I'm actually quite enjoying this. Or at least, I'm finding it interesting. It's another puzzle, really. It's very hard work though. 

The kitchen is half gone - 

Neal has been prepping and Terry has been painting and it is really coming along. I have been uncovering the floorboards in the dining room for the last two days and miracle of miracles they look decent enough to sand and paint which is good news indeed as the alternative is either nice flooring (WAY out of budget) or cheap crap flooring (still out of budget but what can you do?).

I have a favourite tool now and that is a prybar. It is the bees knees and i love it. I am going to go buy my own. This thing is amazing. The floor boards were covered with a very nasty carpet, and even nastier underlay, and then a nailed down (all nails rusty, of course) boarding. It has to be pried up and then the nails pried out. It is dirty and dusty and I love it.

The house seems light and bright and we've met quite a few neighbours and they are all lovely. It amuses me that all the new people we are meeting find us very Canadian while I myself have never felt more British.

We work from about 8 till 430, then go for a pint that tastes about as good as any pint I've ever had. We come home, shower (and that too feels utterly fantastic), and make something to eat. A quick prep for the next day, and I'm in bed sleeping by 9.

Here's the man of the hour - our hero - 

Terry the Magnificent

 

Two more days - and we'll take stock and see where we are.

Now to eat - and sleep  - hopefully in that order.

and so it begins

Ah - much better.

The bank owns my house!

 Well.

It all went very smoothly, really, in the end.

Terry, our multi-talented musician/builder friend came over for coffee and breakfast and before we had finished the call came through that everything had completed and we could pick up the keys.

It was a strange feeling - walking into a house that is suddenly yours that you have spent all of maybe half an hour in. Based on this objective and thoughtful appraisal (!) you have spent your life savings and hocked yourself to the hilt in order to obtain it and now - for better or for worse - this is your house.

First impressions are that it is not as bad as I remembered it. This initial relief is quickly dispelled. It's just bad in different ways. But it is also good. The rooms have high ceilings and - for a small house - decent proportions. Only one room - the cellar - is seriously damp, and a lot of that may just be from being closed up for 7 months. It needs a lot of love. The kitchen is - well - the kitchen has to go. Even if we have to cook on a camp stove for 6 months. The drawers that have already fallen off prove to be plastic with cardboard bases held together with packing tape. We wonder if those are rat droppings and tell each other they can't be - what would they eat? Someone changes the subject quickly.

But Terry is buoyant. He bounces into the lounge where Neal and I are standing very still, staring at each other in a quiet-but-rising anxious panic. "Ahh," he says, "nothing here to worry about". He takes in our faces - "No really. It's fine." He launches into a detailed analysis of what needs to be done and what all of the options are and how long it will take and - literally all I know is that I need to take next week off, and Terry and I are going to work our socks off and it will all be OK.

Today we opened the back door and found it would not close again as it had warped so badly the door frame was pulling out and our friend James had to come and plane off about 3 mm so it would close again. But it does now, and it will all be OK.

We don't have to be out of the oast until the first week of September so there's time to work it out and - 

 - it will all be OK.

So close....

Last Monday, exactly 4 months to the day after first viewing the house we finally exchanged contracts! 

!!!!

We complete on Wednesday - but no one knows when on Wednesday. Of course they don't. God forbid you should feel some control in this process. 

But it is great news and we are oh - so - close - and I am like a squirming bag of cats. Nervous cats. Queasy nervous cats.

We still have to give notice on the oast and that may come with its own issues - impossible to predict. Best case scenario they say "oh ok great here's your damage deposit have a nice life". Let's assume that will happen :)

It appears that we may have actually pulled this off. 

!!!!!!