Housey Housey!

We finally completed on the house in Somerset on Friday and hot-footed it down there on Saturday, after cramming the car with all manner of 'stuff'. Perfect timing as it meant we avoided the majority of the Reading Festival and its attendant madness.

We picked up the keys from the estate agent in Crewkerne at about 12.30pm and hurried straight to the house. We were excited, we were nervous, we were having 'wobbles' over whether we had done the right thing, we were relieved that the sale had finally gone through, all these feelings and more, but isn't that what most people feel when they buy a new house?
We spent the weekend 'camping' in our new home, with the minimum of furniture: garden table and chairs, inflatable mattress, microwave & kettle, toys and travel cot for DC, but we had a lovely time. The weather was great, which helped a lot as it meant we were able to really enjoy the fabulous garden.

We discovered we have five apple trees (possibly more, as they are a little overgrown) and picked two large trug/cratefuls to bring back for hubby to make chutney from (we don't know what variety they are but they're not Bramleys, so not sure if we can make pies, crumbles, etc); there are also a LOT of raspberry canes (sadly, all the fruit was shrivelled) and some rhubarb crowns, which made hubby very excited.

We made the most of the village tea room for a lovely lunch, popped into the general store to say 'hello' and then took DC to investigate the lovely park (with fabulous views over the hills) wherehe had lots of fun on the slide. Later on we paid a visit to a house in the village which had been the subject of some extensive renovation work by the architect we are interested in working with on our house; we really liked what he had done, which was a relief!

Saturday evening, once DC had gone off to bed, hubby drove to Crewkerne to pick up a curry from what will be our local Indian restaurant. It was good, not quite in the league of our favourite Indian in Henley, but we'll survive!

Sunday brought more glorious weather and we headed to Bridport for the start of a day out. DC did a marvellous job of falling asleep just as we got there which gave hubby and I the chance to go for a coffee and read our books - bliss. Then we had a wander round the town before heading to the monthly Vintage Market, which was fab! I'm so pleased that our visit managed to (accidentally) coincide with it. We ended up buying an old wall-mounted clock (sorry, forgot to take a photo) which was a house-warming present to ourselves.

Then it was time to head to Abbotsbury to visit our lovely friends R&G at their recently-opened gallery Lazyhill. Just a couple of days earlier I was sooooooo pleased and excited to hear that they had sold the first of my hand-stitched cards, in fact not just one, but two on the same day (and another has sold since)!!! Hooray for all those people with such great taste who choose to visit their wonderful shop and then choose to buy my cards!

We had a lovely afternoon with them, "helping" in the shop, doing some furniture moving, drinking coffee, eating cake, being licked by Martha the dog, and strolling round the village. Below is a snap of the chapel at which R&G will be getting married in less than two weeks - how wonderful is that?! On Monday morning the architect came round to have a look at the house, hear about our hopes and dreams for its future, and to make some suggestions of his own. Hopefully, one day in the not too distant future we'll be transforming this house into a wonderful home. In the meantime, hear are a few snaps to give you an idea of what it looks like at the moment: rear viewkitchenutility roombedroom 1, with wonderful washing facilities and great wardrobe...bedroom 2, with an even better range of wardrobes