Nearly 2 months have passed since my last post. Some of this time has been taken up with lovely social events, 2 birthday parties ( a 60th and a 70th ) and a wedding. On the new house front, it’s been rather a roller coaster, but looking back a lot has been achieved.

1. We have continued to explore designs and quotes for the new kitchen and bathrooms. After some anxious moments and some lack of inspiration we now feel we are nearly there. It’s been important to balance advice from friends and professionals, with our own individual and joint desires about our future home. Spending time, individually and together, has really helped us to firm up our ideas and preferences.
2. A significant move has been to identify and agree a Project Manager for the building and finishing stages. A few sleepless nights convinced us we were getting out of our depth, in terms of confidence and competence to manage such a major adaptation and house renovation. Fortunately our Project Manager sees this as a small development!
3. Although we have not secured a builder so far, we feel the work and planning we have completed over the summer has prepared ourselves better for the specification and tendering work we will now engage in jointly with our Project Manager.
4. Some tentative progress has been made on sorting “our stuff” before the eventual move. Both of us have spent several one hour sessions and already we have made some progress. This process has given us more confidence in our ability to achieve more in the future. So perhaps little steps are really helpful!