What have we done?

Welcome to my first blog. I will try to keep these short (no scrolling), but I am about 3 months behind, so there may be a number in the next weeks. Some friends and family members have asked why on earth Karen and I moved from the beautiful setting of Creedy Park, to go to a dirty, draughty house with a neglected garden in Crediton. Good question! Although we lived happily at The Stables for almost 19 years, there were limitations: the beautiful sunny courtyard out front belonged to a neighbour, the vegetable garden was a short hike up a hill, and the living room was partly below ground and dark. We had made it as energy efficient as we could without stripping out the interior to add wall insulation. I did an MSc in Environmental Design of Buildings a couple of years ago and really wanted to apply my new knowledge to our own house, and Karen was getting tired of the too-large veg plot and had done wonders with the courtyard, but there was nowhere to go with that. So we started looking. We found our new house online one Friday last September, made a visit on the Saturday and made an offer on the Monday. Why this house? It was the view, the light, the sun, the garden (ready for a makeover). It was actually livable so we could make plans while living here. It took a while to get over the shock of moving, but I think we made the right decision. Now, what to do first?