Water water everywhere....

Easter Monday, and my Easter present is a nice big shed :)

So we walked 3.5 miles, first thing, to The Shed Factory - to find it closed for the day...
Another mile to the bus station, to get the bus to Shelford garden centre for a meet up with friends. We arrived early, and realised they sold proper sheds too :) Much shed-exploration later, and we worked out what we wanted, and left the helpful bloke drawing pictures of what we'd told him we wanted, whilst we had a lovely time with the Hoptons, seeing the fish and the other flora and fauna of the garden centre :)
After lunch, we went and decided on a different shed layout (poor shed man!) and then paid a deposit. After that, we found an olive tree for the boy to cover, and jumped on the first of two buses home. On the first bus, we realised we'd left the boy's coat at the garden centre, so Matt gamely jumped off the bus at the next stop and headed back in an attempt to retrieve it...

The boy and I headed back to the house for naps, and then I proceeded to uncover the damp patch - only to find that the back boiler is STILL leaking. A quick phone call to the fount of all DIY knowledge (aka dad!) and a bit more destruction of the house to find the drain for the hot water system, and 8:30pm found me attempting to drain the central heating system. It's now mostly drained, but the valve for draining the system now won't turn off properly, so the hose has been left on, snaking its way out via the catflap, to continue it's emptying overnight (and hopefully, by the morning, it'll all be sorted and I can concentrate on filling the skip that will be arriving!

Night all...

Hallelujahs and Roast Dinners

Easter Sunday 20th April

We have had a lovely day today :)
I was very nervous about going to my new parish today - not enough sleep meant being the centre of attention was the last thing I wanted. But I was very warmly welcomed, and the boy didn't find it too overwhelming. It was great to have our first service as a family being a day of celebration. We got fed breakfast and cake, and the boy had dairy free chocolate in the Easter egg hunt - bless them for sorting that one.

Then home again for a very late roast dinner lunch - and I took the laminate flooring up whilst it cooked, and Matt and the boy built the Lego set given by the grandparents as an Easter present. Under the laminate flooring there is chipboard, and around the fireplace/back boiler there is a very large damp patch, so tomorrow's job is to remove the chipboard to see the state of the floorboards underneath (why would someone put chipboard on top of floorboards anyway?!?)

As we were getting our late lunch ready, we received a text from the Stevensons offering extra radiators, and from the Copes offering a roast dinner for teatime. We said yes to both, and are now snug and warm in a warmer house with our tummies replete with roast lamb and rhubarb crumble. We have written lists of priorities - of what needs doing before we move in and what can wait till after the move. And we are feeling very blessed and loved by our friends - once more, thanks :)

And because there does not seem to be a sensible way for me to upload photos into this blog from my phone (I have now taken photos though!), here is a link to a floor plan, if anyone is still reading this :)
Floor plan (goes to Dropbox).

Unending shopping trolleys

19th April

The day started too early again - first task was finding out where in Cambridge we could get some cheap mattresses or ANYTHING, in an attempt to get a better night's sleep (we appear to be unable to sleep well on blowup beds :( ). We kindly got lent one foam chairbed, and that was comfortable, so that was what we aimed for - Argos appeared to have some in stock, so we headed there via Cambrige station to pick up Matt's parents, who announced that they were coming up for the day, to take us out for lunch. Definitely not to be argued with :)

On the way to Argos, I got distracted into Homebase, so I am writing this whilst lying (laying?!) on cushions more usually used on recliner chairs used in the garden. Half the price and hopefully they will do the job :)

We all went and ate lots of protein at Maison du Steak (definitely recommended - I shall go back again without small person and try the desserts at some point - we felt guilty about ordering pudding when there was nothing on the menu that he could eat - so I bought chocolate to eat on the qt when he's not about!) and then investigated the state of the attic (remarkably empty, only a few things, very surprisingly) and the garden - erm, not so empty...
When I looked at the house, I noticed that there were two shopping trolleys in the garden, and had some idea what I was letting myself in for. But upon closer inspection, every wheely bin, of every colour (1 x blue for recycling, 2 x green for composting, 2 x black for rubbish) is full to bursting of rubbish, and rubbish of a sort that the council will not take, from any bin. Additionally, further down the garden is a big pile, which I had assumed was trees and branches.  Upon closer inspection , it appears to be twenty years or more of rubbish, including carpets, broken electrical items, car batteries, and at least three more shopping trolleys.  I haven't found the bottom of the pile yet, so there may be more.

We sorted out some of the rubbish and brought it to the top of the garden, ready to put in the skip when it arrives, but we will need at least to more skips to get rid of it all.  We took the two accessible trolleys back to Aldi, from whence they had come, and the assistant manager was so overwhelmed, he gave us a free bunch of flowers!

To finish the day, we tried digging a hole to plant the rhubarb we'd dug up from the old house - only to find that there appears to be absolutely no goodness in the soil - back to Aldi for some (peat free!) compost, and hopefully the rhubarb might survive if I can persuade someone to water it once a week. But the garden is going to need a lot of TLC, even once we've got rid of all the rubbish and dog muck. But I have a garden that I can work on again, which is a good thing :). However, once again, I have been so busy working on the chaos, I've not taken time to get any photographs of it.  I'll try again tomorrow...

And after a long shower to get rid of the fibre glass, mud, and other muck, time for a hopefully good night's sleep before I get introduced to my new church tomorrow morning...

Only(!) day three....

18th April 2014
A bad night's sleep (poor curtains and a very full brain, refusing to shut up), followed by a lovely relaxed morning with breakfast in bed, then off to St Barnabas for their morning service. It was lovely to see their new updated building.

We came back and had a lovely lunch with Amanda, and then in the afternoon the very kind British Gas man came round, and condemned our fire! He then inspected the hob, and found it had been plumbed in with flexible pipe, normally used for plumbing in water! He said we can use it for a short period of time, but advised us to turn off the supply after every use, and get it replaced ASAP.

Matt went out and bought an electric fire from the local trade counter - and upon giving our address received the response, " we've got that address on our account - we're owed money by them!" I have a feeling that this is going to be a repeating theme...

We were joined for a few hours by Becky and little Munns, and whilst the latter was asleep, Becky enthusiastically joined our parlour game of ripping apart whichever bit of wall one fancies!  We've a nice pile in the front garden now ready for the skip when it arrives on Tuesday.

We diced with death to heat up dinner - aka turning the hob on to cook pasta, and then crawled to bed, with cardboard on the windows to see if that helps on the sleep front...

It gets worse...

17th April 2014

Matt spent the morning sorting out practicalities for getting to and from work (new bike helmet, picking up his updated work pc (Linux to Win7), and then came back in time for the fridge freezer to be delivered, and for the return of the locksmith to sort out the window locks (for which the keys could also not be found!)

I and the boy spent the morning travelling from Cardiff to Cambridge, arriving just after lunchtime. An uneventful journey, on time, and met by Matt at the bus stop. We walked to the house, passing the post lady on the way. So far, so good.
We got into the house to find that the post lady had left us some post...  It was addressed to the previous owners AND ANY OTHER OCCUPANTS. It informed us that eviction procedures were in process, and that we would be evicted on 29th April...

A phone call or two later...

I got put on permanent loop by the county court bailiffs, and upon re-ringing found the answering service turned off for Easter. I got fobbed off by the solicitors who did not want to do anything, and got assured by my solicitor that should all get sorted before the bailiffs turn up - we have yet to be convinced, and will ensure that there are people here on the appropriate date...

Once we had dealt with that to the best of our ability on the eve of a four day weekend, we turned back to the practicalities of the house. I had a look at the fire and back boiler. Upon a preliminary inspection, I wussed out and decided I wasn't prepared to turn it on without the advice of someone more qualified to decide.

So, we managed to borrow a couple of hot water bottles and an electric heater for the evening, and Matt did a fantastic job of persuading British Gas to come out for a check over of all the gas appliances (hob and fire/back boiler) ON A BANK HOLIDAY (much kudos to him!)

We got taken out for a cuppa by the lovely Anna, and then came back for tea, and the arrival of Amanda with extra bedding, which was definitely useful in the absence of heating! We took rather a long while to heat up the tea (ready meals, put in saucepans in the oven!) and then gave up and went to bed, to gather our strength for what the morrow would bring...

New House, New Stress

16th April 2014
We completed on our house purchase in Cambridge. Said a said mental goodbye to our old, beautifully done up house in Suez Road, and embarked on a new phase of life in taking on a rather decrepit looking property in the north of Cambridge. The new house is smaller than the old one, and from the surveyor's report, we knew it needed work.

Matt went across to Cambridge on Tuesday afternoon, to take the last few items out of the old house, and to be ready upon completion to go over to the new house, ready for the locksmith to meet him and change all the locks.
Issue number one - only one key given by estate agent, and three doors. So the locksmith proceeds to drill out the locks with the words, "this is going to take me hours!"
Thankfully, he over-estimated and did a good job in a short space of time.

Matt, meanwhile, is ringing up the services to register the change of ownership and sort out how on earth one goes about getting prepayment cards etc, as both gas and electricity are on prepayment meters.  Getting prepayment cards is fairly straight-forward but very time consuming:

1. Ring up supplier, get code for card
2. Go to nearest pay point - find they don't have any spare cards!
3. Find a second pay point, give over code, receive cards.
4. Bring cards back to property, put each card in meter to register them.
5. Find cards not programmed correctly, return to pay point number two.
6. Wait for assistant to read manual and reprogram cards.
7. Bring cards back to property, put each card in correct meter to register them.
8. Take cards back to pay point, to put credit on them
9. Bring cards back to property, put them in meter again to transfer credit.
10. NOW you can finally have a cup of tea (except there was no kettle for poor Matt!)

Issue number two - there is no way British Gas will be believe the we're new owners unless we can prove it, because there is too big a debt on the meters. Cue frantic call from Matt for me to photocopy ID to send across.

Issue number three - the house has a fire with back boiler to provide heating and hot water. On first glance, the only way to turn on the fire is with an Allen key... Due to this issue, Matt decided not to turn the gas on to the property, but wait for me to look at it the next day..

Meanwhile, numerous very kind and generous friends have been arriving with all sorts of useful and helpful things for the property, to enable us to spend a week camping in it.

Matt retires to takeaway, exhausted, and having booked the next day off to deal with what that might bring.

A Magic Carpet Ride

(image taken from http://www.markfarrar.co.uk)

Where would you go on a magic carpet ride?

There was a fantastic podcast on the World Service that I listened to this afternoon which made me wonder about this. My instantaneous thought was that I would go to North Wales with my son to see my parents. But what would I want a carpet ride to be like? I'd like it to be smooth, and without me having to worry about being in charge and driving/flying it properly, otherwise I may as well get a car. I don't think I want it to be completely instantaneous, like teleporting, as I quite relish the opportunity on trains, of being able to switch off for a while (though unfortunately not so much now as looking after a small person requires some degree of awakeness!). But it would get rid of the annoyances of train travel: having to be there at a certain time, crossing London, making connections, and getting to my destination at the other end. In an ideal (to me!) world, I think I'd learn to fly a plane, so that I could walk to my local airport, and be anywhere in the UK within an hour or so (excluding pre-flight checks etc.). I could go up to Scotland and see all my friends far more regularly. But this would again throw up the problem of reaching my final destination from the airport I've landed at. I suppose that if I was rich enough to be able to fly a plane, I wouldn't have qualms about getting a taxi. And if I were continually jet-setting, I'd not be putting the amount of effort that I'd like to into my local community/church etc.
In order for this to happen of course, I'd have to divorce the tree-hugging green part of myself, so that I could live with/ignore the environmental cost of flying. I wonder what the environmental impact of a flying carpet is...
(image taken from http://www.markfarrar.co.uk)