In the month or so since our last post a lot has happened, not least, WE HAVE MOVED IN!!
The biggest blocker to moving in was needing to get wifi installed as without that, we were not just cut off from friends and family at home but I was unable to work remotely as I have been doing in order to keep the finances ticking over. Because of our location up the hill Flow could not provide a service to us and so we applied to Digicel (who provide an aerial transmission, rather than cabled service) in mid May as we are in line of sight of their aerial. A week or two went by and we had heard nothing so we chased up ………and chased up…………and chased up! To cut a long story short we finally got connected on 8 August, around 3 months after applying and are both convinced we would be waiting still had it not been for them getting sick of our daily calls, texts and emails!
It was then all systems go and 3 days later we celebrated finally moving out of our little studio apartment and into our brand new house. OK, so we were lacking our bifold doors which had been delivered previously but with a manufacturing error meaning they could not be installed, but these were due any day (or were they?). It seemed only right to celebrate our first night at “home” with a glass or two of bubbly.
Moving in also meant a big day for our cockerel and hens who were finally able to free range. I mentioned them in an earlier post – they were gifted to us by one of our friends here and whilst we knew (know!) nothing about chickens, Martin set about building a suitable coop for them (in the midst of trying to complete as many important jobs on our own house as possible at the time). The trio were named Cliff, Cilla and Lulu (showing our age!) and we have got used to and amused by, them meandering around, and disappearing altogether for extended periods. Eggs were regularly provided (2 per day) but then stopped , until we found a whole clutch of them in a corner of the garage! Captivity was required again for a while recently to try and break Cliff’s and Lulu’s new routine of trying to roost up a tree for the night! I confess to feeling a little sorry for Cilla as I get the impression that two’s company and three’s a crowd! They are behaving themselves again at the moment so finger’s crossed it continues!
We are also regularly visited by sheep and goats which roam the hillside and seem unable to accept that this bit of the hillside is now ours. They provide us with entertainment with the lambs springing about until Mum comes along with a head butt to the rear to restore order!
Shortly after moving in, Martin decided to prune some dead wood off the trees sitting on our western side – as you can see it was no easy feat and had me googling emergency numbers just in case they were needed! However, the job was safely completed and the trees have been suitably tamed!
On a more relaxing note, the second day of the Round Grenada Regatta set off from Tyrrel Bay recently and we had a grandstand view of the start as we sipped our morning coffee!
Welcome diversions of hens, sheep and yachts aside, we have been working very hard, long days since we moved in, completing a myriad of jobs to make the place somewhere we can be comfortable and enjoy spending time, and that paying guests will, we hope, be eager to come and see for themselves. With this in mind, we are well on the way towards our full website launch which will also see us introduce our new branding. We are really excited by this and, whilst we have done much of the work ourselves in terms of taking photographs and writing text, we have got a website designer involved to help with the functionality.
The bifold doors were finally installed 2 days ago, much to our relief, as without them we had been unable to keep our living accommodation properly clean or secure, and all cooking had been done in the apartment. Somehow, whatever it was you needed was always in the other side of the building 🙄. The doors were certainly worth waiting for, we are very pleased with them and we are now fully installed in our side of the building, just in time to welcome our first friends to visit from the UK this coming weekend – we are so looking forward to this, not just because we can’t wait to see them but also so we can have a rest for a few days. 😂
There is still much to do, not least a lot of landscaping and planting, but the build is really complete now, so with the imminent launch of the website, maybe this is the time to bring the blog to a close. We’ll have to see – maybe we won’t be able to resist adding to it at some point – but for now au revoir. We hope you have enjoyed reading about our journey and that you will decide to come and stay with us and find out what Carriacou has to offer for yourselves.