A Year

 A year - a long time and no time at all.  This last strange year has often felt stalled, coming round again and again, living in the groundhog day of lockdowns and restrictions but when I lift my head and really look at it I can see what a lot has changed and how far we have come.

This time last year we were living in our old house on the hill, waiting to exchange contracts on our sale, surrounded with boxes of books and china.

And exactly a year ago today it had snowed.  We walked up to the top of the hills and tried out our snow shoes and were amazed by how beautiful the white world was.

And then in February we moved.  It was sort of a wrench to leave the lovely old house and it sort of wasn't.  The fact that the new house was beginning to emerge from the mudbath of the building plot was so interesting and so exciting that it felt right.  It felt time to move on and shape the new stage of life and we knew that in our old house's new owner, we were leaving it in good hands.

Here is the house in  February beginning to emerge with the foundations dug and the shape of the rooms in the low walls visible against the soil.  The highest structure on the site at the beginning of February is next to Ian here - a taller pillar built to house the electricity connection.  

And by May the walls begin to rise and the shapes of the windows start to hint at a house and not a building site.

And in May we went to Scotland before the midges struck and I fulfilled a long held wish to see Iona.  I had been reluctant to go when things were busy in case the sheer press of people and commercialism ruined the image of the place which had been in my mind for years but one of the unlooked for results of the pandemic was an empty Iona, quiet and still and luminous.

And the house carried on growing.  Here it is at the beginning of June with the first floor emerging and the sense of ceilings and more shapes.  I can't tell you how exciting it is to see something move from a plan to a reality.  Even the smallest bits of progress entrance me and an appreciation of the amazing complexity of the machine that is a house will be with me for life now.

In June we went to Bodnant Garden which was throwing out its glory whether we were in lockdown or no, vaccinated or not.   Still things grow.

Double vaccinated with a French covid pass and tested at every turn we made it to France for some time with family and then friends and Italy for a few days with some friends from the States.  The world was still out there.  

And back at home the house continued to grow.  Here is Ian upstairs in what will be our bedroom and the outside of the house with a real roof!

And we end the year with windows in and rendering going on outside with plastering inside.  There is still a long way to go but it feels real.  We have started to choose door fittings and paint colours and  to plan where furniture is to go.

It is not a quick thing to have a house built and lots of people have asked me if it is stressful to which the answer is that it is and it isn't.  By that I suppose I mean that we have decided to enjoy the process as much as we can.  We won't do this again.  Once you are committed to enjoying it as much as you can it is easier to let some of the stresses go.  We have decided to go with the flow and accept that it takes as long as it takes.  It helps enormously that we have a great builder with a great team and that we are not trying to do this while living on site in a caravan with a number of small children and jobs to run!  I don't think we could have contemplated doing this at any earlier stage of life and we feel very lucky to be able to do it now.  It takes a lot of engagement on our part and I would not dream of attempting it by myself.  Ian has an eye for things which might pass me by and a practical cast of mind which is endlessly valuable.   Again we are fortunate that we are both interested in the whole thing and that our strengths are a little different and I hope complementary.

Where will we be in another year's time?  Who knows.  We may be in the house.  That would be good.  But as long as we and those we love are happy and healthy it will be fine, whatever it is!  What a difference a year makes.