Settling In Update

So far things are starting to work out. As of yesterday, we have the central heating working, so the house is lovely and warm, and we have hot running water - two things I really missed in the five years I lived in the flat.
I've got all of my fiction books unpacked and in the bookcases. Somehow they seem to have managed to breed while in the boxes, since I had trouble fitting them all on the shelves, despite having bought another bookcase...
Some of the ornaments are unpacked too, which makes the place look like home. Following the whole washing machine saga, they're coming to fit a replacement on Friday, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this one actually working.
My dad was round tonight, getting started on building a set of shelves that will take my stereo, reference books, videos and DVDs. Hopefully he'll finish that on Thursday, so I can get a lot more boxes emptied on Friday evening. My mum also shortened all the curtains, so most of them are hung now too. Thanks, both of you. :-)
On Sunday we should be going to buy a little dining table and chairs, which we have to get assembled before both of my grandmothers come round for dinner next Tuesday night.

Finally, it's Chris's birthday today. Happy birthday, sweetie. I love you. XXX

We're In!

The moving day went pretty much as planned - we had most of the army that we'd assembled, and enough vehicles. We were down at the house until 1 am on Friday night, trying to get the last bits and bobs done, and didn't really get much sleep that night.
I hadn't realised how much crap we'd managed to accumulate until we had to actually move it all! Mind you, when I was unpacking all the kitchen stuff today, I came acros things that Chris had had before we got together - old appliances that don't work and an entire box of mugs and glasses that had been wrapped up and put away at the back of a cupboard.
I've got the kitchen mostly sorted out now, though, which is a good thing - we're getting our new washing machine installed tomorrow and I don't think that the plumber would be very happy to find the place still full of boxes and bags...

The decorating is all done, although we haven't got the curtains up yet. The ones for the bedroom need to be shortened, and we have only one set for the living room, as when I went to buy the new ones I bought one pair, forgetting that we have a window at each end of the living room. Of course, that particular colour is now out of stock so we'll have to wait until the weekend to get the other pair. I know, I'm a bit of an idiot!

Decorating Delights

Y'know, I'm starting to realise why so many of you say you hate decorating...

We started on Friday night, and we're still only halfway there. So far, the bedroom and the living room are finished, except for varnishing the skirting boards. The kitchen still needs another coat of paint on the walls and the ceiling, and I still have to paint the melamine cupboard and drawer fronts.
We haven't even started on the bathroom yet - I didn't get any 'before' pictures of it, but at the moment the tiles round the bottom half of the room are pink marbled ones, then there's a border of narrow tiles that patterned in pink too, but not a shade that goes with the lower ones... The upper tiles are white, but with the occasional one that has a Greek statue in a floral wreath. It's bloody hideous!
We've spent half of the last few days trying to get our electricity connected, since there's problems with the meter due to the last tenants leaving it in debt, so we've been painting by the light of battery lanterns, which doesn't make it any easier. Chris is down at the house at the moment, hopefully being met by someone who's going to get it sorted out. *crosses fingers*
I'm going down there now, and with any luck we'll have the painting finished today. Chris is going to spend the next two days packing while I'm at work, and on Friday we'll put up the curtain rails and assemble the new furniture we bought at the weekend. Saturday is the big day. I just hope everything will be done by then.

Wish us luck, we're going to need it!

We got a house!

First things first, the antidepressants are really starting to kick in now. I woke up this morning feeling excited, happy and content, which was lovely. I also had a glimmer of excitement about Christmas. There's a long way to go yet, but I think I'm getting there.

So, the really exciting bit! They offered us the second of the houses we didn't think we were getting. It's a proper house, with a garden.



It's got a little lawn at the front, and a really big garden at the back. It's all slabbed at the moment, but I've got far better ideas about what to do with it...

This is the back of the house from the garden.



This is the garden seen from just outside the back door.



Here's the living room. The first photo is looking towards the front of the room, and the second towards the back.





We don't need to do much to the living room, other than painting it. We're going to put in some shelves too, for the stereo, our videos and my reference library...

The kitchen leads off the living room. It really needs decorating- dark coral is most definitely not my thing!
It's got lots of storage room, though, and space for a washing machine. *gets overexcited*







Since our stove is green, we're going to do the kitchen light green, with the cupboard fronts a slightly darker shade.

The house has two bedrooms, one bigger than the other. This is the larger room, that's going to be where we sleep. It's currently painted cream on the top half and bright red below, with a little stripe of green where the dado rail used to be. We spent today putting up lining paper since otherwise the red will show through the mid-purple we're going to paint it.



Tomorrow we're going to buy the paint and get the bedroom finished, then start on the living room. Did I mention how excited I am? ;-)