It may be cold and drafty. It may be in need of a new colour scheme other than “drab”. It may have more holes than a Swiss cheese, but after 7 years of renting, it’s actually ours.

I stood outside our holey house tonight and looked up at all the stars. We may not be able to get back to Wales yet, but this is the closest to heaven we can get. I’m home folks and staying for a long while….well, at least until we’ve filled those damned holes, stopped the howling gale and unpacked all the bloomin boxes!!

It’s official, Wai Nui is no more (or Walnut as it became known when the shagging pigeons defaced the sign with their shenanigans). Yet another well planned and executed removal by the team (maybe we’ve missed our true calling here), Walnut was given back to the landlord who will no doubt paint over all the bits that need proper maintenance, before putting it up for sale.

Plus points are that it is a beautiful house, but on the downside you do have inferior build quality, a mosquito filled ditch, a patio facing the wrong way and an army assault course to access the garage 9 months of the year.

Still we tried it, living in millionaires row (according to the bloke who thinks his desres inspired the nickname) and now have our own NOLD House (the New OLD). Next stop then is a new kitchen, loft ladder, boarded loft, wood burning stove, walls painted, and on and on.

Looking forward to seeing ya’ll

The end of our year at Walnut and time for our new old house, exactly 7 years to the day when we sold our house in windy Denholme.

What an interesting year it has been, yet another new job for me (full time contracting now), booked Route 66 and the Mrs is going pillion and the loss of our wonderful little Spikey.

Walnut was a nice enough house, but very poorly built with a constant full ditch in the garden and doors/ floors collapsing daily.

So here we are officially home owners living within spitting distance of a non-flooding canal.

Mrs Foggy has been on that there auction site again, flogging anything that stands still for more than a minute (note to self, keep moving). Oh what joy it is dealing with some nice folk, some average folk and some folk that shouldn’t be let out without assistance.

Time to get shot of some of our book cum video cases. After frantic bidding one chappy bagged one, another bagged 2 and a lady grab the other two. Mrs Fogg duly gets on to let them know where we live since all items are set for local pickup only, low and behold the first muppet of the day lives in London! Go figure, but hey he is going to arrange a courier, methinks it would be cheaper to buy new from that Swedish meatball company.

Second chappy arrives to collect and paid a little more since we had no change (nice ploy Mrs). The lady arrived with child intow, but no-one to help her load them (apparently hubby had to go out so told her he hoped someone would help her at this end, nice), being the chivalrous gent I did my bit (and she was a hotty).

Lastly was the 3m run of wardrobes, where we had such wonderful questions of “how long are the 3m wardrobes”, “you stated that the two outside wardrobes are 50cm, don’t you mean 500cm” and “my girlfriend asked me to get in touch, will you end the auction for £50”. The winner then from the land of Chops duly arrived and in a nice big vehicle. So far so good.

Out pops 2 women, both after a night out on the town and looking like their hair went a few rounds with the Dulux dog and lost. Upstairs we go to see the wardrobe, offered them a drink and pointed out we removed the sliding doors last night to make it a tad easier (almost killing each other in the process trying to reverse follow instructions printed in arabic). So then we ask have you brought any blankets to cover the units in your van, nope just a sleeping bag, oh boy (consider the units have high gloss doors and will be sliding inside a builders van). Ok so you brought tools since you need to dismantle it, err no, we could use a knife if you have one? Oh boy!

Clearly these pair had no idea how to start, evident when one of them tries unbolting the roof and doesn’t expect the sides to collapse.

Cue us two, cannot help ourselves so we start to manage the pair. Unscrew that, lift there, you get the picture.

Magenta and Purple (yes they really did go mad with colour charts) happily chatted and marvelled at our coordination and within 45 mins we had the wardrobes plus the two youngsters loaded and driving off.

Good luck to the pair of them, they were going to pay a man to put it all back together again! Now to rest since I ended up carrying most of it downstairs and loaded said van too, who said chivalry is dead!

Less than 2 weeks to the move and still more boxes to pack, just remember to keep moving so you don’t end up on the auction site.