The Donated House

I went for a lovely walk and swim today, down to the market where I got a classy coffee mug and a winch(!) which I hope will replace entirely the pulley system for raising and lowering the bed. Got to figure out where/how to attach it though. It’s somewhat limited in that the handle needs room to turn, so the only place I can think that it will work is in the skylight frame. Not beautiful, but definitely functional. And a bit techno-industrial chic, I guess. Maybe I can somehow age and distress the stainless steel to look old…

Tonight we’re going to a talk in Mytholmroyd about forest management. I’m not sure who’s giving it, Elmo knows the details, but it might be a door into some forest management perks around the area, like offering to take thinnings off their hands which I can then build stuff with, like pergolas or furniture. In addition to being helpful and learning stuff, or course. Elmo and I are both very foresty people and it’ll be good to get to work in one.

I went swimming at the leisure centre today, and subsequently had a shower with what felt like opulent amounts of hot water. I’m going to have to do a water run soon (just down the street to Jane’s outdoor tap) as we use more in a week than we brought with us, turns out. Yorkshire Water have been and gone again, still no water supply. That will be so lovely when it happens. Although there won’t be running water in the building, just having a cold tap near the building will be so much easier.

Tim, the neighbour down the hill, clearing out Harry and Peggy’s house, asked if we wanted some table lamps, and that turned into a whole bag of stuff they were going to put in a skip, which then expanded to include a working breadmaker and piles of other stuff, including a set of cutlery FAR nicer than what we’d got, although there were only 3 spoons. Whatever, I’m happy to have nice cutlery to integrate into our collection of Morrison’s cheapest. There were also 4 silver cake forks and about 7 tiny little knives which, when I inspected them closely, turned out to have British Airways stamped on them. I think there may have been a family tradition of stealing the knife when travelling, back when they used proper cutlery on airplanes.

He also gave us the original paperwork for the lease of the nursery in 1962, I think it cost £7 a week. He’s letting us keep it, and so begins Elmo’s collection of local history information. Unfortunately, they didn’t find any photos of the place, we’ve still not seen any from before we had it, which I would love to do.

Oh, and the local paper had an article about the Cats’ Protection League having done a fundraiser and still in need of a home for a cat whose owner had to move after the floods and couldn’t keep her. So there’s a possibility we’ll have a cat soon. Better get that cat door installed.

Wow, I have a lot of catching up to do. And if I’m honest, I’m not really going to do it all, I’ll just give you the highlights and then *really try* to blog properly from now on.

This was a while ago, maybe mid December, probably around the time I got the really bad cold which I’m currently blaming for my absence from blogging. It can’t be that I’m lazy, that’s ridiculous. Anyway, it was a beautiful cold snap, clear skies and frosty ground. My favourite kind of winter weather, aside from heavy snow. I love snow.

And beautiful, clear, cold days mean beautiful sunrises. I can’t remember why I was up so early, but it was a glorious, beautiful morning. I’m sure I went back to bed and missed the rest of it.

Lovely Elmo joining me for a walk. I have no real reason to include this picture, there’s no narrative, but I love pictures of Elmo and I figure when I reread all this, I’ll want to see gratuitously included pictures of all the people who come here, but especially of Elmo.

I painted the walls around that time. Well, some of them, anyway. It makes a hell of a difference to the under-bed dining room, where I am currently sitting and enjoying a brighter, homier feel than when it was still, basically, dirt coloured. Not that I had a problem with the dirt colour, but it just lent a real darkness to this corner particularly.

The paint (Aglaea, if you’re shopping around) is also really good for binding the surface of the walls so they’re less inclined to dump sand all over my floor, and it smells amazing. I think they put lavender oil in it or something. I’m very happy with the paint.

I need to do another coat on the dining room and then work my way around the rest of the house. I’ve done about half and I think I’ll make it with the one can I have, which is nice because it was expensive.

As you can see, the ceiling and skylights are still not plasterboarded, but I hope to get the last two bits of plasterboard I need this week and maybe work on it this weekend. I’m not sure whether I’m going to have a go at skimming the ceiling with plaster or whether to seek alternatives. I’m afraid I’m going to be rubbish at it and just dump plaster all over everything. But I guess I might as well try.

I did a very small amount more tiling yesterday and today, enough to mean I can now panel the end of the kitchen and build some shelving. We desperately need more storage space, living here is a long exercise in moving piles of stuff from one surface to another in order to be able to do anything.

I’m determined to get some done on the floor mosaic soon. I’m quite excited about mosaic in general. Sarah-May gave me a bunch of tiles in beautiful colours that will make an amazing mosaic when I have anywhere to put it.

In other news, I’ve finally seen a physiotherapist about my foot problem (bone spur, in case you missed that news) and she gave me ultrasound, which I’ll do for another couple of sessions and then review. She said I’m basically doing everything right in stretching it and resting it where possible and wearing the right shoes. I looked online to see if I could replace my old, seriously knackered Brooks running shoes, which are by far the best for the foot pain, and found a pair of black ones at half price. If I were spiritual at all, I’d say the gods were telling me I might one day dance again. But at the moment, I’m just trying to maintain a relatively pain free state while walking regularly and pottering around here doing stuff. It’s going ok, not getting better but at least not getting worse.

Today I’ve managed to tidy the place up a bit, inside at least, and make it presentable for our ex-neighbour Judith to come and see it. It was lovely to share it with her and to see her. I love showing the place off, although the outside looks a bit of a tip. The porch seems to be full of stuff that we’ve nowhere else to put, and it just seems to pile up and up. We need an additional shed of some kind, the first money we come up with will go towards that, if I get to make the decision.

I’ve just re-ignited the fire (it’s too warm, as in above freezing, to let it burn all the time) and am about to settle in and read a stack of old Vogue magazines that Judith gave me with a glass of sloe gin.

This place feels like paradise right now. Well, a paradise where Elmo is across the room swearing quietly at his computer, but maybe I can convince him to come and hang out at my end of the room.

Nothing to report, as have not been up there in weeks (though Steven spent what he reported to be a pleasant several days up there around Christmas) but I am very much hoping to go and live there, for real, like full time, as of early next week.

Running water is overrated.

Been a bit cold but a whole lot beautiful at Boggart Hall lately.

I went down to town for some shopping at the market (Thursday is junk day!) and it started to snow while I was down there. Above are the beautiful stone steps up to our front gate, and below is me loving the snow. How people manage to hate it it completely beyond me.

I’ve been laid out with a cold for a few days, but aside from that I’ve got my fire back a bit and have been getting stuff done, including painting several walls and researching mosiacs to make sure I get the practice (this is the practice house, after all) in styles I actually want in the real house. Sarah-May came for a visit and has donated her collection of really nice coloured tiles, which I’m totally inspired by. I’ve got some really exciting stuff now, so I need to figure out how best to use it.

I’m intending to “move” up there after Christmas, that is, to start being there by default unless I’ve got a reason to be in Barnsley, which will still be fairly frequently, since it’s very convenient for returning to after dancing events in Sheffield, and also it has hot running water (though I did get myself a swimming card at the local pool, so I can have a shower in Tod if I’m willing to drag my butt out there). Barnsley’s also got all my craft materials, so I’ll be back there rifling through them at intervals, since I can’t go a whole week without starting a new artistic project. But at some point I need to make the conscious leap to thinking of Boggart Hall as where I live rather than just where I go for short residential bursts of working.

Who needs hot running water?

Yes, I have a cold. So instead of spending the last two days getting stuff done, I’ve spent it in bed, feeling feverish and dizzy. Still, it’s not all bad news, Elmo’s hooked up the broadband, so we’ve now got proper wifi in the cabin, and the stove is working exactly as advertised to keep the cabin a very toast 26 degrees (though I swear the thermometer must be wrong, because normally 26 degrees is too warm for me.)

This morning I met with Alice, a lady who builds buildings out of wood and has just completed an oak frame building at an eco-project in Wales (www.felinuchaf.org). She seems a lovely person and has done a lot of really interesting things with wood, from furniture to barns, so I’m really looking forward to getting to know her better. I’m in the process of arranging to visit the barn she’s just finished erecting, and possibly to spend some time volunteering at the centre where she works.

In other news, I finally got round to painting the walls, well, some of them, and gosh what a lovely difference it made. Not only does it look tons brighter and cleaner, but it’s really bound the clay together and it falls apart a lot less than it did, which is very welcome indeed, I was really tired of sweeping endless piles of sand off the floor.

Pictures to follow when I get to it…