I hate moving house. It's a lot of work, for a start. It's a period during which all your stuff is packed away so you have to make do continually. And you have to tear apart the home you spent years building, while remembering all the fun times you had in the cold, empty, rooms you are carrying boxes out of. It feels a bit like burning your own wedding photos...
...but soon, it will be over, leaving just the mild frustration of living in a home where many of your possessions are still "in a box somewhere", but at least then you're on the upward path of things continually getting better as you unpack things and find them new homes, slowly customising your new space.
I'm looking forward to sorting out my workshop. It's currently just full of things all over the floor. I'm taking a week off of work to recuperate from the moving, and to sort it out. I'm going to pile everything at one end so I can paint the floor and finish painting the wall, then move everything to the nice end so I can finish the floor and walls in the other end. I'm going to set up my desk, my electronics workbench, and my welding bench. I'm going to run Ethernet into the house so I can get network connectivity. I'm going to set up a 12v power distribution system for fun stuff, such as a Raspberry Pi in a box driving an LED matrix display and a USB hard disk (as a Ugarit distributed storage node) and crazy future home automation experiments and LED lighting in the nearby shed (it's hard finding stuff in there in the dark). I'm going to fix the leaky roof and the draughty eaves so it's warmer and dryer in there. I'm going to rebuild my furnace and experiment with casting aluminium bronze. I'm going to build my wife a radio telescope. I'm going to build my wearable computer and continue my project to bring about my own technological singularity. I'm going to make time for myself to turn some of my unrealised ideas into beautiful things.
So we have finally achieved the third M = Mortgage which I suppose makes us proper grown-ups or something?
It is not what we had envisioned with the move to Gloucestershire but those plans weren't working anyway and this house seems like it was almost made with us in mind. It is everything we need.
There is a summer house a.k.a Alaric's workshop
A little patch of decking that we can have as a Toddler play area
An area for grass with allotements just round the corner
An attic room that is perfect for an art studio and storage or workshop materials etc...
A lush kitchen with a double oven of the type I've been after for an age with a 'breakfast room' off of it which is perfect for a family dinning room - there is a breakfast bar too!
The 'dining room' is going to be the Library and Music room / study. There is an area just right for having a BBQ in etc... just out side the kitchen.
It needs some work but we were more than happy with the structural reports and Alaric is still going on that we are technically now Lay Rectors. We think we are very lucky as the place cost less than my friends one bedroom flat on the edge of London. Having said that we can only afford it due to a) Alaric's new job and b) the generous loan of a hefty deposit from Alaric's family.
We picked the keys up today and rushed round there but the family was still moving out so we went and got some lunch and then went back - they had left us a lovely card saying they hope we'll be as happy as they've been there 
I did some assessing of where we will be putting the washing machine etc... This feels right unlike our previous move which was all done pretty much with out me. I am hoping we can get things back on track - there is belly dancing within walking distance of the house that is affordable - this is important for my pelvis and mobility so Im very pleased with this. I am hoping to some how fit in the ducks and bees don't think goat will happen now though 
We decided to leave our mark on the place - so here is our rainbow swerl rug that me and Jean made whilst living in the Mill during the flooding episode.
We are currently awaiting info from the vet having approved an operation to wire Hydrogen jaw up and to remove maggots from her feet.
As some of you know she has been missing for 3 weeks now and we have been searching high and low for her. Today - the day Alaric took the car in to have the brakes fixed Barbara turns up and says she's found what might be Hydrogen at the top of the road.
She helped me get her out of the boot. The little thing was so light and smelt odd and it appeared to me that half her face was missing - but not in a fresh way - in a sort of healed kind of way.
I put her in the bathroom meaning to feed her and clean her up she seemed so happy to be home but then I thought about it and wondered how I was going to get to the vets as Barbara had left saying let her know if she needed taking to the vets but that it wasn't an emergancy.
Inge the lady who comes to do the garden came and asked me if she could take us to the vet - and I said yes but realised I couldn't go. Even if I asked another parent to get Jean from school we had left the car seat in our car which is in a garage being fixed.
She my poor little cat who was so happy to see me and obviously needing help - I bundled into a box (the cat basket) and handed to some else to be taken to the scariest place for cats with the knowledge that I will likely not be hearing that meow again - but I had to because either way the vet is who can help her.
My poor little cat - I still remember us getting the two girls - http://www.snell-pym.org.uk/archives/2006/07/07/kittens/.
This is a photo from last winter - I just really thought I should share these fantastic icicles!
I found this cute picture of Jean holding the guinea pigs. They are sadly no more but were well loved whilst we had them.
Alaric, Building Maintenance | alaric | 
Sat 28th Jan 2012 8:55 pm | 
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