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| A generous "welcome" hamper from our mortgage lenders! |
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| Our "lived-in" family room! |
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| Exhausted but very settled and content dog! |
Now we start the waiting game again while we show builders, electricians, plumbers etc. around the property and they tell us that quotes will be forthcoming... but we are still waiting! It brings back memories of me sitting in our old house with Leo (8 weeks old at the time) after just buying the property and arranging to meet workmen there for quotations before we moved in. Often I was there left waiting with no furniture and no heating, and more often than not they would not turn up! That hasn't happened as much this time, but the enthusiasm wanes when after 4 weeks we are still waiting for prices!
I guess every cloud has a silver lining though - it has allowed us to change our minds while we wait and prepare thoroughly to deal with Japanese Knotweed!
For those of you who are not acquainted with this weed, a brief description would be a plant that was accidentally imported from Japan in a pot with another plant and since then has been contaminating our soil with its indestructible roots which can potentially pull down a brick wall! This deceptively pretty and delicate tall plant is in our garden! However, it's not something we panicked about as we had been well briefed by the council from the beginning of our negotiations to purchase the property. All the required treatment and monitoring programmes were put into place to satisfy our mortgage lender, together with guarantees, so we thought we could relax! When we eventually moved in, and had time to speak to the Japanese knotweed experts, we discovered that you have to treat this plant with extreme care when removing it, so as not to spread it further!! Useful knowledge!!
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| Dead Japanese Knotweed in the corner - prior to our transformed driveway... |
Therefore plans had to be adapted. The same goes for inside the house - having time to think as we live there day to day, we can work out how best to change and adapt the house to suit our needs - so no need to rush into knocking walls down!
