Are we nearly there yet?

Are we nearly there yet?

I truly hope so.

The windows are in, though I have rejected the very large double glazed unit in the lounge, there are spots on, or in the glass! So that’s being changed, the two failed units upstairs are also still on order as is the front door. The window men were at last ‘proper’ workmen. They drank tea and ate biscuits and were a good laugh. They’ve also replaced the soffits of the kitchen which we only thought about at the last minute so hadn’t had Colin (the letting agent)’s man quote on, and still came in £800 less...

Parakeets in the back garden at our housesit in Moseley

They have left a little touching up to do in the kitchen, but so have Brian’s feet as he’s been into the loft there to fit insulation. The kitchen is virtually finished, just grout on the last few tiles which sadly aren’t quite the same as all the rest. Paul finished the walls and grouted and it was only after that that I noticed that 8 tiles although the same design were gloss instead of matt, they’d sent two incorrect boxes from Colin’s kitchen place. We’d been told to stay away from the kitchen delivery, if we damaged anything there would be hell to pay, so we did, sadly it would appear this meant no one checked! The matt tiles are discontinued, so we were left with the choice of ripping them all off which no one wanted to do, or leaving them up and working something out. So we’ve gone with gloss in one of the small window reveals and on the flat of the big window in the hope that with the light falling in the window and the fact they are horizontal it won’t look completely ridiculous! I also rejected the cooker Colin had proudly presented us with. The door doesn’t hang straight and looks quite peculiar....

There's a fox in next doors garden. In case you can't see it...

With the windows done we can now crack on with the porch which will only take a moment and Paul has finally started boarding in the bathroom. Are we really on the final ish leg?

In social news we’ve moved house again, we are neighbours to Helen and Ian looking after little old Freddie cat. It’s a lovely house with foxes and parakeets in the garden. Freddie is a sweetie and the neighbours aren’t too rowdy!

We’d only been here about an hour when Helen came pounding on the door, “can one of you come round the corner with me to Doreen please. I was round at Lavinia’s (her neighbour on the other side) and Doreen’s rung saying she’s had a fall!” We arrived to find a closer neighbour and two paramedics on the door step with the paramedic on the phone to Doreen saying “Just stay where you are love, there will be a couple of loud bangs as we kick the door in and we’ll be with you “ it was scary how easily they were in. At this point I stayed well out of it, she was chatting to the paramedics and clothes were being sorted for her to take to hospital. The next door neighbours (with a key) arrived and said they’d wait for the people to come and board the door up. At this point we left, a little bit of drama but all seemed well, except that sadly that night, Doreen died. Very sobering.

There he is!

We went for beer and curry with H&I on Friday, well you’ve got to keep in with the neighbours and are having dinner with them tonight. After afternoon tea with Alex and Rob. I’ve caught up with Alex a couple of times but we haven’t seen Rob, so that will be good and hopefully won’t exhaust Al too much, her new treatment is leaving her very fatigued and nauseous. 

Interesting flowers on the cacti in Fiona and Petes house

Brian has been to the dentist and for a skin check up which were both fine and yesterday we went, with mum, to see Jonathan, Lucy, Charles and Caroline. We had a lovely day. Charles is off to Nepal in about a month on World Challenge. He spends a fortnight ‘on project which in this case is further building work on a school, followed by a 10 day trek and a few days R&R at Chitwan National Park where we spent a very enjoyable few days ten years ago. He’s had to raise £4000 which he’s done so now it’s just going through the kit list. We went down laden with duffel bags, rucksacks, waterproof trousers, gaiters and all sorts of other things. I think we were almost more excited than he was! We had a lovely day, it was great to catch up with them all.

We think Freddy has forgiven our late return last night

All this meant we were back late for Freddy cat, but we had made arrangements for a neighbour to come in and feed him at his usual meal time. We're in with him all day today to make up and we think he's forgiven us as he's been up on the bed this morning having lots of fuss. We're enjoying it here and we hope Freddy is too!