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.

Seems ironic that the first thing we did after they'd cleared the drive was clutter it up again, with more tree cuttings.  At least my efforts were moved by the person responsible [and her lovely husband, natch].
Roy called over the fence last night, to warn us he was going to be burning garden waste as soon as it got dark, so I was picking his brains about whether things burn/how easily...

He reckons conifer cuttings go nicely.

I think we're going to have a big bonfire as soon as we've cleared the space away from trees.  We were intending to incinerate the garden rubbish just to get ahead of ourselves [we will start composting when it's no longer such a mammoth task just to get to the buildings], but thought we'd have to wait for it all to dry out for at least a year.  Sounds like we can be much more impatient than that.

[Modified] Plan A: mound it up under the oak tree, clear a burning space, move stuff to the space and have a hedgehog-free bonfire [we'd both hate to have charred critters on our consciences]; let's hope it comes to pass sooner rather than later.

Note to self: hornbeam saplings were very hard, so may need seasoning before they will ignite?