Tag Archives: house

We’ve moved house!

Toby writing this blog post

Toby writing this blog post

I’m sitting here on our new patio in the shade, the sun is shining, and finally I have been able to catch a breather… for a little while at least.

This post is a somewhat belated update. We moved back in January and have been in our new home in Terrington St Clement for 6 months. It has been a rollercoaster. We’ve finally had some electrical work completed ensuring our ~60 yr old chalet bungalow won’t spontaneously combust or electrecute someone (slight exageration).

The workshop (all 25ft of it, including inspection pit) is and was the selling point (for me at least) as well as garden with lawns worthy of a ride on mower. We managed to secure a couple of mowers with the sale, both in varying degrees of disrepair, but at the moment functioning. We’ve finally got space and a detatched property. I can play Slayer at midnight (only attempted once so far, but why not!) and can play the surround sound for films loudly without disturbing anyone. We’re in a cul-de-sac far enough away from main roads for our two cats and have friendly neighbours.

Frontage

Frontage

I wouldn’t recommend moving in January into an older property. We soon misjudged how much heating oil we were quite literally going to burn through to keep an older home heated. We had our front door and patio doors replaced with double glazing as a matter of urgency, for both security and heating purposes, but 90% of the others either need replacing or are still single glazed… so this is a priority.

As always my lovely wife has kept me on the straight and narrow, and my parents have been a tremendous help in clearing the garden. We’ve now got a garden incinerator bin and a garden waste bin, and the works continue.

In the house, much DIY works continue and I’m nearing completion of updating security features including CCTV and outside lighting.

Front and garden

Front and garden

I’ve been able to get out and about in the Mazda and my other German motorcar will soon be returning and have a warm place to live.

 

 

 

 

I should also add that both me and my wife have been able to move to Norfolk thanks to being able to work from home! If you have the opportunity to move out somewhere where there’s less hustle and bustle, and a more relaxed pace of life, then I would highly recommend it.

Do you believe in Fate?

So do you? I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. I’m not religious in any way but do feel that there is a purpose for everything and sometimes things are meant to happen in a certain way.

When I first moved to Northampton I knew no one, apart from the people I worked with, and unlike a lot of people, I didn’t really socialise with my work colleagues.

I got on the popular dating app Plenty Of Fish, and found the girl (now fiancee) I’m due to marry later in the year. (Coincientally, I have a history of dating apps. See What’s wrong with online dating? and Goodbye POF, hello Match.com)

As a part of meeting my girlfriend Annabelle, I now have several new friends that I wouldn’t have met otherwise. If I hadn’t hit up the dating apps that may never have happened. It is likely I would have found someone but would have taken much longer. I’m generally a fairly shy person and at the time certainly not very outgoing.

I’d always wanted to get a cat but it wasn’t until meeting Annabelle that she went out and got one… and so on and so forth.

I’d probably still be sitting with a living room full of car parts and an undecorated house too if I hadn’t gotten into a relationship so for those reasons I can only be thankful.

The same goes for the journey with my Mazda. The number of new friends and events I’ve been to and involved with since 2013 is tremendous. All because of one purchase on eBay following a night out at the pub. Hurruh for Dutch courage and trigger happy bidding fingers!

Modifying my house more than my car

I fitted a tap to the front of our house yesterday, totally exciting I know. Today I had a double glazed panel on our back door replaced with a clear panel, with a cat flap, so our cat “Berry” can enter and leave on his own. Two weeks previous, I had the old 80s era gas fire removed from the lounge and the pipe capped off…

My Mazda has been sat parked up over winter, which upsets me a little, but at the same time, and unlike previous years, I’ve really had no inclination to freeze my butt off outdoors wrenching!

The clocks go forward next weekend and the evenings will be getting longer and I have a little cash to spare. Tying in with my previous post (https://tobywhite.de/blog/?p=23182) I aim to finally complete my turbo MX5!

Before this though, we’re heading up to Sheffield to endure the snake pass in my girlfriends 1.8 Mk1 MX5. (My idea). And of course, it’s nice to get away for a couple of days. 🙂