Autumn has arrived

I can tell as we have had rain pretty much non stop for so many days. And its getting colder.



Part 1:
So obviously thats a great time to have my boiler changed! Which is why on a Saturday morning in late October I am sitting in my conservatory (sitting room is out of action) with no heating, gas, water or electricty. My office, which is aorund the corner of the house form the conservatory but open into it, is so tidy and lovely. I have been chucking stuff out and decluttering all morning. Very enjoyable! But I do need something to make it just a bit lovlier. I have a curtain I might hang over the bathroom door. Its a long and narrow room so i cant really move the furniture around. I dont like the flooring so maybe a rug would help. I have plenty of time to contemplate it as I sit here in the cold and gloom :)

Part 2:
Boiler is in, water is back on, as is gas, power, heating(ah, lovely) and the wifi. I am always appreciative of these luxuries, especially since when we are at the other house the power and water often go off for hours at a time, but i'll be especially grateful today having been without them yesterday.

My old boiler was about 30 years old. Gas Man Adam tells me that the new poiler is 98% efficient so my gas bill should plummet. So good for m y purse, good for the enviroment. I might allow the heating on more often too, so good for the rest of the family too!

I am writing this from the conservatory still. We havent taken all the furntiure back in and cleared up properly yet. Its still not especially warm out here, and this is our largest room, so I am wondering if lining the curtains and remembering to shut them at night might be a good idea. I like to have some indoor projects to do during winter so maybe thats on my list, and also covering the chaors. The old fabric is not my favourite but I have some lovely fabric i brought back from Crete which would work.

We cleared all of the shoes, boots, bags, coats and general clutter form the hallways yesterday to make it easier for the gasmen. It looks so good that we are trying to leave it relatively unlcuttered. I wonder how long that will last!

So today is all about putting furniture and other bits back/away. The sitting room needs a bit of touch up to the painting in the but basically its ok, not much. The fireplace where the old back boiler was is going to be lined and framed off and used to store the sky box, games consules, surround sound and so on.

The wall where the thermostt used to be is now clear of stuff so I plan to put a large miroor there. Oh and Jamal now has a wardrobe, the old airing cupboard but the tank is removed and the boiler is fairly small. I am sure he wont be any more tidy than he was before though.

And Happy Diwali to all

Super Saturday

Thats what the papers are calling today. First time parliament has sat on a Saturday for 37 years. However I wont be talking about that because I am heartily fed up with all of our politicians & with the B word.

So instead!

Its rained all week here. If i had anything still growing on the allotment then it would be very happy. Instead its raining and neither my garden nor the allotment really care. Doh!



Fahed and Jamal were working over there this week though on our new 'no dig' way of doing things.
We'll be planting garlic and shallots in this bed at the end of the month.


And today, as most Saturdays, I went out with my dad. We went to look at gas fires. And then for lunch at Wetherspoons.






This afternoon was back home to help in the garden. fahed is building what he calls a barbecue but what seems to be turning into an outdoor kitchen. But i love cooking in the garden so its all good with me :)

Lets talk about something good!

• I went to the other house and it was lovely!
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• My dad came with us, with my youngest son, for the first 5 days.  Its his first time since losing my mum and he definitely had some sad moments, as did I, but overall he was happy he came and he did enjoy himself. My other son and his girlfriend stayed for another week after that. We had a great time but less holidayish and more work, work, work :). After they went we had a final 8 days with just Fahed and I, and that was even more work! But it was great and I love the progress we make in such a short time.
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• I have a got done list!

• Property registered. Everyone was telling me what a complete arse ache this was but because we accidentally had the property only in one name and because, although we have multiple houses (only one fit for purpose) they are all on one piece of land. On top of that the surveyor who legalised our land had already confirmed the GPS co-ordinates. So I was happy with this and it certainly didn't cost as much as these things normally seem to do!
• Had an electric plan made of the old house which we can use to change the name on the electricity supply. It surprisingly hard to get the name change (hence 12 years later still in my neighbours late fathers name) but we have made progress.
• We enquired about the old stone water tower which is behind and above our house, 5.5m sq and 3m high, and found that because it has been out of use for more than 15 years then it now belongs to us. We need to fit windows and doors but suddenly we have another potential rental property and at the very least, a way to gain an extra bedroom.
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• I had three more cameras fitted at the house. We can see all sides from outside, one inside upstairs,one inside downstairs, and my favourite,. One that looks out from my balcony towards the sea :). So far the biggest problem with this is that it makes me homesick!
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• We re-purchased all of the goods that we had stolen so that the insurance company could have the receipts. I have submitted everything and am waiting on the cheque.
• One of those re-puchases was for a plate compactor. Fahed fixed our drive, which is basically a road about 1590m long and the last 20 metres down tot he official road was awful, like driving off a cliff awful but now its smooth and lovely!
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• He also started work on the garden. Got all the long grasses and weeds cut back, laid some membrane, laid 10 ton (yes, actual ten tons) of scalping's and compressed them into a sensible back yard where you can walk with falling over. We also surveyed the rest of the land, which is pretty difficult to climb around and found we have about 7 olives trees, numerous carob trees and a couple of figs trees. We need to take the chain saw out in spring and really sort the poor neglected old things out. We also need to sort out a watering system.
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• The kids painted their bedroom and it looks so lovely that we now feel the need to paint everything else. We also identified that the windows on the side which butts up to a rock face have never been filled properly, so that needs doing before we paint the others.
• We bought some wood and made shelves for their room, and they look fantastic.
  
  
  
• Fahed framed a wonderful abstract oil painted map of the world to hang in our room. 
• Today I am hoping we can make a plan of our spring 'to do' list.
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• Now I need to try to add some phots!