13th - 19th September 2010

Things were hotting up now as we were getting anxious to move out of our rental house and, also, we were expecting 12 guests at the weekend for a memorial get-together for Grandad. And there was still no power or water...

But fortunately everything went well and all the important jobs were finished before the end of the week. We gained a (replacement) fire ...

... and a chimney.

Gordy returned and, yay, we had lights and appliances in the kitchen...

... a couple of aerials were installed although not yet working...


... and the plumbers returned with a bit of persuasion and we had water and, oh joy, a toilet or three. Meanwhile, Neil was pressing on with the architraves and finished the most obvious ones in the lounge and kitchen.

Various other things weren't quite sorted - the solar panel wasn't installed and the glass walls for the shower weren't ready but on the whole the house was usable (and lovely).

We thought it best to check it all out the night before the relations arrived and had our first dinner there, just about, lit the fire and slept on a mattress on the floor.

And Saturday came and went and was a lovely day for all, I think, and everybody had somewhere to sleep and lots of food so that was a big relief.

And then, on the Sunday, we discovered that the alarm on the septic tank was sounding and the control on the solar panel had blown out and was leaking all over the floor! Ah well, we can get it fixed at our leisure now.