Tara has arrived

Well the kids (and adults!) wait is finally over and Tara came to stay with us as of late this afternoon. She whined a bit as we drove away from her old home but she seems to have settled in very well so far - as I write this she is fast asleep in her basket and we are trying to decide whether to put newspaper down on the floor or get up in the middle of the night for a toilet break!

The latest member of the family

Tara is coming tomorrow - we were hoping it was going to be today, but she was a bit off colour and they felt she needed wormed so it has been postponed for 24 hours. The kids however can hardly wait - they have been running around playing at puppies for the last 2 weeks

Our new addition

Meet Tara - our new puppy (although she won't be coming to stay for a couple of weeks yet). She's a cross between a Gordon Setter and a collie.

Now and then

It's a bit of time since I last posted (funny how you start things and then they sort of gradually fade). Maybe I'll get to fill in the gaps someday but for now here is how things are.

• Our extension is nearly finished (short of tidying up a few things)


• Beth has finished her 2nd transfer test yesterday so all she (and we) have to do now is wait for the result


• We're going off this afternoon to see some puppies with the aim of getting one! (it's a long story but we were sort of lined up for a labrador cross from a rescue centre -Pippa- but that fell through so we're not sure how the kids will take the change)

All fall down

Have been watching the back of the house being systematically destroyed by the builders over the last week or so. The initial plan had been to clear the boiler house and build up to roof level and then knock through the wall of the study and upstairs toilet when the walls were up, but as always the best laid plans go awry and we discovered that the joists were rather dodgy above the utility room at the back. This necessitated knocking everything down to the level of the utility room ceiling (well actually it looks as though it went down to well below this!) in order to replace the joists. So a considerable amount more destruction was called for and bearing in mind the walls are stone and about 2 foot thick that's a lot of rubble. However we have plans for a patio at the back of the house so the rubble is being used to fill in there rather than being carted away - recycling in action!

Lots of changes

Well- after preparing the scene yesterday by moving our hot tank to the upstairs landing, Gerard and his team have finally got down to the major work of knocking down the back of the house! They have removed all the interior walls between the bathroom and the toilet on the middle landing floor and most if not all of the tiles on the back roof are off. Tomorrow, if all goes according to schedule, the roof will come off and some of the back wall may very well be knocked down. We now have a very small landing halfway up the stairs with a large panel of plywood separating us from the builders (and in the near future a large hole in the house!)

Incommunicado

Today the job of setting up to remove the back of the house started. Much concern over the last few days, as we suddenly realised that knocking down the back wall meant that the hot tank wouldn't be there any more - and we wouldn't have hot water!! Fortunately the builders were aware of this and have plans to move it. Hence a delay of a couple of days until the electrician and plumber were available to do the wiring and pipework. They went to work today - and unfortunately they seem to have affected the phone line, as we are without a phone connection (although the internet connection still exists albeit as a rather narrow rather than broad band)