20 years later

It is 20 years to the day since we moved into our newly-built and actually still-in-the-process-of-being-finished house:

Our house in November 1999; still not actually finished!

We were eager to move in asap, as we had sold our previous house, and had been living in B&Bs for a couple of weeks.  Never believe builders’ schedules, even after adding a couple of months to their estimate, as contingency!

Over the last two decades, we’ve had one major repair: the underfloor heating needed to be replaced due to faulty pipework. (No, of course none of the installer’s insurance, the NHBC construction insurance, or our buildings insurance covered it: when do they ever?)

We’ve made one major upgrade: in January 2014 we installed solar panels on the back roof, which conveniently faces south.  Inside, there has been continual shelf-building over the years, as we had 9000 books when we moved in, and have 14000 now.

But the main noticable change from outside is in the maturity of the garden:

our house today; less of a building site, more of a home

Looking forward to many more years here.