Not long to Christmas

It is just under 2 weeks until Christmas day and my plan of being in the house this Christmas just aren't going to be fulfilled, although I will make sure that we open our presents in the house this year and I will put up the Christmas tree in the living room.

The weather has finally improved and the plasterers are making good progress on rendering the outside of the house. It is looking really grand. Today they are making good around the windows and doors and preparing for the final coat and dashing that needs to be done. The plinth is proving to be a problem however. From our old photos it seems that the plinth was only at the front part of the house but we would like it to carry on round the house. But there is a slight slope down from back to front and we are losing the plinth altogether when it reaches the back of the house. I'm sure they can get round it with a bit of adjustment. It was a shame to see the stone get covered over again but after seeing the rain coming through the wall so badly in the heavy rain we needed to it.

Our new arrival, Indi (after Indiana Jones) is settling in really well. He doesn't mind being in the mobile at all and is enjoying his long walks around the fields and on the beach. The boys love him and he is definitely part of the family! He is a bit of a chewer - paper plastic bags, socks but I think he is getting over it now he is used to us and his environment. He doesn't like plasterers!

Floods and a new arrival

Finally the rain has stopped. The rain has not only prevented us from rendering the outside of the house but has caused widespread floods and devastation to some parts of Ireland. A week after the torrential rain and still some parts of Cork city are without water and flood levels are rising around the Shannon area. Only a month before Christmas and people are homeless, jobless and in total disarray.

Some good news for us is that we have a new arrival coming tomorrow. A dog about 6 months old that needs a new home. He is lovely and the boys are so excited. I bought a new basket and other essentials the boys have decorated it with "WELCOME INDI" signs (they want to call him Indi after Indiana Jones). I have to pick him up tomorrow morning sometime and then the fun will start - dog in a mobile home! At least he has 1.5 acre to run around in outside.

Year Anniversary

We have been in the mobile home for a year now! I would never have believed that we would still be in the mobile home after that long. Hopefully it won't be for much longer.

Progress has been made but it is very slow. The 2 newly plastered rooms were painted white and sockets and light switches included. Daithi and I spent our 10th wedding anniversary unloading a few bits and pieces from the container and filling up the rooms. It has been 3 and a half years since some of our furniture has seen the light of day. Fortunately our large sofa, sofa bed and mattress survived but our lovely expensive mattress had all number of strange organisms and mould growing all over it and had to be dumped. Mum and Dad's huge Sony tele looks very small in the living room. We don't have the aerial connected but you can certainly sit comfortably and watch a DVD. My parents came over for the mid-term break and were the first people to stay in the house. They had to make do without a toilet or any running water but I had bought a couple of electric heaters and put blankets over the doors, which really made the difference to the rooms. I was delighted to find that the rooms managed to keep their heat too. The kitchen is still to be plastered. One that is done and the toilet is in we should be in too.

The weather took a turn for the worse last week which put the rendering schedule back again. Yesterday was an improvement and the scud coat went on. It has to be left for a couple of days before the plastering over can begin but is is already starting to look good. I can't wait for the scaffolding to come down.

2 rooms down, 7 to go

The front 2 rooms are finished! Kieran is a gifted plasterer and I am in awe of the superbly smooth finish he delivered in the 2 rooms. Not a bump or dent in sight. This was a trial for him and he passed with flying colours. We shall definitely get him back to do the rest of the house as and when it is ready to be plastered. I think Daithi is considering getting him to render the outside too but I feel a bit guilty since we have given to job to Dougie by word. I will leave Daithi to decide.



Daithi was hard at work over the weekend too. He finally got the barge finished at the end of the roof. He built the shuttering himself and had a bit of help on saturday to fill it will concrete. Kieran smoothed it off for us and now we wait for the suttering to be removed to see the final result. I really hope it will be ok. It was the final task to be done before the rendering could begin ouside I think.




Daithi was in Wexford on thursday and visited the salvage yard in Gorey again.
He ordered the freestanding cast iron bath I wanted (should be delivered this week) and picked up the ridge tiles for the hips of the roof. They worked out to be about 9 euro each which is comparable to new ones here so a great find. The lads in Gorey are going to try the ridges we need for the top of the roof, which are a tighter angle and apparently harder to find.


Our local farmer, popped in today and cut the grass for us with his tractor and mower. It is a relief to see all the nettles and weeds gone (for now). Conor spent at least half an hour raking the grass at the front into a big pile. The next step is to spray the area and kill the weeds for good. John, the farmer was a nephew of the previous owners of the house and was telling me of how he remembered the house. He used to rush up the stairs to see the view of the sea whenever he visited. He also remembers great get-togethers on St Stephen's Day to play cards. I have heard that from others too. Next time I see Michael our elderly neighbour I will ask more about them.

Work, Work, Work... AT LAST!

What a week!

Conor started school - no tears or apparent nerves were shown. Instead I had tears from Liam when he was lining up because he was worried about going into first class! Liam was fine afterwards and hasn't looked back. He now has the only male teacher at the school and he is "cool". Apparently he has secret hand signals for going to the toilet and wanting a drink! Conor has one more week of early days and then he stays until 2pm. Today, they both had homework for the first time and it was funny to see both the boys sitting down and doing their work.

Meanwhile we had trouble getting plasterboard delivered and so the plasterer couldn't begin until today. At last it feels like some progress is being made! One room has plasterboard on the walls and ceilings and it feels like we could move in already! The other front room is completely clear and is ready to be slabbed too. By friday 2 rooms will have been fully plastered. I am so excited. Daithi is upset that he isn't here to watch things happen but he will be back on friday to see the last day of work.

The local plumber got back to us for a price to plumb the house (heating, bathrooms,kitchen etc) - 13,000 euro!!!!! GULP! We think that we could source items ourselves to bring the price down a bit but I was very surprised! I think Daithi has reached the conclusion that we have to get workmen in now to finish the house - he just hasn't got time to do all the work now he is working away. And it is getting colder and we don't want to be in the mobile in the winter time again!

Our neighbour, the niece of previous owners of the house brought up some photos of the house in 1986. I was very interested to see the old windows in and I assume the original door. I was very surprised at the style of the door and will have to ask the older neighbours if they remember a different door because it just doesn't look like it belongs to the house! Investigation will continue....

Summer almost over

Only a day and a bit until school starts. Liam is worried about having anew teacher in 1st class and Conor doesn't seem a bit bothered about starting Junior Infants. We shall see on the first day how they both deal with the situation. I can't believe they have had 10 weeks off!

We spent some of last week up in Wexford visting grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. The boys bought their bikes and were showing off their skills to anyone that would watch. Conor is besotted with uncle Emmet; even more now Emmet bought him a hurley that has the Wexford colours of purple and gold for a grip. Liam on the other hand bought a Rebel hurl (Cork style) totally by chance - he is turning into a Corkonian!

There was another reason for going up to Wexford. We had discovered a couple of salvage yards in Kilkenny and Gorey and wanted to visit them to see what they had to offer. The boys were happy to stay with the family and be spoilt rotten! The first salvage yard we vistied, in Kilkenny was very organised with everything sorted into groups of similar items. There were various sash weights, guttering items, slates etc. Unfortunately there were no ridge tiles that matched our roll-top originals. We had more luck in the yard in Gorey for those. This yard was in a real state but after searching around we found some ridge tiles for the hip part of the roof that matched ours, in fact enough to probably complete the hips. The owner was confident that he could find the others we needed if we could get the details to him. What a relief! Also the yard in Gorey sell reproduction baths - 900 euro for the one I want, which is comparable in cost to the £650 for the ones I have seen on ebay once you have taken into account travel costs - we would have to collect from the UK. Maybe we are making progress at last...!

Progress? well.....

It has been a month since I last posted. We are still in the mobile but I have resigned myself to the fact that we will be here for a while yet. I really hope that we will be in the downstairs before the weather turns cold again!

We have organised a plasterer to begin work on rendering outside the second week in September and we have hopefully got a good plasterer for indoors too. We were hoping to get the rendering done before we started plastering inside to make sure the place is watertight especially around the windows and stones where the pointing is bad. But we have decided to get the 2 front rooms done in the meantime. All the wiring has been done for those rooms and no plumbing is needed there so there is really no need to wait on them. It will be such a boost to see those rooms almost done. A plumber came last weekend to quote on the plumbing side of things but we haven't heard back from him yet - I dread to think of the cost of his work. A good plumber is very hard to find!

The summer holidays are flying. There is only a week and a half before the lads go to school. Conor is quite excited about starting and it looks like the school has a acquired a new teacher for the massive intake of 31 this year (only 16 last year!). He has suddenly matured in his ways and has grown over an inch too! This week he really showed what he was made of when he taught himself how to ride his bike. I was amazed at his determination. He got upset a few times when he crashed or fell off but he never gave up and is now almost as competent as Liam in going around corners. Unfortunately his bike is a bit small for him - it doesn't freewheel which makes it difficult going down hill. Maybe Father Christmas will be kind to him!

We managed another break after our trip to England too. Some friends invited us to a holiday home in Rossbeigh, Co. Kerry. We only stayed 2 nights but it was fantastic. We had a go at surfing and on a surf-ski. Again the boys' determination showed again - they didn't care if they capsized or fell into the sea in the slightest! I have to say that when the house is nearly done we will definitely get some wet suits and take up some sea sports!

Holidays, NCT Woes and Tiles

The school holidays are in full swing now.

The first couple of weeks were fabulous and we spent as much time at the beautiful beaches around us as possible. We went over to England then to visit friends and family and had a fantastic trip to Butlins at Bognor Regis for 5 days - the highlight for the kids. The weather was fantastic while we were there but new was in Ireland the weather was terrible - rain, rain and more rain.... I'm glad we weren't here for that!

Butlins was great fun. We have been 3 years in a row now and each year the boys have wanted to do different things. This year it was bowling, watching all of the Skyline Gang shows and swimming. We also managed to squeeze a trip to Legoland which was expensive but thankfully we had free child tickets, the Natural History and Science museums in London. The boys loved it and are getting to that age where they want to understand more about the world around them and can handle the trip on the train and tube. Liam loved the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum and Conor loved the planes and steam engines at the science museum.

We all came back with colds and coughs. With swine flu rampant around Essex, we have shied away from everyone since we returned just in case we had a mild form. But we have no high temperatures or aches and pains so hopefully we have escaped but for how long....?

We have been itching to get back to work on the house. We took a trip to Ikea when we were over and was impressed with one of their kitchens (especially the price!). I got into cleaning out the house a bit since we have been back - we have soooooo much junk - and it has spurred me on to get things moving. This afternoon we went to a tile place in Cork and bought tiles for the kitchen floor - with the grout it cost just under 1000 euro which is a lot less than we expected for the size of the room. The tiles were 13 euro sq yrd (or was it sq m?), compared to 29.99 euro in a local tile shop for the same tile! The step needed to be taken and it is done now so lets get going....!

The next thing we have to do is find a new car for Daithi - the '98 escort failed it's NCT with extremely bad emissions and serious corrosion underneath. Time to buy another..... Else it could be 5 points on Daithi's licence for a dangerous car!

Lets get going

Finally Bloom 2009 is over and Daithi is able to concentrate on working on the house once more. I have to say he was truly wonderful to help out so much with Rosa. He seemed to spend forever in Dublin helping to build the garden in his spare time. But it was worth it. The garden, "The Seven Woods" was fantastic and well deserving of a silver medal. I think a silver gilt medal would have been more appropriate though. The inspiration came from the poem "The Seven Woods" by W. B. Yeats and it certainly had a woodland feel to it with beautiful foxgloves and ferns.

We took the boys up to Phoenix park for the event over the June bank holiday weekend. I don't think it was worth 25euro to get in (luckily we had free tickets and the kids got in free too). The weather was stunning (as it has been all week) and certainly helped to bring out the crowds. The boys had a great time - not so much looking at the gardens but playing in the playground and participating in the events in the Imaginosity section. Rosa had a great response from the public and is proud of the garden as she should be. It is a shame that a week after the show has finished, the garden has been dismantled and is no more. It would have been lovely to see it go into a hospital courtyard for which it was intended.

Now we can concentrate on working on the house again. Tomorrow an excavator is arriving at 8.30am. Hopefully we will be ready for rendering outside by the end of the weekend, although Daithi needs to get the soffat sorted out for the roof. It will be nice to get things going again after such a lull. Cian will be here too and he is great at motivating Daithi to keep going.

A Big Day For Conor

Conor's induction for school was today. I can't believe that he will be starting full time school this september. He was very excited going into the school but was a bit shy going into the classroom. He knows a few other children starting which makes it easier for him compared to Liam. Poor Liam knew no one since we moved down the week before starting school. I'm sure we won't have the tears from Conor. Conor enjoyed himself anyway which is the main thing. We shall see come August 26th, the start date, if he understands what going to school really means!

We are heading up to Wexford for the bank holiday weekend and will go to Bloom 2009 on the sunday to see Rosa's garden "The Seven Woods". The garden was judged today and so she will find out tomorrow if she has won anything. She deserves it after all the work she has put into it. Perhaps after this weekend we can finally concentrate on working on the house as Daithi has been helping Rosa in Dublin preparing for Bloom the last few weeks.

Blooming Marvellous

I have been chief keeper of plants for Rosa's show garden at Bloom 2009 this week. I feel so stressed out! It reminds me of the time that I was left in charge of my parents' fish pond and almost killed all the fish (most of the big Koi carp did actually die...)! Thankfully today the plants will be taken up to Dublin today and they are all still alive and look wonderful (in my opinion!). Daithi has been in Dublin with Rosa, Paul and others doing the groundwork for the garden and from what I see it is all coming along well and on time. Since he has been away the boiler in the mobile has stopped working and we have all been sick! Typical!

Babies

In a previous post I mentioned that we had 4 blackbird eggs in a nest near to the mobile home. Last week the eggs hatched! I'm not sure if all 4 survived but I definitely counted 3 chicks in the nest. I didn't have a chance to photograph them in the nest. I tried today but as I sneaked up to the nest with the camera I saw the chicks hopping around chirping to each other. I nearly stepped on one! I kept an eye out and the daddy bird was definitely checking up on them so I assume that they were meant to be out of the nest even though I haven't seen them attempt to fly. They are anow the size of my clenched fist so I doubt if they can all fit in the nest anymore!

The first tooth fell out!

Great excitement this week when finally Liam's first tooth fell out! He didn't even notice it had happened. He was munching on a sesame stik during big lunch on the wednesday and heard a crack. Next thing, Leah was handing him the tooth which she had found on the floor of the playground! The tooth next door to it is really wobbly too.



Liam didn't want to give the tooth to the fairy that night because he wanted Daithi to see it but the next day we lost it! (we found it this morning) We left a note under the pillow asking the tooth fairy that if he did find it could he keep it. The very kind toothe fairy circled the 'Yes' choice. Now the tooth in it's little bag is constantly with Liam and he is 2 euro richer!

It was a sad week because Liam's best friends at school are moving to London on tuesday. Conor thought the enormous truck carrying all their belonging was fantastic. Jackson and Lachlan had their last day at school yesterday and it was emotional for the parents as much as the children. The boys seem very upbeat about it and are looking forward to making new friends. They won't be moving to far from my parents' house so we should get to see them whenever we vist mum and dad.

All go...

Not on the house unfortuantely. I was a bit disappointed with progress while we were in England I have to say but I have been so busy working in the evenings and when the lads are at school that I can't seem to spur Daithi on to do work. He seems to disappear in to the house and I hear tools going but I just don't see what is being done! The next thing on the list is to get some front and side doors before we get the house rendered (new one on me). I know Daithi has been fretting at work so I have to give him a bit of a break but it is nearly the summer now!

When we came home from England the grounds of the house have transformed. There seem to be no daffodils left and the trees have suddenly spurted leaves and blossom. It is nice to see the apple blossom in the orchard and on the crab apple trees. The grass, nettles and weeds are becoming overgrown already. Another great sight is to see the veg patch springing into life. The potatoes, onions, radishes, lettuce are all making an appearance. We have a family of balckbirds nesting in the mound behind the mobile home. Last time we looked there were 4 eggs in the nest. I am trying to keep away in case they feel threatened and fly off but so far so good. The boys are really excited about it.

I have taken on some web design work which means all my spare time has gone. We have transformed the spare room in the mobile into an office. The old computer desk just fits in and it is a really nice place to work. Just have to get myself into work frame of mind!!!!

A break!

We are in the UK for Easter. We arrived yesterday and it has been full on ever since! We had a great journey over even though we had to take 2 planes (I know that is really bad for the environment but I could not resist the price of 10 euro and no taxes for each flight compared to an unbelievably high price for a direct flight from Cork to Stansted). The boys coped really well with the stop-over at Dublin. I think that the excitement of seeing Nanny June and Grandad Paul kept them going. I have no idea what their mood will be on the way home!

It is lovely to have a few home comforts for a while - especially a lovely bath that I can lie full stretch in! The boys have space to spread all the toys out too but they do miss the space outside to play. I am convinced that Conor will fall in the fish pond before the week is out!

I caught up with family today which was lovely since I hadn't seen any over Christmas time. Nanny has been very ill but she looked great and it was lovely to have a proper conversation with her now her hearing aid is operational. For so long she was too stubborn to admit that she needed one!

We have left Daithi at home so hopefully he will get some work done! I am expecting improvements! He has decided to make the kitchen after we had a quote euro 18,000 for my kitchen! I wouldn't pay 18,000 for it either! Back to my glass of wine!!!!

Near Miss

A very strange thing happened today - the plug of our electric heater, which is always, plugged in on a timer, decided to short out and the fuse inside exploded. We were in the living room of the mobile home when it happened. I heard a sizzling and crackling and was convinced that the tele was about to explode (it was on standby). I unplugged the extension lead and left it at that. When I checked the tele, freesat etc they were all fine but the heater wasn't working. When we looked at the plug of the heater we could see a small burn mark. When we opened it the whole of the inside of the plug was blackened and burned. Daithi believes that the wires weren't being held in place properly and had moved loose from connections. I can't believe that a fire didn't start. And we are so lucky that it didn't happen when we weren't present or during the night! Check those plugs!!!!

misty misty

Haven't had a chance to post for a while. I have actually been doing some work! It has been nice to get my brain cells back into gear again. Ryan's website was finished a while ago (www.ryanmorgan.ie), which he loves and I hope that he gets some good bookings from it, and now two other people have approached me to do their websites too. My spare time in the evenings will now be no longer!

The final window was installed over the weekend. At last! They will need touching up but I won't do that until the rendering outside and the plastering inside is done. Part of the front lawn was dug up with a mini digger at the weekend. Conor and Liam really enjoyed driving the digger in the rain. They were filthy at the end of it. Conor has been instructing me since on the levers and which lever does what etc. The result is a ready made vegetable patch and yesterday was spent planting our potatoes: British Queens, Home Guard and Golden Wonders. We should have potatoes for the rest of the year and perhaps early next year too. I have to prepare the other half of the patch to plant the rest of our veg. Maybe Liam will start eating more veg if we grow it ourselves.

The kitchen design is still on going. I gave up with 4Homes. Despite me contacting them several times they never came back with a price for their design. I called in a local firm, Cronin Furniture instead and they came to the house and measured up last week. On thursday I will go and see their design. I am really looking forward to seeing thier ideas.

What a week!

This week has completely flown past!

St Patrick's Day was beautiful. The sun shone and everyone seemed in a really happy mood. I went out and took photos of all the different varieties of daffodils in the garden (I counted 7). They are gorgeous but have been planted in the oddest positions. I'm not sure when the best time to move them is. I suppose it is when the flowers have dies down a bit.






As I was photographing, a large hunting party trotted past the lane with their dogs for their annual hunt, shamrock pinned to their outfits - I hope the fox had a bit of luck: I wouldn't like to be a fox up against them. After they had gone, Daithi climbed the tall tree which had been blocking our broadband signal and chopped it down. It took quite a while to get it done even using a chainsaw, but the result is strong broadband! Yippee...!

We managed to get to Youghal for the annual St Patrick's parade. We just caught the end of it last year but were there in plenty of time this year. Lots of children from Liam's school were in the parade this year so we were waving and calling out names most of the time. Liam was wearing the hat he made at school and when anyone who knew him saw him they waved and called out his name. After the parade we all had the biggest ice-cream 99 cones I have ever seen. I can't believe that the boys managed to finish theirs.

Today Ireland managed to win the Six Nations Grand Slam by beating Wales. It took over 60 years to achieve it and boy what a match! I couldn't watch the last 10 minutes and hid in the kitchen until it was over. It is fantastic for the country! It is about time they lived up to their potential.

Conor is 4 at last

After the excitement of Liam's 6th birthday poor Conor has had to wait 2 1/2 weeks for his 4th birthday to come along. And what a sight to greet him on the morning of his birthday... Snow! It reminded me of the day he was born. We had about 3 inches of snow during the night and I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to get to the hospital. Thankfully I did and by the time Conor was born the snow had almost gone. We had a snowball fight with Liam's class when we dropped Liam at school which started the day off nicely.

Conor didn't have a party, but we did have a few visits from friends and their children which made things special for him. And his birthday cake was yummy too. The day after, Daddy was back from his travels and we had a family outing to the cinema to see Bolt (Conor's idea). It was a great trip and Conor kept turning to Daithi to tell him "I love you!" during the film so I could tell that it was really a special moment for him. The film was great although had to endure lots of barking the next morning with the boys impersonating Bolt's sonic bark.

The house has been having a face lift the last couple of weeks. The jackhammering has ceased and the house looks completely transformed now that the loose render has been removed. It is a shame that we have to cover all the beautiful stone up again but we have had to do so many touches with blocks and bricks that it wouldn't look coherent if we left it bare. We did discover 2 holes at the front of the house that don't go all the way through the wall, which have been bricked up with 4 red bricks. Cian had the idea that they may have been used for flag poles - the house was supposedly an RIC barracks in the past, although I haven't researched this further. It would explain the holes.

Cian was down for the weekend. We haven't seen him for ages and I can't blame him really - he must hate getting up so early by the boys in the morning (the spare room in the mobile is right next to the lounge area and all the noise!). Daithi and Cian have built a fantastic shelter using the containers as walls, which will house the large industrial machines that take up so much space in the house. The house has had a bit of a clean inside too - the dust, sawdust and general mess has gone. Almost ready for plastering now....

Exhausted

A week after Liam's birthday came Liam's birthday party at Perk's Entertainment Centre in Youghal. I have to say there is something to be said of birthday parties away from home - no mess to clear up being the main advantage. The party was a joint party with another girl in his class, Cara (who loves Liam). 19 children turned up in the end for 2 1/2 hours of fun in Blackbeard's play centre, danicing in the disco room and the bowling. They had a great time but I am exhausted! Daithi is too! It is very stressful keeping an eye on all the kids in case they run off to the arcade machines.

Liam has had an eventful week. He had 2 days off for half-term, one of which we spent at Fota wildlife park with some friends. Then he got all his birthday money and Christmas money (nearly 100 euro) and bought the biggest box of lego I have ever seen: Lego Secret Agents Mission 6. Daithi bought it home on thursday evening and he immediately set to work building the small vehicles. He was then up at 6am the next day to begin the construction of the main command centre, which he finally finished on saturday afternoon. That is some commitment! Conor was so patient. He was itching to get at the lego to help but Liam had told him in no uncertain terns to leave well alone and to his credit he did just that. He waited until Liam told him that he could have a go. What a star!

It meant that I could get some painting done over the weekend and help out Daithi a bit. Dougie came on friday to talk about rendering the outside of the house. We have to take off some of the old plaster before he can start. Daithi did some of that over the weekend and made good progress with the jack-hammer. It should only take a couple of days to clear it because the plaster was coming off without too much trouble. The stone underneath is beautiful but we have to cover it over again to hide all the block work we have had to do. We still have to get the barges done at the end of the roof too. Hopefully brothers Barry and Karl can come up one weekend and do that for us.

Liam is 6 today!

Where does the time go???

I always get emotional when it is the birthday of one of the boys. I can't believe that Liam is 6 already! He woke fairly early, as usual, and wasn't expecting any presents because he is having a joint birthday party at Perk's Entertainment Centre in Youghal next weekend. So he was over the moon when he discovered the present he wanted waiting for him. He wanted a new camera and I managed to get a vtech kiddizoom special jungle edition in the sales (1/2 price no less!). He hasn't put it down all day. The camera takes photos and video footage, allows the photographer to edit the photos and animate them, and also has games on it. Conor was a little jealous but he'll get over it and Liam kindly let him have a go after a while. Here are some of his creations:

I made a chocolate birthday cake this afternoon which we all tucked into. Yummy. I already have an advanced order from Conor for the same cake. Easy enough! Mum... Just for you a little video clip of Liam getting his cake (also taken with his camera):

On the house front... 2 more windows are in, only 4 left I think. The boys are off school this week so I doubt that I will be able to finish painting the sashes. I might be lucky. Dougie hasn't been able to visit regarding the rendering outside which is the priority after the windows. Hopefully he will make an appearance this week.

This post is long enough. I could go on and rant about my husband having to run out and buy a Valentine's card on Valentine's day itself but I will leave that for another day!

Love is in the air

Valentine's Day is tomorrow. Conor has been bringing home lots of red hearts painted at school and arrived home with chocolates "to share" today. He made his teacher, Mary, a lovely Valentine's card.

Liam on the other hand made his classmate Leah a card. It is his first 'real' Valentine's card and Leah's mum and I had a good giggle about it while the kids ran off together in the playground. Love starts young these days....

I doubt I will get anything for Valentine's Day but then Daithi always seems to surprise me somehow. We are planning a Thai takeaway, bottle of wine, movie and absolutely no work on the house after 8pm! That means Daithi is out there now working on yet more windows. I don't mind because I am busy trying to finish his cross-stitch Valentine's card....

We were at a friend's house briefly this afternoon looking at her window shutters. It is another old house being renovated but they are staying in the house as they do the work - a very tough thing to do with 3 young children. The house is beautiful and full of original features. It has been kept in the family for generations, probably since it was built. Daithi had never seen the place but had heard lots about it from me. I think it has confirmed the thought that we should put the shutters back into Ballydaniel House. We have to get everything else done first....

Back to the painting...

Only 5 sashes left to paint. Finally Daithi got round to sanding down the remaining few for me to finish (I hate sanding!). Conor is at preschool for 4 mornings this week so hopefully I will be able to crack on with them. The cold has made painting quite difficult - the paint becomes quite thick and sticky and obviously takes longer to dry between coats. Oh well....

I don't have any word back on the quote for my kitchen design from 4homes. After my initial excitement about the design I am now questioning the positioning of most items but until I get a price back I don't want to proceed further and change anything. It is very hard to visualise the space when it is full of tools, scaffolding and other junk. It is one of the things I want to get completely right first time. Am I being unreasonable?

Another rat has appeared in the rat trap. It isn't too big but big enough for me to leave well alone. Daithi can deal with it when he gets back tomorrow. I feel very bad about keeping the creature caged and prolonging its agony but that's life....

Goodbye Ratty

Poor ratty.... He got trapped and executed by Daithi last night.

Fortunately the deed was done when the boys were asleep - death by skewer. Daithi took great delight in explaining the poor creatures last moments to me. At least it was a swift death I suppose.



Daithi has reset the trap to see if any more take the bait. If the trap goes while Daithi is away then the rat will just have to stay there!



It has been a frustrating weekend work wise. We just haven't seemed to make any progress on anything apart from small jobs such as painting and fitting lead weights. Just one of those weekends. We were at Daithi's godson's birthday party this afternoon which was a nice break from our muddy building site. Kevin has been renovating his house and it gives me hope to think that his house is nearly finished and ours could soon be as comfortable. Nice chicken dinner and glass of wine too - thanks Kevin and Caoimhe.

Rats!

I know that we live in the country surrounded by fields growing all manner of crops, so one would expect to see zillions of rats around the place. To be honest I have seen a handful at most although they must be around. After the episode of the rat in the kitchen I have been very watchful for them. I have seen a few in the yard storing the beet down the end of the lane but none around our house at all.

Imagine my surprise when a rat appeared out of the bank beside the mobile home not even 3 metres away, to enjoy a feast of wild bird seed that had fallen to the floor from Conor's bird feeder that he had made in preschool. That was a couple of days ago and today the rat upped his antics and has now become acrorat. Not content with scavenging on the floor he has commandeered the bird feeder! Daithi has set the trap and the poor thing will be no more either from the cold if he is trapped overnight tonight or by the hands of Daithi tomorrow morning. The rat is no where near the size of the one we trapped previously so he shouldn't be able to break free from the trap....Sorry Suzanne....

No more snow for now....

Well the snow didn't last long, less than a day in fact.

The morning after my last post saw a covering of snow for us, although there was very little snow down the hill in the village and at Liam's school. The boys were ecstatic although there wasn't really enough to make a decent snowman. The mini snowman we did make survived a while and even went a make-over from Conor. The boys were dressed and out at 8.30am, collecting as much snow as they could! But the snow had all but disappeared by the afternoon. Unfortunately, the cold weather has stayed and the wind is making it feel even colder!

The bathroom order from B&Q has finally arrived. It is still in boxes but it feels like another step has been made. Not sure how long it will be before we can get the cloakroom and bathroom ware installed. We have to put in internal walls and get the plasterer in first.....

I went to 4homes and sat down with kitchen designer fro an hour and a half and made a start on a design for a kitchen. The designer was very helpful and certainly new her way around the design software. I now have a visual impression on what my kitchen could look like. It will take a few tweaks before I am completely happy but I have a much firmer idea on what the kitchen should look like. At last! I am waiting on the quote on the first design....I am dreading it....

Ho Ho Ho - we have snow....

Actually we don't have that much snow yet but we should have some more tomorrow.

The boys were beside themselves catching snowflakes outside this afternoon during our brief snowstorm. They are very jealous of Nanny June's several inches of snow in the UK. By the looks of the forecast we should get enough to make a snowman outside by the morning. Liam can't remember seeing snow on the ground even though there was snow covering the ground on the day Conor was born (in March!). I suppose Liam was only 2 at the time.

News on the bathroom purchases - arrival is scheduled for Wednesday. Can't wait.

Off to my nice warm bed - electric blankets are fantastic and a must on a freezing night in a mobile home....

Spring is here?

1st of February is St Bridget's Day - the first day of spring here in Ireland. I can tell you that despite the appearance of a few daffodils around certain places it does not feel like spring at all! It is freezing again.

I was on the phone to my mum in the UK and the snow has arrived there. Watching the BBC news it looks like the East of the UK will get heavy snow over the next few days. Poor Liam and Conor are really upset that they aren't there to build a snowman. You never know, it may reach this far but I doubt it!

The weekend has been spent doing window work. We now have all the downstairs windows installed and the very large window in the hallway is in place. Part of the upstairs has also been done. David is getting faster at putting in the windows and there are only 5/6 left to put in. What a relief it will be to get them in. It does look like we will need to get the outside rendered before we can plaster inside unfortunately - we have had very heavy rain over the last week and we have noticed that the water does come through the walls somewhere. I would hate to get the inside plastered only to have it ruined by a deluge of rain falling in the wrong direction.

My bathroom items haven't arrived yet. B&Q did contact me to see if I had heard from the carrier, which I haven't, so it will be chase up time tomorrow.

I am off to see 4homes on Tuesdays about kitchens. I shall see what design and prices they can give. I did like their range of kitchens but I have a specific design in mind so we shall see if they can live up to my expectations.....

It has been ages

I am finally connected to the world again!!!! The delights of broadband. Thanks to Cork Community Broadband, especially Owen for getting us up and running again. We have a bit of equipment which allows the broadband signal to travel through the electricity connection so I can plug in my laptop in the mobile home and hey presto....connected!

Well... what has been happening. Christmas was good, although Daithi was ill on Stephen's Day and had to see the emergency doctor the day after that. Fortunately he recovered enough to travel to the UK for the New Year but while we were there I was ill! The boys had a great time anyway!

Unfortunately it meant that we couldn't do as much work on the house as we would have liked over the holidays and now Daithi is back working away 3 days a week. Since the New Year the weather has not been kind to us at the weekends, which has hampered the efforts to install the windows. Nearly all the downstairs have been put in, some of the upstairs need glazing and a few need painting still. We managed to source some more lead for the weights. Daithi has perfected the technique to mould the lead weights now and only has a few more to make. Still no move in date but life in the mobile is fairly comfortable so I am in no real rush.

A positive note...I bought a new tumble dryer (Hoover from Currys)! Thanks to all my friends who helped out with my laundry since we moved into the mobile but I am now able to dry things! We also bought our bathroom and cloakroom essentials (toilets, sinks, shower enclosures, taps etc) in the B & Q sale. It hasn't been delivered yet though.