It’s finally started. We’ve been here for 2 and a half years, much of which was spent in limbo for all sorts of miserable and depressing reasons. A year ago, all that gloom was lifted and we could start forward planning. It all started with getting the insane heating system sorted out, followed closely by the ancient, dangerous wiring. These two projects left us with more holes in our walls than a pound of Emmental and these holes remain to this day, leaking dust and debris like the shifting sand dunes on Crantock beach. Our kitchen became an almost-no-go-zone, where you take your life in your hands every time you enter. There’s only a very dodgy power supply to two single sockets, the stove doesn’t work properly and most of the appliances have been relegated to the lean-to at the back of the house, that’s cold, wet, full of black mould and is generally a pretty horrible place for around half of the year (winter). Then our project all came to a grinding, juddering halt.

That’s because we had to get people in to design our new home, then get planning permission and finally choose builders to do the work. We got through all of that and had high hopes of breaking ground on January 2nd… which turned to mid-January, then the beginning of February, then the end, then soon in March then the end of March and now, it has finally happened. A combination of the builder getting stuck on a previous job and terrible weather meant we felt as though the date was ever moving.

The good news is that today, 9th April, the builders are finally here, ground has been broken so we’re breaking good. The less good news is that we will spend the next six months in mud, dust and general mayhem hence we’re also breaking bad. We’ve already lost use of some of our home, soon we’ll lose more before we start to make gains. Does anyone have any good recipes for things you can cook in a camping stove in your sitting room? Last time this happened, I lived on fried egg sandwiches for what felt like forever. Can anyone remind me why we keep buying wrecks?