Alice playing and subsidence stuff

Alice got this farm at Christmas and has been playing with it a lot recently. It's like her imagination has just taken off and all the characters have wee chats, they all stand really close together and go in and out of the farm house.

Alice decided that she would fit herself into the sheep pen. She had to curl her toes under to fit in, but she managed it and closed the gate behind too!!!!

We weren't quite sure why all her toys were being tipped out of the toy box. It soon dawned on us though as she was making room for herself.
Regarding the subsidence issue. We had the insurance bloke here last Monday. We are still waiting for his report to come through to us. He said the movement at the back is likely to be due to clay soil shrinkage and most likely cause of that are the trees. So agreeing with our structural engineer. Anyway, we have noticed quite a few cracks around the front of the house too now. He said they were all due to thermal movement at this time of year. However, Stuart and I are not convinced. The temperature hadn't started to change when all this started. So we're going to get our structural engineer out to have a look at the front of the house too and get his opinion on that.

This photograph is the outside of the house. The is where the extension "joins" the original house. The grey stuff running down the middle of the gap is some kind of foam, which you can just pull away. It isn't doing anything structural and if you were to take it away you would see the full extent of the gap behind it. The extension isn't attached in any way to the original house.
We are now just waiting for this report to go to our insurer and for them to decide whether they are going to accept the claim for subsidence. Once they do that, we can get on to our structural engineer and start the site tests. Then we'll know if it is the trees and also which tree is causing the problem. I think I'm going to have many head-aches over this over the next year or so.

The insurers are being a pain too. When I phoned them yesterday to find out where this report is, I was told to send in the report from our structural engineer. I told her I asked if we needed to send it in three weeks ago when I contacted them originally and I was told no. Their right arm does not know what their left arm is doing at all!!! Anyway, we are just waiting at the moment.

Subsidence Issue

As some of you may know we have discovered this week that we have subsidence on the house. The back of the house has moved about 2 cm in about 2 weeks. The back extension (which is about 30 years old) is not actually attached in any way to the original house. I got out a structural engineer who confirmed movement in the house and suggested the culprits are more than likely to be the trees at the bottom of our garden which are owned by the council!!!! So we have contacted our insurance and they are sending out some of their people to do an initial inspection and then hopefully we can continue to use the structural engineer we have employed (the insurers have said we can). So he will then do a pile of tests, which will involve digging a huge whole down about 6 feet outside the house at the back. This will determine whether it is the trees which are the problem.

Basically he reckons that with having a dry winter and spring the trees have needed to get moisture for the roots somehow and so take it from the ground. Our soil is basically clay and so with the dry whether it is already contracted and taking more moisture out of it contracts the soil further, resulting in our house moving.

If he can prove the trees and the soil are the problem, then it will mean going to the council (via the insurers) to get them to do something about them. I have been to the four neighbours either side of me and they are noticing different things in their houses too, from new cracks to doors not closing properly etc... (all within the last two weeks). If the council don't want to do anything then we will need to underpin the house around the roots. None of us want to lose the trees, but another solution is taking all trees down and then putting other trees in place which won't be as bad e.g. silver birches.

Here are a couple of photos.

This one is the extension at the back of the house, just outside the kitchen. The gap goes the whole way through to the outside, this gap is about 1 cm, but it is about 2 cm on the outside.

This is the ceiling at the back of the house, you can see it looks like the back wall has moved away from the ceiling and the ceiling has remained in place.

This is the other side of the back window (on the left looking into the garden), the gap on this side is not as wide as the other side.

The whole thing is going to take about a year, as they need to monitor how the house is moving over the winter with more and less moisture in the soil. What a pain, but hopefully it will get resolved without too much of a legal wrangling with the council!!!! Will keep you informed.

August Bank Holiday

A couple of weeks ago we took Alice into Newcastle to buy new shoes. So she now has beautiful new red shoes. £32 for new shoes every three months or so is a lot of money. Why do children's shoes cost more than adults' shoes?

The new shoes.

Monday was a bank holiday. So Stuart and Alice made crumpets for lunch. Stuart had never made them before and so we weren't too sure how they were going to turn out. They were so yummy, really soft and light and not heavy like shop-bought. Very impressive indeed.

Alice is giving the crumpets the "thumbs up". She did eat 4 and a half of them!!!!!!!

After her nap we went to Tynemouth Metro station, where there is sometimes a farmers' market. On Monday they had a Green Seaside Day at the Station. We walked past this lady making balloon shapes quite a few times and then we stopped to wait in the queue to get Alice one. She watched the lady very patiently, for ages and then asked "can I have one too please?". She hadn't realised we were in the queue to get her one. So I said, "Alice, for asking so politely, of course you can have one". So she chose the bear from all the different shapes and animals. It was amazing to watch her make it.


Alice was so pleased with her new bear.

He rode in the pram the whole way home. She wanted him to meet Fraser bear and when we got home, she introduced them and they sat and had a chat. However, last night one of the arms starting deflating. This morning Alice said it had a funny arm and looked all disappointed with the bear and wanted us to take it back to the lady to mend it.

When we got home Alice and I did a bit of sticking. I've been putting together bits here and there for a wee making basket. So we got out the yellow crepe paper, a loo roll, the pritt stick etc. Alice spent ages sticking on the yellow feathers the whole way round the roll.

It took her about half an hour to stick the feathers on. She just sat patiently sticking away.

Here is the finished chick!!! Art is not my strong point, but Alice liked it and she really enjoyed making it. Must get on some websites for some inspiration and instructions.

This video is of Alice being able to ride her trike for the first time. She got it for her birthday, but her legs are now long enough to do a full cycle round on the pedals. The rest are just funny wee videos of her playing.