Caravan Diary, Day 25

Right, tonight for the very first time in all these weeks I am afraid. Afraid that this relentless rain might finally wear our 70s trooper down. 'Cos if it does, we do have a problem!... I am lying here and not only am I listening to a thousand-fingered drumming of the raindrops on the roof. No, I am also hearing a suspicious drip-drip-drip somewhere. I have been trying to work out where it's coming from, but so far to no avail. I am praying that this is good news, although I'm not yet entirely convinced...

Caravan Diary, Day 24

I really wish we would at last get a handle on this bleeming dust!!! Day 4 without anyone generating any fresh dust and we're still nowhere near winning the battle. Although, Willem obviously thinks it's ace: everywhere I look I find that he has written his name with his finger.

Caravan Diary, Day 23

Picnic with toys

A bank holiday weekend characterised by good intentions, zero follow through, fabulous weather (against the odds!) and sheer indulgence. All's well in the Schäfer household :-)

I can report that the loft is now empty. Cleared by two nice young blokes; one quiet and one trendy, who went about their business efficiently and still spent a good two hours until the job was done! Both seemed as bewildered by the large selection of beheaded Barbie dolls as we had been.

I got five whole hours of child-free bliss on Friday night when I went to the Stratford Comedy Festival with Kedi. I haven't laughed as much since we saw Dave Gorman at the Warwick Arts Centre yonks ago. It was brilliant! The evening was gilded with nice dinner afterwards. What else can a girl ask for?

The highlight on Saturday must have been the SKY engineer's visit. Not only can we now enjoy an unbelievable choice of channels (which I am sure we will never fully explore. I am usually happy enough with BBC1 and 2 and Channel 4...) and have a clever SKY box thingamejiggy, no: bribed by constant supply of chilled apple juice, he also ran what feels like several hundred yards of extra cable into the bedroom, which means my planned sewing/craft corner will have entertainment of the audio visual kind. The guy was also super-good with Willem and involved him in the setup by letting him terminate cables etc. He felt like a proper grown-up :-)

This is the life!

Sunday was spent almost entirely in our garden enjoying the unexpected sunshine. We must have left the house for something, but it's just a very hazy memory which must have got wiped by the copious amounts of Pimm's and lemonade that accompanied our barbecue in the evening.

Mats - very happy with his ball

And then there was today, which was under the zodiac of boys' toys: Hendrik went out and bought us a lawn mower, which was duly tested and deemed more than adequate. And then we scoured Coventry's shops for football goals for Willem, which we were just about able to try out before the weather turned chilly. We are all fantasizing about a summer party now, at which we can have an inaugural little tournament. Does anyone know when the weather's going to be good in July/August?

The list of things we DIDN'T do this weekend, despite best intentions, is long and includes stripping the wallpaper in the staircase and hallway and fitting the newly procured carpet in our caravan (I decided to give the local economy a boost on Friday by buying an offcut at the little carpet store round the corner. £30 to do the whole camper. I say!).

Whatever! There's a whole week without tradesmen ahead of us, who have all disappeared since it's half-term. Surely Mats will sleep at some point so I can get on with yet more wallpaper stripping?...

Hausbesichtigung - House slide show

Hier ein paar Bilder vom derzeitigen Stand der Dinge auf unserer Baustelle.
Ich mache jetzt keine langen Worte, Mücki will dringend mit mir Fussball spielen...

Well, not so sure whether I can make this a slideshow, as I have not tried that before, but a few photos from the construction site that is our house at the moment.

 Essecke - dining area

Vorderansicht - street view

 Vergissmeinnicht - Forgetmenot border

 Wohnzimmer - Lounge (viewing towards dining area)

 Kueche, vom Flur aus - kitchen viewed from hall

 Flur zur Haustuer - view of hall and entrance door

 Flur und Treppe - hall and staircase

 Treppenabsatz oben - landing

 Schlafzimmer und Gaestezimmertuer - Towards master bedroom and guestroom

 Gaestezimmer - guestroom

 Gaestezimmer - guestroom

 Schlafzimmer - Master Bedroom

 Schlafzimmer - Master Bedroom

 Schlafzimmer - Master Bedroom

 Kinderzimmer - kids' bedroom

  Kinderzimmer - kids' bedroom

 Garten vom Kinderzimmer - garden view from kids' bedroom

 Superwanne - Walk in bath

Mmmmh Spinatgruen! - Spinach green bathroom suite, grrreaat, a keeper!

 Windfang - Porch

 Car port

Hinten Anbau - Side view of extension

Haus vom Garten aus - back elevation

 Garten - garden

 Potting shed

 Fussballwiese - footy pitch

Front-'garden'

Caravan Diary, Day 19

Day 19, the lowdown:

• TVs arrived by courier, ready for UEFA Champion's League Final on Saturday: 1
• LNBs for satellite dish retrieved from unknown box ready to be installed tomorrow: 0
• Lofts cleared of all the previous owners' belongings (including a dozen or so beheaded Barbie dolls – WTF?): 1
• Times taken the washing back inside because of rain: 5 (or more - I lost count after 3...)
• Gas fitters visited to look at job: 1
• Gas fitters who previously visited having quoted for job: 0
• Door handles in place: 4
• Rooms skirted out: 2
• Plasterers lined up for week after next: 1 1/2 
• Appliances killed: 0 
• Husbands back at the fort and instructed to babysit tomorrow night: 1

Pretty good for one day, don't you think? The lost LNB bugs me, though. That must have ended up in storage accidentally. B***er!

Today feels like it has been half-way successful. Mainly because I kept myself out of harm's way and because Mark The Builder showed up for a flying visit and managed to arrange for a schedule of works that includes possibly (!!) having 2.5 rooms ready to decorate in about two weeks' time. Yayyyy! Can't wait!!! Painting a wall sounds like a day at a spa these days compared with peeling off flipping wallpaper that's been painted with gloss. And what's best is that this implies that we can begin to unpack our most-used belongings AND sleep in a house as soon as these rooms are done. Which is just as well, because last night was really freezing in the caravan! I kept waking up with icy feet trying to decide whether I can be bothered to go back into the kitchen to heat up my wheat cushion. Turns out I couldn't be bothered, which meant I just lay there getting more and more annoyed. So there, I am not the most rational of minds when in bed. Nothing new there then...

Hendrik came back from his NERC grant panel thing with hayfever and insect bites and suitably knackered, but duly agreed to deal with the kids-in-caravan-at-bedtime-drama on his own tomorrow night while I sit in my hopefully comfortable seat at the Royal Shakespeare Company watching stand-up comedy, followed by a lush meal and drinks with Mrs Simpson. Bliss! Which reminds me that my make-up bag is still AWOL. I REALLY cannot wait to unpack all these stupid boxes!! I have been running round like something the cat dragged in for weeks now and I don't even care anymore. But still, it would be nice to at least don some lippy tomorrow. Well, I guess I still have 20 hours to hope for a minor miracle...

By the way, this might be the one time that I am SERIOUSLY enthusiastic about a UEFA Champions League final*: I have been trying to wangle a TV for my planned sewing/craft corner out of our household budget for absolute ages to no avail. But as it happens the SKY man (or woman) is coming on Saturday morning to install SKY TV (for free. Long story. You really don't wanna know. Suffice it to say that we're way too tight ever to pay for subscription TV!). Which happens to coincide with the Champions League final. And our existing TV is in storage. I leave you to fill in the blanks :-)


*Those of you who know me well will know that I am an avid follower of Bundesliga football - but the delights of the Champions League - and worse: international friendlies!! - so far escape me.