Pither.com

It was over a year ago that we put down the first holding deposit for a new home. At that point is was nothing more than a fenced off muddy bit at the back of the development.

Since then we've watched it grow steadily, if rather slowly...

July 2007:

September 2007:

October 2007:

February 2008:

March 2008:

April 2008:

June 2008:

July 2008 (less than 4 weeks to completion):

It was about this time that the builders (Bellway) contacted us and said that they wanted to fix a completion date for 31st July.

We were very excited and pleased to finally know when we would be moving. Then we thought about it a bit. A few days later we phoned them back and asked them if they were sure! Apparently they were, despite the apparent lack of windows and such. So we've been busy booking vans, packing and telling people our new address. :-)

When we saw it last weekend (1.5 weeks before the completion date set by the builder) it was still missing:-

• some bits of the double height bay
• kitchen wall units and appliances
• paint
• flooring (except partial tiling in the kitchen)
• patio
• turf
• garden gate, fence and shed
• a gas connection
• a vent on the boiler
• an outside tap
• some guttering
• probably other things that we couldn't tell as we couldn't get in to really see!

The builders assure us they will be ready, yet when arranging our pre-occupancy briefing today they asked if we could do it on the day we complete (they are normally done 7-10 days before!). Then they went on to enquire whether we were planning on staying the night on the day of completion!!

We're not worried, no, not at all!

It would appear that the sleepless nights, stress and hard work haven't taught Liz and me anything!

I'm proud (and scared, again) to announce that Liz and I are expecting our second baby around the middle of January. :-)

The first scan was a couple of weeks ago and everything seems to be fine. Although I think the baby's going to be another stubborn one. After quite a few minutes and various approaches to getting the baby into the right position to be seen, we got sent off to have some sugar and take a walk around the hospital! Thankfully that did do the trick, at least just about for long enough to get the information required!

With my RX8 lease ending I had to find myself a new car. I actually found this quite tricky, given our list of requirements...

• automatic, so that Liz could use it to learn
• manual look-a-like, so I can pretend I'm not driving an automatic!
• five doors, for easy access with Edward and to the boot for all of his stuff
• reasonable size boot, for all of Edward's stuff
• within budget
• "nice", to drive and look at
• keyless/hands free entry and driving

After much browsing and pondering I got around to test driving a couple of cars.

First was the Toyota Auris, which was OK but nothing exciting. The automatic/manual gearbox also wasn't great, generally giving rough changes, although they could be smoothed out a bit once you knew when they were coming.

Second was the Honda Civic. This was much more impressive - fantastic looking dashboard, amazing internal space, although fairly small back doors. Sadly still fairly rough gear changes (although better than the Auris). I couldn't decide if I like the external look either.

After finally deciding to go for the Civic, I found that it didn't actually meet the budget requirement. Generally speaking most cars that sell for about 20k can be leased for about £300/month (or hopefully slightly less). But the best I could find the Civic for was around £350/month. :-(

So back to the drawing board.

At this point I decided to drop my desire to have a (pretend) manual gearbox, as I didn't really need it and it narrowed the options a lot. Having looked at the huge key that you get with the Auris to provide hands free entry I also gave up on my hope of avoiding keys (as a lump the size of the Auris key wouldn't fit anywhere more convenient than a normal key anyway).

After some more browsing, pondering and running out of time, I test drove a Toyota Prius.

This had the advantage of not only being leasable at quite a good price (£260/month) but also coming with the promise of saving on fuel bills (being a hybrid and all). It's not perfect on looks, but at least it does come with a touch screen display that shows which engine you're using (petrol or electric)!

It's also stupidly easy to drive. It literally has two gears, forwards and reverse (hmm, and parked), it doesn't even have 1st/2nd like most automatics. Plus as a bonus the "key" is actually a small lump that you insert into the dashboard before pressing the on switch. Not quite hands free, but a good step in the right direction.

So with an acceptable choice and no more time to look, I now have a shiny Toyota Prius...

This is old news (it happened at the end of April) but I don't feel I should let it pass without mention.

As I lease my car, April was sadly time for me to return my Mazda RX8...

It was quite expensive on petrol and wasn't particularly easy to get Edward in and out of (although it was possible!).

Except for in one situation - car parks! To get Edward in and out you had to open the double doors most of the way, which just isn't possible with another car parked next to you. It certainly made me appreciate parent and child parking spaces.

Regardless, I have thoroughly enjoyed driving it.

I've not posted anything here for a while. Partly I've been busy, partly I've been lazy and mostly I've been wanting to finish off writing my own blog software before I add any new content.

Unfortunately my blog software isn't finished yet (see the first two problems above) and things (or at least blog ideas) are going to start falling out of my head if I don't post soon.

So please take this as a warning/apology for the blog flood that's about to start!