The last mile home is always the longest...

So, I'm not going to bore you with further apologies for my lack of posting over the last week or so - I'm just going to make up for it with a super-duper picture-full update post to get us all back up to speed!

I'll start by letting you know that my new day job definitely has all the promise of a good decision - hurrah! There was a little 'hiccup' with my start date though and it meant I was a week out of work... not good for our pockets, but good for making unexpected progress at The Keep. I got up every morning as if I was going to work and got on with the multitude of little jobs that had begun to form a job mountain towering above us with no view of the top. 8 hours a day, every day for a week had an amazing impact on the 'to do' list and come the weekend I had cleared the way for bigger jobs to take precedent.

One of the 'little jobs' that took up what felt like most of those hours was finally painting the main chicken shed that lovely duck egg blue colour I chose all those weeks ago.

The unassembled but finished article.

As the shed was originally that delightful shade of burnt orange that is most popular with cheapo shed owners the world over, I did have to undercoat the whole thing in white emulsion and then paste it with three coats of the duck egg blue... Needless to say, should I ever have to paint anything this particular shade of blue again I might have a paint induced breakdown. 

In between the drying stages of each shed panel, I cleared the area where the main coop will be.

Before I set to work...

Once I'd got it cleared...

Now that the posts have been put in.

The area is about 15ft by 12ft. We are installing a simple 'gutter' system around it's perimeter as we are laying astro-turf over concrete slabs for the coop floor and want to be able to hose it off regularly to keep the area nice and clean for the girls. Astro turf? I hear you cry - well yes. After years of watching all of our chicken coops be pecked down to bare earth, boggy to the point of becoming ankle deep sludge and down right stinky, we've learned the hard way that conventional methods don't work for small time coops. So for aesthetic purposes and for the health and happiness of our chickens we're opting for astro turf. I guess 6 months from now I can update you on exactly how good that decision has been...

While I did my best to do everything that nobody had either the time or job spec to do, the decorator, builder, bathroom fitter and carpet fitter went to town on the house.

Our all but entirely finished bedroom including carpet!

Though our spare bedroom lacks the carpeted finish, we think the fab bookcase wall paper makes up for it!

All that's left to do in the living room is give the newly sanded floor a lick of varnish, then add a sofa, two snoozing dogs a crackling fire and hey presto! 

Though our kitchen is not being fitted for several weeks yet, we've at least had the oven surround installed - so overjoyed to come home to this masterpiece this week.

Does anyone remember the dark hovel that was the original bathroom? Flip back a few posts and you should see some pictures. THIS Could not be further from it, just look at it....

Just look at it...

JUST LOOK AT IT!....

Honestly, these pictures don't come close to doing the transformation of the The Keep justice. It really is incredible and we have a lot of really hard working people to thank for it. Everyone we have hired to work on our new home has gone above and beyond the call of duty to make all the little details just right. As soon as the hot water is back on there is not a power on earth that will keep me from that stunning tub!!

We only have a couple of weeks to get as much finished as we can before we have to move in. The rental agreement on the half way house is up, our fellow house mates are shipping out to Cornwall to start their own adventure and the bottom of the money pot has officially been scraped. The time has come for us all to find our rightful places. 

My chickens can rest on their perches safe in the knowledge that their swanky blue shed awaits, my dogs can snooze dreaming of walks by the canal and nights in front of the fire, I can lay my head on my pillow and cast my mind ahead to days of sowing seeds and posting recipes from my own edible garden and D can rest his weary, weary head and know that he gave everything he had to create himself a home and, in turn, create his queen her castle.

We are so very close. This last mile, the last push, is going to be the most testing but transforming of times and I just know the days are going to be gone in a blink.

In the words of Nelson Mandela: "It always seems impossible until it is done".

Come rain or shine it'll still be mine.

G

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