Week 1 of our grand design!

Our grand design project has finally started.  The builders turned up at 7.45 on Monday 17th and by the time we were setting off for school most of the front garden and patio were gone!  They also let William ride the JCB and moved the plants I wanted to keep :) 

Foundations dug on day two and by the end of the week the brickwork was well underway.  

And they let Madeleine have a go on the digger too before it went back!  Two very happy children :) 

What will we see next week I wonder?  Watch this space...

Saved from the digger :)

I cannot believe how fast this first bit of building is going!  I am sure it will slow down and become very stressful in a grand designs fashion but at the moment they are making huge changed everyday and let W ride on the digger so everyone is happy :) 

My month in numbers February 2014

Quite a lot to pack in this month despite the missing days!  I did the usual thing of thinking there wasn't much to say then went back over my diary and Facebook (is that sad?!) and realised we have done loads this month. 

XX times - not a typo I really can't count how many times this month we have pretended to be Jenny Jones!  We spent a few days in Plymouth last month visiting family and heard first hand about her preparation from her brother (he is married to my cousin!) and so ever every excited about seeing Penny's aunty in the Olympics.  We watched her qualify and then win a medal and were SO excited and pleased.  She is a real inspiration and the children have perfected their slope style technique for the scooter which we do all the way down the cycle path!

1 mortgage secured for our extension!  Who knew borrowing money that was ours on paper would  be so time consuming?!  After sending almost every piece of paper in the house to the mortgage company it is all done and the builders start in mid march, eek!  We are really excited about transforming our home and making it a place we can stay for a lot longer.  Now we have drawings and an idea what it will be like I am looking forward to the new spaces and most of all being able to have a whole other family to visit at once!

So ready for the new rooms at our crafty meet this month I made 2 canvasses using my 30+ rolls of washi tape! a pile of stencils and lots of bits from home.  It was really fun to work on something so free form and it is totally my style with loads of colour and texture.  All we need now is a wall to hang them on... Maybe the family space can be a crafty space?!

11 nights we had Rocky and Shelley to stay with us and they had fun, well as much fun as you can tell two snails are having!  We fed them cucumber and apple, gave them a bath and watched them move VERY slowly around their tank!  The nice bit was how excited the children were to have the responsibility of looking after them, and if you are going to have a class pet to stay Giant African Land Snails are probably the least hassle :) 

3 lovely half term outings, a morning at the cinema watching Tinkerbell and the pirate fairy, W was enthralled, M more interested in her pick and mix!  Then a day at soft play with cousins,  lots of playing, 2 canvasses painted and nearly lunch if only wee could have found a café!  Finally M and I had an amazing day in London,  we saw street performers by the bucketload - a man on a bed of nails, another on an 8ft unicycle and lots of pretend statues.  It is so nice to visit somewhere I know well and see it through someone else's eyes in a new way.  I was super proud when we visited the national gallery and looked at art we liked, we talked about the colour and texture of the Van Gogh's and bought loads of stuff in the shop!  Then it was off to Westminster Abbey which could have been a disaster but they had an amazing kids trail and we spent ages checking out the kings and queens tombs, learning about the coronation and even got in to see Edward the Confessor's shrine, pushed along by the promise of a chocolate coin at the end - and it was worth it the coin was huge!

And finally,  24 years - how long I have known my lovely friend Kate :) who could have known that a chance meeting on a university visit day would have turned into such an important and long lasting friendship. This month we had a girls Saturday night out, dinner and then watching Jack Whitehall alongside some celebs!  Us being us we were gossiping and drinking wine and only realised something was going on when we realised everyone was looking at us, well not at us, past us to Frankie Lampard, Alex One Show and Holly Willobooby!  I never cease to be amazed at how rude people can be, they must have posed for about 100 pictures on people's phones and in the end had to ask people to leave them alone to watch the show!  We had a great time though and then caught up over several bottles of wine and 16 chocolates (v precisely counted by the children the next morning!).   

My month in numbers is the brilliant memory keeping idea of Julie Kirk, find out more at http://notesonpaper.blogspot.co.uk/p/months-in-numbers.html

Huh! Digger time!

Just a quick update to share, the diggers are coming!  Only two weeks until the builders come to start our extension and I get a real job for my gap year :) 

It is really exciting to think that in just a few months (well about 5!) we will have our new home, be able to entertain and have overnight guests.  I can now start to think about what we can put inside and what it will look like.

Now we just need to pack up and decide where we are going to stand for the weekly progress photos :)