We've been in our very own home now for almost two months. It's gone so quickly! We're still working out how some of the rooms should work - the living and dining rooms aren't really working very well at the moment - but we feel we've made good progress on the bedrooms. Ours is now furnished, and the built in bookshelves in the spare room are now out. This weekend we'll be washing the walls and ceilings, caulking gaps here and there and ripping up carpet and underlay in preparation for polishing the floors and painting the rooms. Very soon now we'll have pleasant and fairly neutral rooms in place of the violence-and-nausea-inducing Barbie-meets-Mortisha-Adams pink and black wallpaper.

In other exciting news, we've been eating our own lettuces for the last week, all the new strawberry plants are starting to produce fruit, the beans, peas and courgette are all starting to flower, and the tomato plants are struggling under the weight of the fruit. I've ordered some heirloom tomato plants, too, (the others being common all garden red varieties) which should arrive soon. I'm really looking forward to eating them! I admire a tomato that determinedly sticks to be pink and fabulous in the (red) face of peer pressure.

The rest of the garden is starting to take shape, too. We spent much of the first few weeks clearing the garden, and the last couple planting some of the non-vegie beds. We're going properly English, with lots of lavendar, roses, honeysuckle, hydrangeas, bulbs and jasmine. In a couple of weeks when they are available I'll be planting ludicrous numbers of bluebell, snowdrop and wild garlic bulbs to cover the area under the very large tree in the back corner. Hopefully with all these flowers, we'll be able to find some friends for the solitary robin who's been eating the seed from our bird feeder.

In completely unrelated news, we've booked flights to Australia for a trip in Oct-Nov. We'll be in Canberra for a few days leading up to 25 Oct, Melbourne very briefly around 26-27 Oct, Adelaide for the weekend of 1 Nov, and south east Queensland after that until 18 Nov. We'd love to see you!

Phew!

Last week was a bit crazy for me. We moved house; I started supplying cupcakes to my local cafe; and I had an important deadline at work. Amazingly, all three turned out very well. The move was quick and painless, and much helped by the lovely Bear and Pirate, who drugged themselves to the eyeballs and endured dust and cats for the day. A week later we were in, unpacked and celebrating with a housewarming party.

The cupcakes were a great hit. They sold out within the day and I've arranged to supply the cafe with a batch twice a week. In the meantime they will use other caterers for cakes. I'm thrilled because it means I can continue to bake for them but at a manageable level. I'm loving all the piping work and playing around with all things sugar craft.

And the work thing went well too. I've been doing some knowledge management consultancy work with a client we're trying to develop our relationship with. Last week I presented my findings and recommendations, which they loved. They've asked me to present to their global legal board next week, so my Partner is feeling pretty pleased with me right about now, which is always nice.

All in all it's been a big week!

Buying a house is frustrating

You find a house, you make an offer. They accept the offer, everyone's happy. The housing market starts falling down all around you and you have to revise your offer because house values are dropping (and so, therefore, is the amount you can borrow). They accept the offer. Everyone's happy. Those further up the chain don't accept the offer. Everyone's not happy. A further revised offer and you're back on track. You organise the mortgage, you mark up the shonky contracts. You send them and a huge amount of money to your solicitors all ready to exchange. You exchange. No, wait a minute, you didn't exchange. You just thought you did. Mainly because of the letter from your solicitor telling you you had. You chase the solicitor. You chase the vendor. You hope they are both chasing those further up the chain. You start getting antsy because you've given notice to move out of your apartment, and have planned a housewarming. You start to get grumpy about the interest you could be earning if the deposit were still in your account. You feel frustrated.

I'm dreaming of a new kitchen

Just like the one... well, no, probably not just like one we have just now. I'm dreaming of porcelein sinks, dishwashers, painted wooden doors and plenty of storage space; a fridge-sized fridge (as opposed to the book-sized fridge we have now), wooden floor boards, cupboards I can reach and hidden bins. The garden is also distracting me from work. I have sketches of garden plans left, right and centre, and the beginnings of a planting calendar. There's a nice north wall just asking for climing roses and honeysuckle, and I've picked out and planned, if not dug, the vege patch and herb garden.

Now all we need is for the sale to go through. This waiting around is going to drive me crazy!

Eep!

We didn't go away this Easter, having a) been too slack to organise anything, b) looked forward to spending some time relaxing at home and c) felt guilty about going away for a few days and leaving the cats behind (we're going to have to get over that). So, having a few days with no plans, we decided on Saturday to start looking at properties. We've been *talking* about buying a place for ages, but hadn't got any further than looking at places online and talking to the bank about loans, and even that only very vaguely. We called half a dozen or so agencies to arrange to view their properties, and went to see one of them that very afternoon. We loved it. We put in an offer. The owner accepted it. Eep!

Apart from being slightly manic trying to juggle a heavy week at work and trying to organise a mortage, a solicitor and all the other tedious things needed, we're really, really excited! It's a house! With a garden! And while there are certainly things we'd like to change (Vaughn will try to tell you otherwise, but secretly he loves the bright pink wallpaper in the main bedroom), it's entirely livable as is.