Wildlife

I spent the afternoon trimming the hedges with shears, freeing them from bindweed and brambles, and pulling up the weeds from between the stones that make up the garden paths. It's going to be a never-ending job, but the garden's so lovely it's just a pleasure to be there.
I'm slowly getting to know the local wildlife. The blackbird who lives in the magnolia tree was feeding its young who is no longer in a nest but stands on a branch in the thick of the leaves and tweets for food. The blackbird mama is annoyed by me, but not as much as she is with the cat next door.
There are a couple of lilac bushes next door that attract a multitude of butterflies such as this swallowtail which had a rest on our dandelion lawn.

Holes

While I was at work Werner met with Veit and Mr Mürder (don't forget the umlaut) to see what was awaiting us behind the walls. The answer is a multitude of materials, some new some very much older, but no damp or mould. Hooray! Mr Mürder is going to come back next week with his sledge hammer and whatever it is he uses to knock down walls - and hopefully build new ones in different places according to the plans Veit gives him. The photo above shows part of an old door frame that will be reopened.

marking our territory

Plenty of people walk past and put their faces and noses up against the window to see what's happening in the house. Others walk up the drive into the back garden and look in through the back. So, we decided that the very first thing we should do is make it known that someone owns the house and it's no longer for sale.
Werner and Florian (Zoe's boyfriend) put up a plastic chain with a sign that says private property, no entry (but in German of course),
while Zoe and Karen put up some temporary net-like curtains adapting and using the old rails that were there already plus some wire we bought at the DIY store.
All very Janet and John stuff.

Handover day

Yesterday was handover day. We met with the agent and the previous owner at 5.30pm, read all the meters, and got the keys. Then they left and the house was ours.

Zoe and Florian appeared shortly after we got the keys.

Expanding our vocabulary

Having talked to my friend Heather who lives with her family in a beautifully converted barn in Devon, I now know what the water is that used to run along the edge of the property to feed the workshops next door and seeps into our cellar when it rains hard (see posting below). It's a leat.
" A leat (also lete or leet) is the name, common in the south and west of England, for an artificial watercourse, or aqueduct, supplying water to a watermill or its mill pond. Leats may also deliver water for mineral washing and concentration, for irrigation, or to a dye or other industrial works."en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leat
Heather says that she has one running under her bedroom but that the architect dealt with it by concreting it over and raising the floor of the house. Their's has been there for 500 years. So, I think we can live with ours.

Postman's view

And this is the view the postman (or anyone else who comes to the front door) will have.
Which reminds me, there doesn't seem to be a letter box anywhere.

more garden views

To make up for the potential Venice in the cellar here are two more garden views. One from what will be Zoe's living room showing the garden and the Methodist church behind it (we met the vicar yesterday who was very nice), and the other from the back of the house at ground level.

paddling pool?

Exactly 7 days before the exchange of keys we discovered that the cellar was wet. The water was not coming in through the open window as we thought but up through the floor and through the walls of the cellar. We stayed in the cellar for about 20 mins and watched and filmed the water pump pumping out the overflow.
What to do? Should we still buy the property? Should we sue the owner (is she the owner or are we the owners? We have signed the contracts but not yet paid) for not telling us about this? Is the agent at fault - surely she should have said something?
After a sleepless night we went back and talked to the neighbours. Yes, there is occasionally water in the cellar next door, no it isn't a problem.
We managed to get the phone number of a previous owner who lived there for many years and talked to her at length. She reassured us that all is well and the walls are not damp (she had them tested).
So, we will go ahead with the purchase but will be keeping keen eyes on the pump, especially after heavy rain.
Oh, and the stairs down to the cellar are rotting away due to the woodworm infestation. Cue new aluminum stairs.