Back online - sort of!

Sorry to have not posted in so long, I was expecting to have internet by now but have been advised that this might take another 6 months (!) so have managed to get a dongle.

I did originally take pictures as we went along with everything but it seems like too much now to go through everything and it all seems to have happened so long ago!

So I thought in this post, I would just briefly recap the house saga and then show some pictures of the finished cabin and then over the next week or so I will post different pictures/stories from around the place.

Although I was told that the cabin would be finished by the end of May, it wasn't. When we arrived there were no doors, no windows and no floor! Eventually after many false starts I got some windows, but still no doors. It all dragged on a bit longer than expected but I did get a free veranda out of it by way of an apology. And the builder paid the fee on our rental home which was just as well as we ended up staying there for almost 6 weeks! Anyway, at last it was all done and here is the finished result. :-)

So this is the finished cabin from the outside.




The lounge




Kitchen






My bedroom (haven't bothered with spare room as it just has a wardrobe in, and some gardening stuff until I get a shed)



View from lounge window..



I will post some more tomorrow!

Ready for the off...

Has been a busy few days here, saying goodbye to everyone and packing things up. We managed to get most of the stuff in my dads car but not all, but got all the important things in anyway!

My own little car is groaning under the weight of dog toys, both of the boys were a bit miffed to see all their toys being taken away and put under the boot.

Kofi tried his best to save a few but I kept putting them back..haha



So then Shilah solefully decided that even though he couldn't see his toys anymore he would lie on them and wait (think this is a misplaced sense of loyalty he has adopted after reading about Greyfriars Bobby, a dog who after his owner died, spent the rest of his days lying on his owners grave).



I won't have internet access straight away in Italy, so I will update as soon as I am back online (hopefully with some pictures of a finished house!)

Almost there..

Some more pictures of the house, it's getting there! The insulation and roof is done, the interior walls are going in, and then the windows and floor need to go in.

The outside



The inside, this corner is where the kitchen will be..



This 'box' is the bathroom, then on the left we have a bedroom (and on the right the kitchen again)



The water has been connected, although because of the altitude the pressure is low (not sure how low..) but there isn't much that can be done about that. Just might take a while to get a cup of tea for people who come and visit! haha

So I now have a departure day!! 26th May..woohoo!!

We have decided to rent a house for the first week so that we have somewhere to cook and keep food etc until I get a cooker and fridge. Think this will make it much easier and especially for the first day or two as there won't be the pressure to have to go out and buy everything straight away.

The boys will have their scalibor collars put on next week, these are insecticide collars which need a week to activate and will stop sandflies from biting them. I hate putting such strong chemicals on the dogs but sandflies can carry Leishmania which is a horrid mostly lethal disease so it's probably the lesser of the 2 evils.

I am currently painting the kitchen doors (the ones I got from ebay any months ago!) I was originally going to paint them once in Italy but I got so bored not doing anything so I just have to be careful they don't get scratched. I might put some pictures of them up next week when they are finished.

Ups and downs

I haven't updated for a while as it all went a bit wrong after the last update! A worker on the house, fell and injured himself and this stopped all work while a health and safety report was filed.( I was also required to go and sign some paperwork to do with this and so was told to try and get on the next plane out.

I had to pay over £250 for my ticket at such short notice and didn't really want to leave the dogs, but needs must. So I was all booked to go, booked a hire car and found some overnight accommodation. I woke up at 4.30am and took the dogs for an hours walk and then my dad drove me to the airport and although it normally takes 1.5 hours to get there, there were so many roadworks that it took over 3.

I arrived at the airport and around 9.35 with my plane due to take off at 9.55! Decided to try it anyway, as there is no telling with Ryanair so I legged it through the airport, waited in a queue at security where no one seemed to know that liquids had to be in bags, and finally got through into the lounge at 9.47am. It didn't look good but my flight didn't say gate closed so I carried on running the 54 miles to the gate, nearly dying enroute but eventually got to the gate and was told I had missed it (which was pretty obvious all along really!). I then had to be escorted by security back out of the airport..

So after much emailing and trying to sort things out, it was decided that as my parents were headed to Italy that Thursday anyway, they could take out the signed papers with them. So a new plan was in place and hopefully things would work out. What could possibly go wrong? Oh yeah...a volcanic eruption in Iceland..

My parents never made it to Italy, I never made it to Italy, but after more emailing, more worry and a dangerous amount of chocolate consumption, the health and safety people agreed to faxed copies. I unfortunately lost all my money for the plane and hire car and can't help but wonder how many dog toys I could have bought for £300!

But finally building resumed! (yay)

These were taken last week, and the roof should be finished by now but I don't have any photos from this week yet.






Onto other news, Shilah continues to be obsessed with balls and playing...(and wrecking grannys garden)



And Kofi is losing his puppy look and starting to look more grown up (although he does more than his fair share in the garden destruction department too)

A house!!

The building started on Tuesday and I can't believe how quickly progress has been made!

The outside (actually looking like a house already!)




The inside..



The view from the lounge window (my favourite view!!)





I am hoping that it progresses quickly now, and will update with some new pictures when I get them. We are getting really excited now that the time is fast approaching.

Lastly, my dad wanted me to show you all what the garden used to look like BD (before dogs) I know my mum mourns it, but I keep asking her if she would rather look at nice green lawn or at these little faces? She doesn't really reply...haha

Garden BD




The culprits..

The platform goes down!

Finally have some good news!

With the arrival of some nice weather, the foundations have been laid and completed! Wooohoo!

This was the first part (camera lighting is a bit funny)



And then this the completed platform..



The cabin should go on top next week and then the electrician/plumbers have to come on site to finish the inside. I had to choose between red and green for the roof and decided on green as I can then paint the shutters green and it will all match. Plus I think green will be more in keeping with the surroundings. So I am hoping it won't be too much longer now!

Which is just as well, as I think Granny's lawn has just about had it with the dog traffic. It used to be lovely and green and now looks a lot like this.



And with the nicer weather the dogs love to play chase round the garden and that certainly isn't helping the grass grow!



Some more good news, is that we did a trial run of getting all the stuff in the back of the Volvo and it fits! Now I just have to somehow fit all the dogs toys, my clothes and the dogs into the Fiat Panda!

Will hopefully update with house pictures next week!

Spring..

Hello all,

Haven't updated for a while because there hasn't really been any development. The land has been too wet to build on but have been told that they hope to start building Monday, so keeping fingers crossed!

Not much to do around here except play/train/walk dogs so I decided to make a house sign (for my non existent house- haha)

Rainbows are special to me so I chose to call the cabin 'Rainbow's End' Shilah and I went down to the woods and collected an piece of sawn off pine that had been discarded and after painting and varnishing, this is my new house sign. ta da!



I was still bored (it has rained a LOT here) so decided to also make a sign for my non existent chicken coop.. :-)




Kofi is growing up really fast and is already 22kg at 4 months! He has been a really good puppy and loves tracking and training (and anything to do with food!) Shilah is enjoying having a brother to play with and harass when he is bored!

Having a snooze



Two boys together..




Hopefully there will be some new updates next week with news that the building has begun! In the meantime we are enjoying some of the nice spring weather after all the rain!