What a day! More exhausting than our wedding, nowhere near as much fun! Friends and family made it bearable. Naomi and Steph helped all day long, cleaning and unpacking. Marko and Lesley turned up in the afternoon and attacked the kitchen and outside, respectively. Jo’s family arrive later, lending moral support and last minute assistance.

There were a few humorous moments, there’s a panel between the top of the fireplace and the bottom of the mantelpiece that looks as though it is crying out to be covered up with tiles, or indeed anything… it also has a visible curved line across it where the panel has been cut to shape to fill the gap between the old semi-circular open fire, and the new square slow-combustion stove. The panel just looked flimsy and badly made — no idea how neither of us noticed it during the inspections. One by one people examined it, poked it, prodded it, and tapped their knuckles on it. I walked into the room as John stood back shaking his head and I gave it a light tap too… CRASH! The panel of plaster-board was only held in by a few handfuls of filler! How it has managed to stay attached this long is a mystery, the owners must have been sweating each time the house was open for inspection that the whole thing didn’t fall off!