Sunday, September 09, 2012

Afternoons at Margam Park

 Rick Posing on the steps of the wishing pond (above)
Kids in a tree (below)

 Sion a Sian Scene in Fairy Tale Land (above)
Rick climbing (below)

 Rick in a giant spinny bowl! (above)
Beth thinking on a swing (below)

 My friends #1, #2 & #4 children on the slide (above)
Rick Toadstool Jumping (below)

 Children in a tree (above)
Margam Castle amongst the trees (below)

 Sian and Beth in Fairy Tale Land (above)
Jack be Nimble (below)

 Polly put the kettle on [?] (above)
Kids in a castle! (below)

various children from various families. We couldn't get all 12 of them to cooperate!

Friday, September 07, 2012

Space....

So, we've got a nice 3bedroom house. BUT the girls are really needing their own space. ESPECIALLY Sian so she can practise her Violin in peace. We've got first refusal on a 4bedroom house.... ACROSS the road from where we are. Quite literally. We wouldn't need to hire a van to move. Just get plenty of people to help move furntiure and "stuff" It won't take a year to unpack LOL. AND the landlord is the same estate agent who rented this property to us. The price is right- it's £50/month more than we're paying currently and we know we can manage that. He'd rather rent to us than someone else.

Attic conversion 4th Bedroom (low ceilings at edges, built in wardrobes, sky hook up!)

3 bedrooms similar sizes to what we have here.
Sian would get the smallest room, but a new high sleeper bed so she's got room for storage and her violin and can do her homework in peace!
Beth would probably get the biggest room as she'll have the bunk beds and be the one who has to share when we have visitors. I would also expect her to share the space for playing
Rick would have the middling room so he's got room for his trains and cars.

They would all get a CD player and book/CD storage for their rooms. NO tv's in bedrooms. The mishmash of furniture we currently have would almost certainly work for the rooms they'd have there.

Open plan living/dining space- slightly larger than current as no hallway- TWO lights (we've only got one here!) Wall mount holes already drilled for the TV LOL. Furniture we have here would definitly fit over there.

Kitchen is better laid out- NO DAMP!!! Washing machine and tumble dryer would be in kitchen. Could get a dishwasher if we wanted (might persuade Richard to leave the one there if it works!) Has a new built in cooker (never used in the last year!) so we'd have to sell/leave our cooker here or store it.

Smaller bathroom... but it's got a jacuzzi bath!! and the bathroom here is fairly excessive in size. Bathroom is nicely laid out.

Better designed garden. Room for the trampoline that we've had to just leave in peices for the last year.

Storage for bikes!

Do we/don't we. Housing benefit will only cover us for a 3bed house. As we've 2 girls who can share. Rick as the boy gets his own room! I think we're going to. And then we'll get sky multi room so we can watch the box in  bed LOL.

Monday, September 03, 2012

Sian Kayaking (Brownie Water Sports Badge)

 Sian in her wet suit and water shoes
 stay afloat for 5mins........... she did!
 Beth joined in too!
 starting out on the 50m swim
 Gareth supervising the 50m swim
 out on the water

 First ever water sports session (we've jsut done our 5th) 
 kitted out ready for the water. Helmet, PFD.

Sunday, September 02, 2012

A Year!

We have officially in our home in Wales a YEAR! Our tenancy was signed 02/09/2011.  Here's to many more years here. The house has it's problems... the garage is full of crap that's not mine. There's a couple of fence panels blocking the exit from our garden. The garden needs some attention to make it useable... but it's been so bloomin' WET round here this year that it's not happened....

The girls' really need more space- separate space would be good! The Kitchen cupboards are damp and mouldy in spite of everything we've tried. The front door is bent out of shape and drafty....

But we're close to everything. And there is so much that goes on with the kids' social lives that it doesn't end up being too much of a problem.