Its a House!

We've had the keys a day and a half, and DH has been busy scrubbing floors and the back of the van is finally empty for the first time in months.

I've already managed the luxury of a bathroom shower (as opposed to jugs of hot water in the caravan, or a very long time ago using the showers on the campsite) which, despite a notable lack of light was quite a treat.

This morning though, waking up in the caravan with birdsong outside the window, Big One debating if there are birds living in the bonfire heap, hearing the owls through the night, seeing the bats at dusk -without other folk about and no traffic nearby- I think we're going to find it hard moving back in.

Our house is mid-terrace, with another terrace behind and a park across the road. DH was mentioning seeing the 'type' of people going past the window -ahh, I forgot the swearing that'll go along with that. I'm also now remembering how take-away drivers get muddled up with our house and the house down the road on the other side (two roads sharing a back alley can be confusing- folk assume its the 'road' and that the numbers work along both sides of the street) and, on one memorable occasion late at night- the police got muddled up too.

The park sounds nice, but you do need to be careful of broken glass, rubbish and dog poo. I'll try to focus on remembering the 'Carols by Candlelight' one Christmas.

I know that house living will be more comfortable on a personal space level, though I'm not sure of the luxury of our own washing machine- £6-£10 for Linda to wash, dry, and FOLD all our weekly wash is really quite fabulous. Especially when DH does the drop off and collection! Already Little One is LOVING being able to jump inside- that involves a shaking caravan and a telling off in our caravan. Both girls are finding it a treat to visit the house- yesterday they were telling me how much fun they had cleaning the shelves they could reach. Big One tells me they both helped clean the dining room floor.

We are looking forward to seeing most of our neighbours again. One special neighbour ( I think they might count as 'friends', lol) even lets us use her allotment and the girls play in her garden next to it. We'll have to get our skates on to get some plants growing but we'll get on with it once we get moved in. Sounds like Big One has invited herself over to play at her house today as well! Little One has other commitments and was very sad yesterday that she won't be going.

I also have an idea of growing beans up the back window. Our backyard is south facing, and that means on hot sunny days both it and the dining room gets very, very hot. We have grown plants on the window sill, which shades it but of course, the sun has already heated up inside ( its a very good greenhouse, but not always nice to live in!). I'm wondering if some (very tall) beans might cast a bit of shade and stop it becoming unbearably hot.

First we'll have to wait for the rubbish to be taken away. The good news is the council will do it for free- so eventually the girls will have a small amount of outside space to play.

Right, its almost a proper time to start the day and I think Big One is getting a bit fed up of reading over my shoulder. She wants to make some smilies J