We have moved into our home for the next year.

OK, you will have to wait a while longer for the Pirate piccies, we have been moving home.

After our decision not to buy on Calas del Pinar, we wanted to find somewhere to live for a year while the property market settles down (or bottoms out) and the Euro has a chance to recover, and it's making a decent effort already this year - from £1=€1 we are already up 10%. We wanted more room and a bigger kitchen as, although we have enjoyed living in the last place, we did find it a little too small for us - but as a holiday let - it's perfect.

So, we were lucky to find a 3 bed villa just one street away, this time without a pool. We wanted somewhere without a pool so that we had more garden space for the dogs to run and play and also because we have ordered the hot tub (which is being delivered either this afternoon or tomorrow - how exciting is that?) and needed space for that. We can use a hot tub all year round whereas the pool can only be used for 3-4 months a year and the rest of te time it takes up a lot of space and needs looking after.

So, over the last week we have been moving boxes and boxes and boxes. The new villa is unfurnished and last Wednesday we had all our belongings brought from storage and it has been like Christmas all over again. It's been 9 months since it was all packed away and we had forgotten what we had brought with us - it's been lovely opening all the boxes.

We spent several hours in IKEA in Murcia on Friday as we needed bedroom furniture and a bookcase for downstairs plus some curtains and we managed to get everything we needed.

As soon as I can find my camera I'll post some photos and I'll let Brinkley tell you how they have found moving to the new house on his blog later today - but first, I need to go move some more boxes.

More soon.........