The walls are going up, Back to school and GIN!

Sooo, I've been really quiet on the blog front. Mainly because of the summer holidays, but also because I've been helping out with the build where possible too. There aren't enough hours in the day at the moment. I'm feeling how pretty much every parent probably feels over the summer holidays...exhausted, and ready for the new school term to start!

I'm lucky that I work in a school, so it means that I get school holidays off with my children which saves us a small fortune in one respect, but costs us a fortune in another. We have packed in a solo trip to New York for me, a holiday to Portugal for all four of us, and a mini break with just me, the girls and their granny to Filey. Plus a trip to the Zoo, and countless other days out to parks, gardens, and amusements. They have so much energy, and require a full day out to properly tire them out, which is pretty full on when all you want to do is hoover up in your PJ's then watch Homes Under The Hammer in peace. The mess of toys, cushions, and crumbs is relentless when you have a day at home, so I prefer to tidy on an evening, then try and get them out of the house after breakfast the next day so it keeps me sane. But the housework standards (until today) had slipped dramatically.
I find when your house is a mess, and your garden is a mess and you are surrounded by a building site, it can get you down, but focusing on progress that is being made, and making sure my little ratbags are happy, fed and clean gets you through it. Oh and, yes. That and copious amounts of GIN.

My Current favorite, mixed with Blackwoods Gin, Ginger Ale, and lots of ice!

We are also fortunate that the bulk of the work is being done without affecting the house inside. The walls are going up around the existing house, and at some point next year a new roof will be going on (the old one will need to come off for this to happen, but the ceilings inside will remain intact. And providing the weather is okay, we will be home and dry once that is complete.) Then we will focus on the upstairs of the house, putting up stud walls, doing electrics, plumbing and bathrooms, plastering and bedrooms etc. Then we will start knocking through downstairs and re-jig the layout to suit the new floorplan. This is where copious amounts of GIN and perhaps long visits to the girls grandparents come into play!

It will take a long time to complete, mainly down to finances, but we are looking forward to the challenge, and then eventually the beautiful home we will have built ourselves for our children to grow up in.

Below is our progress of the past few weeks, in pictures.

Both front and rear slabs are in, and have been passed by the building inspector.

Blocks starting to go up!

Back is almost finished, on the outer skin at the far right hand side can't be started yet though as the outer engineering bricks weren't laid 100% true, so it's out about 10mm. They'll need to come back out and be re-laid. But luckily the slab isn't effected and it's easy enough to fix as it's the outer skin only. Just annoying and a bit time consuming, but hey ho, we've been through far worse 😉

The front will be started next, just another week or so working on the back and then we'll start seeing a real difference. Currently it's being used as an extra patio! haha

We recently celebrated our 5th Wedding anniversary, but it is also our 13th year together. We were lucky that the girls went away with Granny up to Northumberland for the weekend, so we went out and celebrated, but also got cracking on the house front. I like helping (hindering), and cut some insulation up, put some insulation ties together, and loaded up the cement board. I even made the odd cup of tea and then cleaned the house! It's hard work this wife malarkey. Steve is an absolute trooper, and would work 5am-10pm is daylight wasn't an issue. I feel very lucky to have him. 💑