It is just over a year since the diggers arrived to start work on our extension, the weather could hardly be different - May 2007 was wet, cold and miserable whilst May 2008 is warm and sunny with today's high around 75F. The fine weather over the past few days has enable me to paint all the external walls of the house so now the extension blends in with the main house and doesn't stick out like a sore grey thumb.

The first picture shows how the house and garden look as of today while the next three pictures are close up views of the painted extension including that stunning round window in the master bathroom. We had to compromise on the design and the little joggle on the left side of the extension was put in so that we could walk completely around the house on the outside. If we hadn't put that joggle in the extended wall of the house would have too close to Drake's Leat for us to get past the corner. We have yet to decide if we want to paint the galvanised supporting post and if we do so what colour should it be. We will probably choose white Hammerite and then also paint the external waste pipes white as well. Now that the walls are magnolia instead of grey cement it does make the waste vent stack look more prominent. Adding the extension also meant moving quite a bit of the dry stone walling that borders the garden, but Hilary has planted these up and together with the tubs of flowers around the house the house looks very neat. Overall we think that the new extension blends in perfectly with the old house and that all its previous owners would be very happy with our latest modernisation. Considering that this house is now coming up to its 80th birthday it is in pretty good shape.

We have also been busy in the garden and have managed to keep the rabbits from eating all our new shoots by running green chicken wite about 3' high around the complete perimeter with the exception of a small gate built from scrap wood that allows us to get inside. Hilary has planted runner beans (now about 4" high), broad beans (9"+) as well as parsnips, beetroot, carrots and tomatoes. Even more seedlings are growing in the greenhouse for succession planting later on. One thing that our chicken wire fence can't keep out is the mice - who did eat a few of the bean seeds - and the birds who last year devastated our blackcurrant bush so quickly that we lost 80% of them overnight. We have had plum flowers again this year but fruit - who knows? These final two pictures show the fenced in vegetable patch and the view from the house deck - we are so lucky to live here and now that we have multiple bathrooms we just hope that we live here for many years to come.