why not do it properly?

Oh, well, some people are weird.

"Cercle manoir"

We've got a "cercle manoir" in England before we've got one in France.

Hiding, under a branch & weeds

 [Despite owning one in France eight years, we still haven't found time to install it - perhaps next trip?]

Moved to its site, March 2010

And the one in England seems to have a pump for a fountain?

Delivered, September 2006

OK, so we've got to get the Leylandii branch off it before we can see the whole thing, but it's there.

Finally!

We've made a move back to our roots, and bought our "dream" home Kent.

Both David and I grew up in the countryside [he in Kent, I in Shropshire/Staffordshire], and we've been plotting our "escape to the country" for an embarrassing number on years now...

And we're finally here!

Well, we're not there, yet; the house is not currently habitable, so we're still in rented accommodation in Maidstone, but we're got the keys and have started taming the outside.  We've been slashing brambles, thistles, overgrown grass, overgrown conifers, and saplings that have grown where the wildflower meadow should be.  You can now walk all around the house, and there's a path to the septic tank and another to the designated dumping ground [we've just piled up all the cuttings to deal with later], and we can get from the gate to the garage.

David's organising the emptying of the septic tank, and we have the water board coming on Wednesday to turn on the water, so we'll be a step closer then.

I feel I can start to exhale at last.

And listening to the wood pigeons, crickets and dragonflies buzzing round hunting, it felt like coming home.

What more could we ask for?