TIME FOR AN UPDATE!

The trip to Devon (below) was a couple of months ago, and we feel we’ve earned a ‘real’ holiday! In the end the Devon escapade did help and we decided that we would persevere in the quest to buy and live in France. That’s if we ever sell Garth View. Two parties have ‘expressed an interest’ but without making an offer – they’re waiting for funds, apparently.

In what way have we ‘earned’ a holiday? Well, we’ve made considerable changes at both Murton View (MV) and Garth View (GV). The kitchen was removed from MV:

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And a new one delivered:

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We removed the carpet from the living room at MV (the carpet fitters said it wasn’t worth moving; Carol said it was so we did it ourselves) and Carol discovered new skills in carpet laying, first fitting underlay and gripper rods in the guest room (at GV) – which she had painted by then – and finally fitting the ‘not worth moving’ carpet. Well, it may not be perfect, but it’s a great improvement on what w
as there before!

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Meanwhile, the new kitchen was installed at MV, and we think it will make the flat an even more attractive prospect to possible tennants.

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(Tiling still to do)

 

 

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We disposed of all the packaging ourselves

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– it’s surprising how much you get into the back of that little car (the C1) – involving several trips to the tip to save the fees and costs of getting the installers to dispose of it (private vehicles access the tip for free, vans have to pay).

 

Back at GV we moved all the furniture out of ‘our’ bedroom and put it all (except one item) into the newly-carpeted and decorated former guest room:

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First the wardrobe:

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Then the tallboy (would it fit? Yes it would!)

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The bed takes shape:

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Et voilà!

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The one remaining item:

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It’s now on the landing.

That left us with another carpet to lift and discover that the floor boards are in an even worse state than we knew! We’ve left it like that and our nice young man, Jimmy, will replace the boards as needed while we are away – as well as doing a number of jobs at MV.

We took occasional days off! Florence stayed with us for a week and we had a particularly fine day for a drive up Borrowdale followed by ‘Hay Fever’ at the Theatre By The Lake. (“Is this a game?”) The next day I travelled by train (3 trains each way,actually, and the last one was an hour late!) to Bristol to audition along with some fellow Esperanto Speakers to appear on ‘Eggheads’ – breath holding is not recommended!

So now we’re poised to cross the Channel later today, Thursday 6th October – in a gale! We’ve visited the brothers, two in Potter’s Bar and one in his (and her!) new flat in Surbiton, overlooking the river, and we’ve no plan to go anywhere after Dunkirk, other than probably south and west. Look out for some postings titled ‘Postcards from Harry’, hopefully more interesting than this one! Comments welcome. Bye for now! (I know we have some sea sickness pills in here somewhere ….)

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