New Neighbours

When your neighbour invites you in for a free whisky tasting it would be very rude to refuse!  Can't really see a down side to having a cocktail bar at the bottom of the garden...
 

Chamfron Updates

Rebecca and Chamfron Firefly stepped up to the 90 class last weekend and Chamfron Rufina has been sold to Vicky Seath, she is an unbroken nine year old and the plan is to produce her for Endurance.

Thoughts on houses!

We've been in our new house ten days and as of today have super speedy internet.  So at the start of the first lockdown I bought my apartment, as Covid hit people told dire tales of recession, house prices plummeting and other assorted gloom and doom, I'd be a fool not to renegotiate the price, I didn't.  The apartment did it's job, safe and secure with gloriously large rooms and random pillars, without so much as a coat of paint it increased in value by over twenty percent in two years.  No complaints there.  Ah actually one wee niggle and it's something I notice at work too, people like to sneak wee bits of space for themselves.  So where a farmers field backs on to houses the garden fences edge in to it, sometimes by feet, sometimes by metres, manky old shed, compost bin, kids trampoline, well you don't want to look at that do you, in the field it goes too, grass cuttings or even worse yew cuttings also go over fences sometimes with dire consequences.  So it was at Dingleton, the highlight was opening the french doors to the bedroom to find a garden bench facing straight in but for most of my house viewers it was the general clutter and damaged furniture in the corridors that put them off.  By the time I left we had a plastic Kew garden in the bottom corridor and a personal art gallery in the top one.  I would love to know the psychology of this trait!  It gives you the fear when house buying, if you can't afford to be entirely isolated you are at the mercy of your neighbours good will, good taste and non yappy dogs!

So nearly two years ago we first viewed a house together, we saw it on a beautiful sunny evening and it ticked all the boxes, the sellers were very open, they'd already had a large cash offer and they would sell to the best cash offer.  This was Wednesday, closing date was that Friday and we were not cash buyers, we didn't put in an offer but even knowing the ball park of that offer and thinking the maximum we would have paid above it, we'd of been twenty grand short.  For ages everywhere was compared to that cottage and nowhere lived up to it!  Houses continued to rise in price and it wasn't just the cost, it was the speed of sales, one brief viewing if you were lucky, closing dates in a week or less.  A house with a horror home report that had taken three years to sell previously had an offer in within twenty four hours. In the end we offered on four, we offered nearly fifty thousand above asking for two, the first we were seventh of ten offers, the second we were third of seven.  There were houses with huge issues that I thought would never sell that sold for a hundred thousand above asking in days! 

Our budget kept sneaking up and we became rather casual about the stamp duty.  So here we are, we have a new house and we love it, we are not moving anytime soon (we can't afford to for a bloody start!)   I didn't want a project, having Aphantasia I have no ability to imagine how a house would look renovated.  My mum's suggestion that we lived in a mobile home while doing a small holding up (yeah, you couldn't get one of those for less than half a million anyway) was quickly dismissed, one of us working from home, one working shifts and I'd quite like to get to my first wedding anniversary!  No we bought a house with a glowing home report, a sea of "ones" - nothing needing done.  Beautifully photographed, an oasis of calm and serenity, a kitchen, the thing of dreams with a huge range cooker.  So here we are, day ten in the new house, the range cooker is an ornament, it's only use so far has been highlighting how dodgy the whole house electrics are and the boiler turned into an indoor water feature today with clues suggesting it may have done this before.  We are told the previous seller hasn't lived here in years and his comment about the open fire being lit at Christmas, well we doubt it was this decade.  The beautiful minimalist look in the photos easier to achieve when you don't require any storage (in hindsight - NO wardrobes at all!) less so when you have three storage units full of stuff.  So, we need to declutter, then throw more crap out, we need to throw more money at a new shiny cooker and I suspect as of tomorrow, a boiler and we need a big shed but we love it and it's home.

Spotted on my travels (23)

Another pit pony sculpture, this time by Kenny Hunter, it is joined by a greyhound and is in the grounds of the East Lothian Community Hospital.  Crochet poppy displays are now in place in both Ormiston and Roslin.  Spider is wintering out well, we are on a "no rugs until ribs" policy but as he is a) toasty warm, b) plump and c) ensconced in mud I think we can confirm he is as happy as a pig in shit.  His posh name is Mockbeggar Spiderman - for this winter he will be known as Mockit Begging Spiderpig.

Chamfron news

Chamfron Colorado is back in work after his injury and as always has incredible hacking!  Lindsay and Chamfron Ojo de Tigre were awarded the Recognition Award from the Trec Riders Club for the improvement they have made between the end of last winter and the start of this season and Charlie Adkins and Chamfron Bellini got a mention in the Island Echo when they competed in their first Medium test together.