Floods

The unmade track that leads to our house is tricky to negotiate at the best of times in a low two-seater sportscar, but the heavy Winter rains can make it impossible. There have been several occasions where we found ourselves marooned. Luckily, our house is safe from flooding but the old ruined bridge along the track turns into a large pool. The depth of the water around the bridge is almost a metre.

This is the back of our house which overlooks a field.





This is after a few days of heavy rain.





The view from the back of our house with a perplexed sheep mirroring our feelings about the water.





Some of the water drains out from the side of the field and out of our garden gate where it flows onto the track.



 



The bank separates the water from our garden though a small flow has broken through travelling towards and out of our gate.
 

Custard and Bustard

There is a friendly little semi-feral cat who lives around here that we named Custard.





The old lady that lived here previously, fed her on a regular basis so when we moved in we contuinued the trend, especially as our very own puss Blenny gets on with her quite well.
Then one morning another cat turned up. A big bruiser of a fellow whom we named Bustard (rhymes with Custard). Notice that in every picture he is pulling the same pose.









Since then we discovered that our nearest neighbours who live a mile further on down the track (a lovely couple) feed Bustard, so we don't need to worry about him. We've only seen him on a few occassions, so far.

Before and After

These are some of the estate agent shots of the house before we bought it...











And the mess we made of it afterwards...





Curtains were £8 from Tesco...that's right, £8. Alan laid the laminate wooden flooring in both the living room and the bathroom. The laminate had been left behind, unopened which saved us a bit of dosh.

Decorating - for temporary living

We removed the carpets and underlay (which stank of fish - yuk) and 3 layers of nasty wallpaper from every room. We washed the walls down with sugar soap. The sofa (complete with spider egg sacs on the underside - lovely) was taken to the dump amongst other large pieces of furniture also left by the old lady that lived here, including a double bed with mattress and a single bed with mattress. We painted the interior of the whole house - the walls, ceilings and woodwork with 3 coats of paint including primer. Can't believe we achieved all this in a window of just 2 weeks before we moved in. It was exhausting.

 

Going to see the plot

The entrance to the track which leads down to the house.





Further on down the track...

...and past the ruined railway bridge.





A first glimpse of the house half a mile down the track.





The top of the house and a look back down the track from where we approached.





Further down the track looking back at the house.