...and Finally

It's been a while dear reader since my last post.  This reason for this is not so much that nothing much has happened, but more to do with the fact that us retirees haven't found the time to update the blog.

So, where are we with the house I hear you cry?
Well, as far as we know it is finished!!!

The only outstanding tasks were a few snags and of course the front door.  As mentioned in the previous blog entry, the new front door was removed from the builder's contract and was specified and ordered by us directly with a locally-recommended supplier.  So, the door was on order but a date for fitting had not been agreed although it was expected to be before Christmas.  We began chasing them in early December, with the usual set of phone-calls to the supplier, only to be eventually told that it was likely to be the end of January.  This resulted in another round of phone exchanges where it was eventually discovered that 'an administrative mistake had been made' and delivery and fitting were now scheduled for the 17th December!

Out with the old...

So the due date arrived and surprisingly, so did the fitters with a new, undamaged door.  To top it all, it was the correct specification and what we had asked for 18 months previously.  There followed a full day of unscrewing, hammering and re-screwing as the old door was removed (and taken away), and the new door fitted.  For the next few days, we were a little concerned that the front door was open due to the amount of light streaming in through the glazed side-panel which had been missing for 18 months.

...and in with the new

It is really nice to have a letter box back.  Since the house is almost sealed, it was not sensible to have a normal letter box in the door, so a box had to be fitted to the wall outside.  This meant that we never knew when the post had been delivered and in order to collect it, we had to venture outside.  The new door however has the luxury of a sealed letter box which has a strong spring and closes against a rubber gasket, so preserving the seal.  It does make the letter box harder to open, but we now know when post has been delivered as it now sits untidily on the floor in the hallway.

With the door fitted, the builders were summoned to finish the decorating in the hallway together with the final snags.  Surprisingly, despite having received the majority of their payment, they turned up reasonably promptly and finished the decorating over three visits.

Door fitted, but awaiting plastering, painting and the mat

With everything nicely decorated, the only thing outstanding was the built-in front door mat.  The carpet-fitter had wisely advised us to leave the mat until all the issues with the front door were sorted.  He was contacted and fitted the new mat within the week.  As far as we know, this is the last item to be addressed on our long list of outstanding work.

Finished Door & Decoration

Complete with new mat

The house has survived the winter well.  We have been warm and dry and have not suffered from any more flooding or any wind damage.  Spring is now upon us and the garden is beginning to wake up.  I have already had to mow the lawn.  Our willow tree was long overdue for a major haircut and since we are in a conservation area, we had to apply for permission to do this.  Approval was obtained, but the only time the tree-surgeons could do the work was this week and there was concern that if any birds were nesting in it, work could not begin until the autumn.  With this in mind, a  couple of weeks ago, I removed that bird-box from the trunk of the tree to discourage nesting.  Fortunately no nests were found so on Monday this week, a team of tree-surgeons arrived and skilfully and noisily (chain-saws and wood-chippers) reminded the whole village that we had arrived!

Time-lapse video of the Willow Tree Haircut

At the end of the severe pruning, the weeping willow looked a shadow of its former self.  However, we have been advised that it will recover quickly and we should now have fewer complaints from passing boaters trying to navigation between the weeping branches.

A rather sad-looking Weeping Willow

This is going to be the final blog entry. I hope you have found our blog interesting.  It has been a particularly eventful and frustrating journey and I doubt that we would ever undertake such a project again.   Having said that, we are now really happy with the house and the village in which we live.  If you ever find yourself in this neck of the woods, feel free to let us know and call in to see if the finished product was worth it!

Farewell dear reader!