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House and Garden
Follow the developments
12-04--2004 After winter things are finally coming to life. Our trees now have some leaves on them which is a relief as I was beginning to think they had not survived the planting. The bulbs which we planted back in October and November are now flowering. We have some tulips, daffodils and anemomnemomenomemones. The garlic which disappeared last year without trace has reappeared in the vegetable plot! A new photo will be added shortly.
17-11--2003 We planted the trees and thanks to the rainy weather they seem to be settling in nicely.
14-11--2003 Doh! The trees were blown over today - it's majorly windy. We need to get them planted at the weekend!
12-11--2003 Our trees were delivered today! Hopefully we can plant them at the weekend. Omega came again to finish off the windows and we managed to get Broadband connected.
26-10--2003

Creosoted the fence -phewee I stink (of creosote) :-)
25-10--2003

Ha! Omega turned up today unannounced to do the work! Luckily it wasn't raining and we didn't have anything planned. They replaced all the windows except for a couple with which they had problems.
20-10--2003 Maybe we spoke too soon about good customer service. It's now a week later and we still haven't heard anything from Persimmon or Omega regarding the window replacements :-(
19-10--2003 Had a creative weekend reshaping the back lawn. The idea was to give it some interest as well tidy up the uneven edges after laying it. The offcuts of grass were used to create an extension to the lawn in the far corner creating a seating area for next summer.
16-10-2003

Since there's not much happening on the house front I decided to post news here of where I'm at with the garden. At present it's pretty bare with just a lawn at the back and a lawn and some shrubs at the front but believe it or not it's been hard work getting this far!

At the back I have just taken out the last of the potatoes, tomatoes and runner beans. All the plants have been dug up and recycled. I'll be adding a regular photo so you can see exactly what progress (or not) I've made. I had a look through the galleries (see below). It seems hard to believe that the house was ever in the state that it was!
17-03-2003 We met the last of neighbours to move in : Mike and Sarah. We had a great laugh when we called round. We are having an Alvis Drive get-together on the 5th April :-)
02-01-2003 We met the latest neighbours to move in : Vic and Barbara. They are very friendly. Looks like we are going to be very happy here.
16-01-2003

We are pretty much all unpacked and straight. The curtain man got his last few bits fitted so we are done to the front of the house at least. TV aerial is fitted and we have a good picture. We have made friends with one of our neighbours, Paul, who is a good laugh and we have sampled a couple of the local pubs: good beer to be had!

Peterborough is great for all kinds of shopping, we did a tour of the DIY stores last weekend and there is no shortage.

We have found a short cut to the local cinema which is now only ten minutes away.

I have been for a couple of walks around Yaxley, past the football ground. I hope to put some pictures up soon.

We have registered at the health centre so we have a doctor nearby.

I will put together a page about Yaxley to give you some information about it soon.
17-12-2002 We should get our phone connected on Thursday - we'll let you know what the new number is...
16-12-2002 Things got off to a dodgy start with the removal man Mr Peat and our old next door neighbour Eric reversing into each other! Doh! Both ended up arguing about whose fault it was. After that though everything seemed to go smoothly with nothing (at least from the things we have so far unpacked) having been broken. We've met the neighbours and some of the neighbours who will be moving in in the New Year. We already have plans for summer BBQs! Looks promising... We are making progress with the unpacking and finding new places for everything. A couple of days off would have made that much easier and quicker but we are both short of holidays which is only to be expected at this time of year.
11-12-2002 The solicitor is ready, the carpets should be fitted today so it should all go smoothly on Friday - shouldn't it?
30-11-2002

Gallery 9 We were finally allowed inside, and you can see what it looks like with two weeks to go until completion.

The builders seem to have done a great job. There weren't many snags. Looks like Persimmon are going to let us down by not getting the carpets installed before we move in though :-( Two weeks have passed and they haven't been able to get us a quote.
16-11-2002 Gallery 8 Updates of the outside
08-11-2002 :-) The exchange of contracts went through! It's full steam ahead. Completion is expected on 13th December.
27-10-2002 The house is now sealed and we will not be able to view it until it reaches pre-decoration stage. There will be more photos then - assuming we still manage to go ahead with the purchase.
24-10-2002 Thanks to the Halifax and the Solicitor we missed our exchange of contracts. No-one phoned to tell us it hadn't actually gone through!
20-10-2002 Gallery 7
13-10-2002 Gallery 6
06-10-2002 Gallery 5
29-09-2002 Gallery 4
23-09-2002 Gallery 3
22-09-2002 Chose the kitchen and bathroom tiles/worktops/cupboards & drawer fronts.
16-09-2002 Gallery 2
08-09-2002 Gallery 1 a similar house to the one we are buying
Monday 12th April 2004