Tomorrow is moving day (!) so today we are going to be crazy busy, cleaning, sorting and packing in both houses. There is a team of lovely people from the village all ready to help us move (they have been ready to help for months now) and they are starting at 9am so we have to be ready…
Cat is cleaning out the old cupboard in the kitchen, washing each compartment and sorting through everything that lives in it. Also the split in Cat’s jeans has reached dangerous proportions…
It looks very strange with all the cupboard doors open.
We are making the most of the dishwasher next door while we still have it (god I am going to miss it), washing everything and anything that will go in it. All our glasses have been washed and moved over to our kitchen already.
We have so many jam jars! These are also going through the dishwasher next door.
The contents of the old cupboard…
Colin is tackling the garage… We can’t reach anything (again). The garage gets full up so quickly.
There is so much wood in here so we have to sort it out, chuck what is no good, move out what we want to burn and save and store all the good stuff.
Jasper wants a walk.
So much cow parsley and it smells divine!
The last of the orange dust???
Part way through sorting and moving all the wood. We have done this numerous times already but it always becomes too much and takes over the garage!
All the old floorboards are stacked in the right corner at the back, the longer ones stacked down the side of the wall.
All the plug in heaters that we borrowed from many of our neighbours have been cleaned and are ready to return to their owners. These have all worked so hard over the winter, drying plaster, paint, walls, floors, and keeping the workers warm! Now we know how to keep the boiler going, we don’t need these anymore.
Cat sorts through all the decorating equipment, of which there is a great deal, boxing them up together, so all the paint together, all the tape together, all the brushes together, etc. as everything has got scattered and chucked in random boxes over the last few months.
Apologies to all our neighbours!
Looks like we are having a really shit garage sale.
The old stairs with a fresh coat of Osmo oil. Newspaper is going to be taped over them for the move tomorrow.
Wow! The dining room hasn’t looked this good in months! It’s been our main room for storing everything for the renovations so has been full of a variety of things over the last year, all of which were dirty and messy, so to see it this clean and tidy is astonishing.
The blue floor of the old bathroom is all that remains now (thankfully).
We cover the floor with all the Ram Board that we have left, protecting the rest of the house from the dirt and bitumen that is still all over this floor. Hopefully this should only be for a couple of weeks until we get the new lino fitted.
Cat and Colin are going to seal the flagstone floor in the sitting room before we move in, so the room needs emptying.
The sofa gets moved into the study.
Dad has been helping me with the packing, we are very nearly done but the kitchen is taking the longest.
Good lord! It’s been a very long time since we have seen the garage floor!
All the lumps of oak that we are keeping are stacked on the top of the shelf unit at the back. Everything is now accessible again.
Cat and Colin are sealing the sitting room floor so it can soak in and dry overnight.
We are using the Ecoprotec Colour Enhancing Stone Sealer again, the same as we used back in September when the floor was sealed for the first time. It is water based, environmentally friendly and allows the stones to breathe yet will protect the stone from liquids, oil and grease.
The pointing has never been sealed so they concentrate on painting it to the pointing first, then work it across the stones before buffing it with the green cloth.
Bags of food for our larder are being brought across already.
We are rapidly filling the skip.
Nearly there!
Our last night in Alford House. We can’t believe how super lucky we were to rent the house right next door for the last year from our lovely (dog loving) old neighbours! And also for them to have been so flexible and let us rent it from month to month, every month since Christmas we have told them we would be out by the end of the month! A massive thank you to Elaine and Martin. You have made our lives so much easier by enabling us to be on site all day every day to manage the renovations 🙂