Updates

So, as promised, we (our little family) expanded by one. Little fyfe is here and growing bigger by the day, this pleases me as he is such a bonny, happy boy. Full of smiles and love for all. Big brown eyes and pale, milky skin..he looks fragile.

He has taken really rather well to sitting with me in the lounge and hearing the clickedy clack of the knitting needles and the dulcet tones of Kate Walsh and her lovely album 'Peppermint Radio' Listen to it on Spotify! It is full of beautiful covers of old songs that have her magical, fraglie touches..I love her voice and the simplicity of her music. It is just perfect.

Anyway, my young man, he has a smile for everyone and loves a cuddle, what more could you want from such a handsome boy. The rest of our little clan is happy and keeping well, which pleases me as good health is something you really ought not ever take for granted.

This week an exciting new prospect poured over the horizon like sunshine coming up over a gloomy old hillside..

Now we are expanding as a little family, He, my lovely man..(soon so be husband, how weird is that!) told me that we really ought to get on and get this house we are living in, cleaned up and sold. So, me being me (impatient and always on the hunt for a bargain) had a little look for a house and found myself a little house that needed a lot of work but just so happened to be in our price range..so we book to see it and then decide we really aren't in the right place to look at it so we decide to cancel and go looking later on in the year.

So, some time ticks on and a nice chat with my dad results in us looking again..and guess what, the house is still on the market. So last weekend we went to look at it. It's falling apart really, no kitchen to speak of, it still has the original 1920s coal-fulled range cooker, it has no kitchen floor, a bathroom the size of a postage stamp and it hasnt been decorated in 50 years..but it has a charm.

Now, it may be true that I am a bit of a snob, but I am not too big for my boots and not too proud to build a life from scratch..afterall, you can't depend on the kindness of your parents your entire life.

So I looked into this house..it is an ex-council house built in 1926, it was built under the 'Homes for Heroes' scheme, which was a scheme made by local councils to provide affordable housing for the wives and children whose husbands has been sent off to the first world war and either been killed or wounded so badly that they couldn't afford to work. These families were left with nothing and the end result was the government building houses for these families to rent. Now fast forward some 90-ish years and here I am, a woman looking to house my family..we may not be war heroes but I am in love with the idea that lost in time somewhere is this beautiful idea and this wonderful tumbledown house could just be right.

Perhaps living on an ex-council estate in a tumbledown house is brave or stupid, but I have decided to keep a diary of it, the sourcing of free or cheap items, the renewing of such an old building..the garden..it will be cool to keep not only my work updated here but also my family and home updated too and perhaps one day it will be useful or interesting to someone else in the same position? - who knows.

What I do know is I am nervously awaiting the estate agent to call me back with the news of my offer, will it have been accepted or declined, the first was declined yesterday...not a great feeling but it could be worse..so we have gone in, all guns blazing with a new shiny offer and now we just have to keep our fingers crossed and hope they say yes..then it is all go, a life of sourcing new kitchens and bathrooms and garden items from Freecycle, Ebay, car boots, jumble sales and the tip! This house will strip us of every penny, so what fun to see how we can make it better for cheap or even free..keep your fingers crossed!