THE 1ST OF OUR TEMPORARY NEW HOMES - Aug 2012

Friday. We arrived at our first temporary place – a small one-bedroomed terraced cottage on a main road. The cats were not impressed. They were very hostile and angry, and remained so during our stay there. It didn't help that they were cooped up inside, with us having made the decision to keep them in as we were only staying for a fortnight and on a busy road. They tended to stay as far away from us as possible on a window sill.

We spent the first day with Will's brother and his family who had hired a narrow boat at Llangollen for the week. We couldn't have asked for a better-timed afternoon, unwinding on a canal over aqueducts and through tunnels with nothing to think about except the rush and stress we were trying to recover from and wondering what we had forgotten to bring to Wales?

                             

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Wednesday. The builders want to start work on the house so we went to meet them and they agreed to start work on the following Monday, giving us time to clear the rooms of any belongings for them. 

A felted roof with a very low pitch needed raising and tiling to better accommodate the Welsh weather. In doing so we would gain an extra upstairs room. The rotting conservatory, porch and stairs and soggy living room floor needed replacing. We also wanted an existing unused barn at the top end of the house to be made habitable with a view to using it as a utility room to help extend the small kitchen and provide a muddy boot room with entrance.

Thursday. We visited the house with the intention of moving furniture, etc, to a room not needed by the builders, only to find they had already moved it and the porch was part way to being demolished.

The house was covered in scaffolding and the stairs had disappeared. They clearly intended to get on with the job. No time to change our minds!

Friday. An internal wall and the living room floor have disappeared. The floor is now lower and down to bare earth.

Weekend. The conservatory is demolished!

Yesterday there was a conservatory here!

Monday – The builders are supposed to start work!

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We took some lovely walks around our temporary home in Snowdonia with stunning views, valleys and waterfalls probably all the more wonderful following the 3 months of continuous rain we had been experiencing. We met a farmer trying to find his sheep around the mountains and forests. We told him we were moving to the Llŷn Peninsula. He told us that the Llŷn experienced lovely weather in comparison and some farmers in Snowdonia buy land on the Llŷn because of the better weather. Music to our ears.

Next blog - our 2nd temporary home.