Settling in and making it ours

Sorry I have not posted in a while - as you can imagine there is a lot keeping us busy in our great new house.

Joy has settled in well to her new school - on her first day she gained her first invitation to go and play - the next day! ( I was more nervous than she was!!!) Her school have been very welcoming, and it was lovely to drop her off in those first few mornings with a smile on her face. There was only a small wobble on the third morning with a few tears - otherwise she's a very happy bunny. Yesterday was one of the highlights of the school year, we enjoyed the country dancing and Fete.

We're still in the period of time when furniture is moved often to see where it will settle - the kids are finding it pretty funny to sometimes find in the morning that a sofa has moved! But things are getting more and more straight - only a few boxes to clear and then we can start on making Elias's room which is pretty exciting. I'm sure it's going to take a few visits to Ikea in the near future! In the research for a good bed to utilise the rather small space I've found probably the coolest boy bed ever at Dreams (sadly too big for a small space though!)- take a look....

The garden is proving to be a big job that we are tackling in small stages(see picture above) - when we moved in it had been unloved for a year or so and was set out with a number of rose beds and small turf pathways around them. So far we've removed about 1 1/2 of those beds - to make some decent play space for the kids, and trimmed back the lovely hedge to make that tidier. We still have a lot of clearing, digging, trimming to do - and if you want some rose bushes we'd be glad to give you some! (better hurry though as they may fall prey to a strimmer!)

We also have finally got a washing machine - which in itself proved a bit of a saga. We had to send the first one back as it was damaged and then had to wait a further week for clean clothes - argh. So the washing machine sticks out like a sore thumb in our kitchen - we're still settling on the type of new kitchen we want, and are planning to book in the bathroom replacement ASAP.

All that remains to be said is that country life is agreeing with us. Although we've a lot to do, I'm thrilled to have this house.