Category: Uncategorized
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Fanta-stic
As the days get longer we’re spending less time working in the dark and cold. For the first time this weekend I regretted putting on my full thermal set, always a milestone of the changing weather. The colour of the light also seems to have changed, becoming warmer, and less sharp. Last weekend we rented…
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Opening doors
As spring begins to arrive, our garden has filled with snowdrops. It reminds me of the first time we saw the house. In fact, February marks a year since our first viewing. When I realised, I felt a slight sense of panic, thinking we’d already had a year of working on the house. But of…
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A (mostly) Family Affair
There is certainly something magical about crisp, clean snow. Returning to the house this weekend we found a winter wonderland awaiting us, with sparkling ice crystals covering even the most mundane of objects, such as our suddenly very bling skip. The magic had even infused the inside of the house, with friendly sprites having cracked…
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Tidying up
After our mammoth DIY holiday at Christmas, going back to weekends feels very slow. Still little by little things are coming along. The main reason our structural engineer recommended we kept the brick wall in the center of the two upstairs bedroom, was because she thought the end roof purlin might be resting on it.…
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It’s Christmas?
So far, in our renovation journey, we have only been able to take two weeks off, the rest being weekends and bank holidays. Those two weeks were both devoted to the roof. Now, with the new holiday year dawning, we were finally able to take another week off for inside work. That along with our…
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Stepping down
After a disappointing and frustrating day together, both myself and Chris headed back separately to do a little more work. Chris had to take a day off work for the delivery of the steel, while I took a separate day off as I had holiday to use up before the end of the year. Chris’s…
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Bah-humbug!
There are days when everything just seems to go wrong. After having a day off DIY for Chris to give his uncle a hand with turkey plucking, we were hopeful of a productive Sunday. Having had a massive stack of insulation delivered, which is now filling up most of our lounge, we began by trying…
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Holding things together
We arrived at the house this weekend to see a world of white. Being higher up than our current house, we drove from frost into flurries of snow. The highest hills were completely white, with the valleys still largely green. We started out by clearing out some of the last few bits and pieces left…
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Goodbye Scaffolding
Right back at the start of our renovation, one of our first jobs had been to collect a van-full of secondhand scaffolding. From unloading the van, to putting it up, to taking it down, moving it and putting it up again, assembling and disassembling the scaffolding has been one of the most exhausting parts of…
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Over Our Heads
Since we brought the house in May, we have been the ultimate in party poopers. I’ve said no to birthday parties, family gatherings and even just countryside walks. Unfortunately, with only weekends to get the house done, it’s a necessary sacrifice, thankfully only for this short period of our lives. Yet, there have been things…
Ruined 