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.