New Year and New Home in 2021

[Pigmy Pony]

The worst is when I replace windows or doors in a house that's had the cavities filled with those tiny polystyrene balls that look like the fake snow they use on TV. Those little bastards go everywhere. If the day is slightly breezy I've found the best method is to ignore them until they form drifts in the corners of the garden

[Audio Al]

So after nearly 6 months and several false starts we are moving next week to our new home, a bungalow from the 70's era, it is only just over a mile away. It sits up a nice quiet lane in a lovely village on the edge of the 70's estate, it has quite a large level plot about 90' by 100'. We are quite surprised to be moving next week as the original owner sadly passed away in early October and thus had to go to probate and were told at 4-5 months. Out of the blue before Christmas we were advised probate had been granted and all was in place and to set a date, also to our surprise our purchaser had already gone ahead and sold his home and was waiting for us, making it easy to move.
The bungalow has been empty 18 months but is liveable, it needs the central heating replacing, a new kitchen and bathroom and decor throughout. We are going to knock out a couple of walls to make a kitchen/diner and go from a L shaped lounge to a 22' by 11' rectangular connected to the dining area by dual pocket doors. We have spent the past 4 months getting a builder, electrician and plumber on board, and it seems they are all keen to get going in February, the only hold up may be delivery times of some replacement windows and a bi-fold door for the kitchen/diner. I will be taking the opportunity to run a discreet mains feed for the hifi and un-switched new wall sockets.

So 2021 will be an interesting year for Sue and me, hopefully when all done we will have a lovely home we can be happy in, till we are forced to move on. Sue has been off work for the past 2 weeks and has been slowly packing up and I have done what I can to help. As we are pretty organised and do not hoard much it is pretty much in hand, there are a few things left, mainly my precious hifi system which I will carefully box up next weekend. I will move it myself in the car apart from the speakers, for which I have the substantial original boxes for and the heavy hifi stand, carefully wrapped in bubble wrap.

This will mean that musical entertainment will be somewhat limited to the Yamaha Sound bar and Sub from Volumio - RPi/HifiBerry and the Schiit MAGNI 3 Heresy amp to KLH Headphones for discreet listening, I will either be streaming from Qobuz/TIDAL or listening to files from my NAS. The hifi will remain packed up until all the nasty dusty work has been done and the lounge is sorted, I hope this will be by the summer, by then it will be time to be sorting the garden out a little at a time, but this is really Sue;s domain, so music may take a back seat for a while.

I will be looking in on AoS as often as I can and for a break from the building work, and will keep up with the Album club, which I enjoy. I will keep you posted on progress or lack of it as it goes along.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year, and I certainly hope it is much improved over 2020 for us all.

Adrian

Adrian , Is " THAT " sofa going with you , You know the one

Hope it all goes to plan for Sue and yourself

[AJSki2fly]

Hi Al, thanks, sofa stays, so have to work with it. Happy New Year and take care, be safe.


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[AJSki2fly]

After what can only be described as a week of torture moving boxes and stuff we have SME semblance of organisation. All hifi and boxed records are now neatly stacked along one wall of what will be the study,leaving enough room to be able to use the small desk and get past to the old built in wardrobe that houses some of my clothes for now.

Our bedroom is orderly and not cluttered with boxes. Bedroom 2 has been a major undertaking, it was full and is now empty apart from a mattress with some pictures and mirrors behind it. We had to clear it to use as our temporary lounge in the evening, the builders arrive next Tuesday for lounge and kitchen/diner alterations. Bags of soft stuff was re-homed to mother-in-laws loft temporarily, and the rest was either skipped or moved to the double garage. It still has enough room for one car, my MX5 has been taken to a good friends garage for 4-8 weeks.

So we just need to clear the lounge on Monday, large sofa, TV and occasional tables to bedroom 2. The other sofa to the garage, along with the Ekoness stressless chair.

Plumber has been in twice this week to finalise where pipework for new bathroom and radiation will run. Also the renewable energy company supplying Solar thermal and air source heat pump has been to finalise it all and discuss radiators sizes based on heat-loss calcs, gear is all ordered.

Electrician is in place and will come in as needs by builder and plumber.

In the midst of all the above we managed to go to kitchen/bathroom supplier and finalise the order, pay deposits and get ordered. Also collected new in the wall meter box and bathroom tiles all in the same morning.
Replacement windows are all ordered as well.

😱😱😱

So to say we are knackered is an understatement, it is taking its toil on me a bit with my health issues, so this week is rest and chill week as much as possible. Sue as she says “Has gone back to work to rest”, she does 5 hours a day locally at a Chandlers, and is the career for her Mum for at least 3-4 afternoons. Sue has also managed to clear some of the garden from horrendous ivy growth over a wall and some of the garage and removed a load of brambles in one area.

So I think we are all set for the refurbishment, I will be keeping out of the way in the temporary lounge with Harry whilst the builders are here, or will be in the garage fitting old kitchen units to be used for storage.

So that’s it for now, I will try and take a few pics of the before and the after as things progress.

Happy listening everyone, I am missing the hifi very much!🥺

[struth]

Well at least the hard bit is done. Will hopefully be all worthwhile