We're in!

It is possible that I have started speaking in Swahili. That can be the only explanation for several events this week...

On Monday we moved. Due to being flat out at the renovation cleaning crap off floorboards and baths, we hadn't actually packed. We asked for 'Monday afternoon' and at about 4pm on Sunday got the cheery message from the removals people 'We'll be with you at 8am!' So we got up at 5.30 and packed as much as we could, carefully ignoring the kitchen as there was nowhere to move the kitchen stuff to anyway. By 11 everything that wasn't nailed down had been moved and we were in total chaos at Atlasta. We built wardrobes, assembled beds, moved stuff around, got organised by about 7pm and were then fed by good pals Richard and Sue at their house. Goodness knows what kind of company we were... Drunk company, I seem to remember...

Please admire the FREE carpets. We like the wrinkles - they match our knackered faces...

On Tuesday the kitchen fitter arrived and fitted worktops. We spoke to BOB about the damage to the Aga and he said he had no idea how it had happened and it couldn't have been any of his guys. Sigh.

We had carpets and the oven cleaned at the rental, cleaned stuff and mowed the grass.

On Wednesday the slab layers, having finished the slabs, started on a path to the front door. We had a long discussion about how, although the land naturally slopes, sloping slabs are NOT a good idea for when it's icy, so could it therefore be made a flat path with a step down to the gravel where we'll park cars? Yes it could. I went off to the rental to start on the kitchen (you're ahead of me here, aren't you?) and when I got back at lunchtime found that we had a sloping path. See - Swahili. We then have to be the bad guys and say 'please do it again' even though we had had a clear conversation in the first place.

Give us strength.

Look - no fire pit!

The lights finally work and we have fun turning them all on - the cottage looks really cosy from outside.

BOB arrived on Thursday and looked at the Aga - he reckoned it was over-tightened on installation which has popped the enamel around the screw because, as he makes us realise, there is absolutely  no other damage at all. I speak to Aga, send photos and the upshot is they agree it was their fault and they'll replace the lid. In September. We decide to celebrate by actually turning the thing on. We have instructions. We open the oil valve and leave it for half an hour to, er, get oil into the wick. We then have to remove the tin cover on the mechanism at the side to reach the switches. Ah. The kitchen joiner has left a gap where the mechanism is, but it's not big enough so we can't get the tin cover off. We switch off the oil valve and don't turn the Aga on. A bigger hole can be cut when the joiner comes back on Monday. We like microwave food, really we do.

We have a sink and a tap in the kitchen, and the washing machine is plumbed in. No of course we haven't tried it yet. That would involve reading instructions and we still don't have a working brain cell between us...

Coping stones start to go on the curved wall and they look lovely. Apart from the really straight bits that aren't curved. Guy and I have a conversation about whether to point it out or not (it would have annoyed us on a daily basis) and decide that we have to 'man up' and point it out. It gets adjusted and is better. Phew.

On Thursday we handed the keys to the rental back. We had scrubbed, mowed and weeded nearly all week - it looked lovely, bless it.

The decorator never turned up at all this week.

On Friday the electrician came back to make more things work, and the stove guys come to put the log burner in. There was a fair bit of teeth-sucking and head scratching and it took them all day, but we do have a stove.

We have discovered 'a delightful quirk' in the bathroom. See these beautiful taps?

The one marked 'C' is the hot tap and the one marked 'H' is the cold tap.  We may keep it that way...

So we are now fully moved in, we no longer have a rental to escape to, and we're beginning to relax. Slowly. The beams in the bedroom are beautiful as dawn breaks (yes, still waking up at 5am...) and the house is cosy and dry, even with the torrential rain.

As Guy points out, BOB and his team have, like, built us a HOUSE.

It's pretty amazing.