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!