The following year David wanted the huge skulking Cypress, which darkened his garden, taken out. That too was an expensive affair to get done, coming close to another 450 pounds to cut and mulch the massive tree. But, what a huge difference it made to the back garden once it was out. There was so much more sunlight and the lawn began to look better.

Then he began to get an expensive cabin built in the back of the garden. Like an Enid Blyton novel, it was a cabin right at the bottom of the garden, but it was a modern structure, which he wanted to use as an office, since he does work from home on some days. The cabin took the width of the back yard and had sliding entry and exit doors. Initially David planned to stack it with all the stuff from the house, as storage is expensive in the West. But finally even rental of a flat was going to make a dent in their budget, so they insulated the cabin and moved in.

By living on the property they were able to put pressure on the builders and push the work along. But last winter was one of the worst in the UK, with a huge layer of snow which iced up the yard. It was very hard, extremely hard, but they got on with it, as there was no choice in sight. Imagine managing with a Porta potty for a toilet, for nine months AND going to work.

Nothing much of the original house remained except for the facade, the front room and the staircase. The house was extended to the side, into the garage and car park, to enable building a laundry room. Then the extension, really extended out into the garden, taking down an apple tree and one of the pear tree’s with it. Terribly old and diseased trees anyway, the trees made way for the huge living dining and open plan kitchen. And ofcourse the lovely large patio outside. David does not believe in the Brit style of a sun- room. That’s cause the entire back of the house is a massive sliding window-door, which lets the sun in anyway.

Upstairs came all the bedrooms and the poky space, fanned out into four large bedrooms, plenty of space for the kids and for the family too. Now there is more than ample room for visitors like us parents, as well. I was so glad to that Natalie’s old room which I used to use earlier, remained untouched, as it looked out into the woods in the front. There is also a very comforting street light on the road infront, which illuminates a circular patch at night. Often I would sit on the bed looking out, hoping to see a fox or a badger pass, no such luck, but I did see a lot of wood-peckers in the morning and one solitary hedge-hog.

Now to my great relief there are two massive baths, with Jaguar fittings taken from Bangalore. Lovely, spacious baths, where I can enjoy a piping hot shower after working long hours in the garden. Each of the baths have beautiful sliding cupboards in which towels can be stored and best of all wonderful towel racks which keep the towels warm. Downstairs there is a tiny toilet which is great for visitors to use rather than climb the stairs to the top floor toilets.And the flooring is beautiful RAK tiles like we used in our Bangalore flats, with heating below them, for a cold country. The bedrooms have wooden floors.

The kitchen, is a dream and it’s straight out of an interior home and style magazine, with a touch screen oven and microwave. The extractor over the gas hob is top of the line and I could cook whatever Indian food I wanted, indoors, without stinking up the whole house.It is gas, not the dreadful electric hob which was there earlier. So crispy dosas and paneer butter masala, chappaties to be eaten with kebabs and we also made a tray of grilled chicken legs. I went the whole hog making everything from dahi vadas from scratch, channa, rajma, chicken xacuti and on the last day a prawn rechard. Ofcourse I take the masalas from here and even the ingredients.

The large bins outside now include two for garden waste, one for the recycling, one for trash for the dump and a tiny one for cooked food and wet waste. They also have their own compost bins at the back, where they use an accelerator, to break down their garden waste which is mainly clipped grass and leaves.

I absolutely love the house and would live there in a heart- beat, if given a choice. But, only in the warm weather, I don’t fancy the cold much and the UK can get exceedingly cold and rainy over the winter months.