Some progress has been made with various things over the weekend, so it seems likely that moving can happen this week - perhaps even tomorrow!
Friday was largely spent at the dentists and the hospital. I had an appointment with our son, and so did Paul. It takes an hour to drive there, and I needed a appointment of an hour, since I had two teeth that needed attention. Paul drove back as soon as his teeth were done, as he had to look after our grandson while our daughter-in-law was at the hospital. So not a lot of house things were done on Friday.
However, a lot more was done at the weekend. The huge wardrobe was eventually finished, and is screwed to the wall so it doesn't tip over on the uneven floors. The doors finally made it onto most of the kitchen cabinets. More furniture and boxes of things were also transported, so the house has filled up with boxes awaiting unpacking. The flat is beginning to look quite empty, but unfortunately there still seem to be a lot of things to be moved.
Our son made an attempt at rationalising the garden at the weekend. He tried to sort out the 'lawn', which was more of a weed patch, by putting down some turf. He also removed some soil at the back of the garden so it was more or less level, rather than sloping upwards at the back.
I was looking after our grandson on Sunday, and walked him in his pushchair the mile from the flat to the house, and let him walk about in the little garden. He was completely fascinated by the grass and the soft ground - there's no garden at the flat and he hasn't been walking on his own feet when we go to the park, he's always in the pushchair unless he's on a swing or a see-saw at the playground; the playground is rubberised of course, but he's only just started walking on that.
I'm not sure how he will react to no longer having the washing machine in the kitchen, it's his favourite thing. He far prefers it to the TV, and rushes in to the kitchen whenever he hears it.
He has just said his first recognisable word - apart from the usual mama and dada babbling - he said 'hello'! There's a programme he likes on CBeeBies where they sing a lot of hellos so he's obviously learned it!
He's been gradually getting used to playing in the house on lots of visits and likes his new play area. He particularly likes looking out of the windows - the windows in the church are so high even adults can't look out of them. The large light and sunny room upstairs will be used by mother and child and any day visitors, so it is full of books and toys and floor cushions. Any overnight guests will sleep there, so there's a sofa bed too. The grown-up sitting room downstairs is largely to be off-limits for children - or at least, that's the plan. Adults intend to relax there in the evening in a civilsed manner with music and TV and not be constantly tripping over plastic trucks and sliding on wooden bricks.
On Monday, the kitchen worktop people came and installed the worktop. This means the re-appearance of the kitchen sink, which is wonderful. Now the tap just has to be re-connected, and we'll have running water in the kitchen again. The hob also has to be re-fitted, as it didn't go into quite the same place in the granite as it did in the mdf, and a bit of wood needs to be trimmed off the cabinet underneath. The fridge can now go into place (it's been more or less in the middle of the floor, so it didn't get in the way of men fitting worktops). There is more to be done with the wall cabinets, and the handles still need to be fitted to the cupboards and drawers, but at least the place is starting to look more like a kitchen and less like a building site.
The triumphant looking chap in the photo is the worktop fitter, who is delighted to have finished the thing without Paul explaining to him too many times what he has done wrong.
The washing machine has been plumbed in too! Paul decided it wasn't as difficult as he had thought, so it was done on Sunday. Hopefully, we have had our last visit to the laundrette. Today, I bough some detergent so I can at last wash the bathmats, which are sadly in need of a wash, having been walked on by numbers of men in dirty boots.
Because the sun was shining today, everything started to look more cheerful.
This is the best picture of the house, which is one half of an original large Edwardian building. The front door is round the side - you can just see it past the big tree. You can see the two front rooms with the interesting part of a tower stuck onto the corner. The upper one is the lovely light one which will be in use for most of the day.
The laburnum in the tiny front garden has started to bloom, and Paul cut the grass there, which revealed that it is just random tufts of grass, rather than a tiny lawn. He thinks more turves may be the answer, as otherwise rather a lot of seed would be needed.
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