So, it’s been 10 days since we bought Waterloo Farm and it still feels quite surreal! Each time we go I have to pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming, and I find myself wandering round the house saying “I love this house!” which can only be a good thing when you consider the hard work that is to come in the not too distant future! We’ve been there quite a lot over the last week or so, especially so over the weekend. The kids have had a great time playing on the trampoline and outside generally which has made me really happy as the outside space was a major factor in our plans. I think they will take a little while to become real ‘outsiders’ so to speak but we’re determined to wean them off their various electronic gadgets before too long and make the into children who live in their wellies!
We had an architect (Peter) over last week to discuss some of our plans, and he seems to think our ideas are very good and achievable, but it was another one of those conversations that made me feel quite sick afterwards at the thought of the finances! I guess I will need to get used to those sorts of conversations … We are having some proper drawings of the layout/elevations etc. done so that a) we have a record of what the house looks like now, and b) to help all the various trades who come and carry out the work to see exactly what needs doing and price the jobs. We are hoping to have the drawings by the end of next week or early the following and then Peter can start the re-design process. In the meantime we are planning to strip all the wallpaper from the clay lump parts of the house and have borrowed a wallpaper stripper! My fear is that we will discover the wallpaper is what is holding the walls up (!), but as we plan to get most of the internal walls re-plastered/re-skimmed, it doesn’t matter too much when all the plaster falls off!!
I have spent ages cleaning the kitchen which was hard work but very satisfying. It was really grimy and took a lot of elbow grease (and Jif!) to remove several years of caked on dirt and grease from the inside and outside of all the cupboards! Seems a little futile when the whole house will become one big dust ball soon, but at least that will be our dirt and not someone else’s!
On Saturday we took our (little) petrol mower to cut some of the grass in the ‘formal garden’. The mower has always looked quite normal in our other gardens, but when we stood it on the lawn at Waterloo Farm, it suddenly looked totally inadequate and rather small! Anyway, Nigel set to with the mower on its very highest setting (never used that one before!) and about an our and 10 trips to the compost heap later had done about half of the area we wanted to tackle! I have never actually used the lawn mower as it’s a definite ‘boy’s toy’, but thought I’d give Nige a break and be brave and have a go. See the photo for proof! Actually, I really enjoyed it, and my stripes were only a little wonky! However, we have come to the conclusion (which we knew already really) that we are going to need a ride-on mower (Nigel is very excited about this prospect) and although it’s a shame to use our precious building budget to pay for it, it is an essential piece of kit if we are ever going to be able to really enjoy our garden. I should mention that while we were out struggling to cut our grass, Trevor from next door got his uber ride-on out and cut a half-acre strip in about 10 minutes flat 
Talking about the neighbours, we met them on Saturday – Sue and Trevor and their daughter Kate – and they are lovely! Not only a great house, but fantastic neighbours too, who could ask for more?! On Sunday afternoon, Sue brought a home-made cake over for us, and when we were there today, Sue and Kate ‘entertained’ our kids for a while (let them play with the dog, feed the chooks and collect the eggs) and we ended up with half a dozen eggs too! How lovely is that! I think we are going to be extremely happy here …
Tags: Architect, Lawn Mower, Wallpaper
Categories: Living the Country Life, Posts with Photos
