Things begin

Today has been spent phoning various service providers: We'll have a phoneline in and working on the 29th, the electricity meter has been read (I added a few KW hrs) and the leccy board informed of our new status- I had to repeat a few times there was no gas. Likewise have the water-board have also been told. Our house insurance and life insurance policies start today, so there's still a small trickle of post arriving for that. We have our bridge Tag (little electronic gizmo that allows us to cross the bridge whenever we want) and that worked a treat first time out.

We spent a merry hour wandering around the house with all the various random keys trying to figure out what opened what door/window/shed - we'll probably change some locks when we get a moment, as we have far too many keys. Thankfully all the doors and windows open and close again, so we won't be needing a locksmith just yet. We also had a small adventure with all the random light-switches, trying to figure out which switch operated which light - not as straightforward as you'd think.

We met the neighbours - Lady to our left was sitting on her patio chatting with her sister-in-law sipping wine, and to our right was doing, well, something, but we got talking about the houses as hers should be a mirror image of ours as it's adjoining. Interesting one there, 4 kids and a little dog too...

My brother and his wife came around to have a good nosey. We talked about some of our plans for the layout of the kitchen and the like. I've pulled up some carpet and discovered the ceiling joists run in the right direction to allow extractor and possibly boiler flue to fit in the void - assuming the void is big enough. The evening finished off with us returning to theirs for a barbecue and to have a quiet laugh at their collection of poorly cats.

Tomorrow will be taking another carload of essentials (small fridge for starters) over, but before that a trip to the DIY shop to hopefully confirm which bits of kitchen we need/want/are going to get..

Then follows the fun of pulling floorboards and discovering a few more shocking truths about the electrics & plumbing.