Wednesday 1 April 2015

Easter 2015 activities

I can't believe it's so long since I posted here! What happened to 2014?

We've had another year of happy guests, the odd urgent request -- often about the broadband dropping, which we couldn't do anything about -- and a couple of visits of our own. Sadly the sea defences continue to be eroded and the car park at the end of the road to the beach is just a memory, but the birds are still on the marsh and it's just as peaceful down Purdy's Drift as it ever was -- one of my favourite places.

Maintenance is an ongoing activity. I always get stuck into some work when I'm at Gannets. Last year I put a light with PIR detector over the back of the garage so that when you want to get into the garage at night you're not in pitch blackness any more. There is so little light pollution on the North Norfolk coast that it really is pitch black! I also refurbished the guttering as promised in an earlier post. We've continued to work on the patch at the bottom of the garden, slowly turning what had become a very overgrown vegetable patch into more lawn. We've had some great bonfires :). And I pruned the 3 apple trees again.

The house below ours, Greenacres, changed hands a year or so ago and we were concerned that the new owner might decide to knock it down to build several houses in its substantial garden. This would have blocked our precious view of the sea. Fortunately he decided instead to renovate the house and tidy the garden. This week we were delighted to see that he's removed further bushes and also at least 2 of the overgrown fir trees. We now have a better view of the sea from the kitchen window than before, which is wonderful.

This week we've done a few more things. The PIR floodlight in the garage had stopped working so I replaced it with an LED one. It's just as bright but only 50W instead of 250W so I'm pleased with that.

In the bathroom the work to replace the wood panelling has continued. This week I've tiled the side of the bath. The wood had gone rotten in places as a result of some leaks around the shower screen. The new tiles look much neater. I plan to replace the remainder of the wood, behind the basin and WC, later this year once we've decided whether to keep the existing WC or take the opportunity to get a back-to-wall pan and concealed cistern. What do you think?

Judith has repainted the main bedroom this week. It's now a wonderful eau-de-Nil shade called Ocean Ripple by Dulux. I think it looks great and hope you do too. She's also made the front garden look lovely again and amongst many things in the back garden she has potted out some flowers in the planter on the patio. Jonathan Wright continues to cut the grass regularly so the garden is in great condition for holiday relaxation or games. Don't forget to put up the hammock between the 2 trees for a really peaceful siesta!

I should also mention a very exciting development. We now have Infinity broadband! I found out by accident that it has become available in Salthouse and immediately ordered it. Now, instead of 1.2Mbps if we're lucky we have over 30Mbps! I hope this will make a big difference to your holiday browsing experiences -- and make it easier to pick up your work emails while you're away :).

As always, if you have any comments on Gannets, thoughts for what you'd like to see more or less of, or anything else, please do get in touch. We're always pleased to hear from our past, present and future guests. We love sharing our house and seeing the contented comments in the visitors' book, and hope to continue making Gannets available for many years to come.