We're Here.

So we've made it. All went smoothly for most of us. Though not neil and the cats. Blackie (cat) had a shit just on the other side of Leyburn (nothing personal) so all three arrived looking pale and cold. Else very uneventful. Amazing removal company, all as smooth as you could hope for, sun is shining and alls well. Till ...

Of course the bastard won't light. Neil, Mark (electrician and plumber) and his mate Charlie all poke and look at it for some time and we all agree to try again when the oil arrrives in 3 days. So it's a bit cold but ok, plug in heater and open fires, some coal has been found in the dungeon tho not by me obv. and look at it, it really is heaven.

You may notice that rather nice box in the foreground. That is the where the compost goes and I made it. It's really rather good, very solid and weighs as much as the boiler. So here's a close up.

Bloody amazing or what. But its not all fun leisure projects. Most of last week was spent unpacking boxes (in the garage), cleaning, doing a bit of shopping and mainly trying to unfreeze our bank accounts due to the fraud division being alerted by us suspiciously moving house. Yes thanks Santander, only about 4 hours on the phone, a two hour round trip to our nearest branch and then spending about two hours getting the problem resolved with the amazingly nice and helpful staff in Thirsk. And to be fair today we received a hamper from the bank thanking us for our tolerance and understanding!!!!

The oil has arrived and alls well with the heating system which is a result. Faint smell of North Sea ferry's but nice and warm. And now we've started working, initially taking apart the top floor. I have a small "ladies" crow bar that only weighs about 4 kilos instead of Neil's manly one which is about the length of my leg. I am dressed in an attractive combo of old gap jeans which seem to be the same width from waist to ankle and a very Crouch End (circa 1996) t shirt + about 25 old jumpers so cut a real dash in the builders merchant I'm sure. Today has been spent de nailing, pretty self explanatory but with the added excitment of being on top of a ladder in the spidery old eaves. Mmmm spiders AND heights, how ideal. Spiders are dead but not sure that helps. They still look the same and although they can't run at you they can't run away either. Also sawing an awful lot of firewood don't know of how much use this really, is secretly suspect Neil gives me things to do to keep me quiet / out of his way rather than aid the renovation project.

And the old place is starting to function as a home and we love it and couldn't be happier. The animals are settling, Dennis is a bit confused (not unusual) but getting the hang of it, Moleskin (cat) makes the odd guest appearance when she deigns to come downstairs - at present seems to spend most of her time furring up my knicker drawer. And Blackie has been outside with eyes on stalks and yamming away and loves it. Last seen wandering off down the mill race with a very large, very pissed of looking Burmese cat sitting in the middle of his drive with its paws pretty much on its hips awaiting his return. It's contented exhaustion all round.

Nearly done now.

And thats the old place. All nearly packed up, the lorry comes in the morning, loads everything up then we all drive up north early Tuesday morning. I'm taking the dog in the car and Neil is taking the 2 cats in the van. Blissfully ignorant of the horror nervous cats can produce in their baskets when travellling. Hope the warm weather continues and he can have his windows open. It's going to be a long journey esp as the van is going to be so laden down it'll probably only go about 2 mph.

It's hell here, world of boxes. The dog keeps getting walled in, well stuck behind a small box that he is more than capble of jumping over then proceeding to woof till we move it. And tommorrow night we will have the joy of all 5 of us sleeping in one bed in the sitting room with one cup between us as everything of any domestic use whatsoever HAS BEEN PACKED. All labelled by Neil, all seem to say "garage" why? I'm up for the living conditions being a bit basic but I'm not sleeping with the sodding van.Perhaps it's been turned into a luxury studi flat as a nice suprise. And exciting and a bit sad but definately time to go. People (shops, gym etc) keep saying they thought we'd already gone. And you can only get wished Good luck so many times in a day.

So went to the stables yesterday for my last 2 rides down south both were of course perfect and of course I cried all over the horses much to their embarassment. And am meeting all the milestones of moving house, last load of washing, last tea cooked, last walk in the woods, and last post on the blog, as guess what. We need to pack the computer.

One week to go!

So that the outside of our new home. Thats quite ok but look whats in the "sitting room"!

And one of the bedrooms.

So we've bought this frigging enormous water mill in Bainbridge, North Yorks and are moving up there next Tuesday. So why??

Well - ...having worked for at least 15 years running a small Vets in London along with some house buying and selling with my builder husband we were looking for a new life. Having come to London to do an MA I ended up staying for 24 years which is long enough for anyone. So we're on holiday and visiting Hawes in Yorkshire and as usual Neil (husband) starts looking through etsate agents windows and comes up with the usual I've found an amazing .. but this time its a Water Mill. So we look at the picture and yes it is amazing so it can't hurt to look at the details and its still amazing and needs a lot of work doing which is what we do so it won't hurt to view it so we make an appointment for that afternoon. So 3pm we view it, fall in love with it, offer on the Monday, accepted on the Tuesday. Visit again the next weekend to make sure we're sure and so it begins! Next Tuesday we will swap our life in a very civillised 4 bedroom Edwardian Terrace in Muswell Hill, London, for life in an industrial building by a river in a small village in Yorkshire. It's a very large, C17th, stone built, working, listed Water Mill. The wheel is in the authentically creepy basement. It is incredible, when the wheel turns the whole house sort of rumbles and bits of machinery move throughout the building. The grinding stones are on the ground floor, with all sorts of winding gear on the first and second floors. And thats the mill workings. But what of the living accomodation? Well thats not quite so exciting. The mill was converted in the 70's (from totally derelict) by Dr Cole who restored all the machinery to its current working condition. The building was used as part residential, part workshop and part (fairly strangely) doll's house museum. It has also been empty for about 2 years. The boiler (creepy basment of course) is about the size of a smart car with more lights than the flight deck of the star ship entreprise. It is duel fuel, oil and coal tho I'm not spending my life shovelling coal into some scary bloody behemoth in a spider filled room that looks like a toture chamber in Saw. Neil tried to turn in on the other day, it just gurgled a bit and he bottled it and turned it off and ran. Expect a buncefield plume from the north next Tues.

We have bathrooms (very 70's) and a kitchen (room with a sink on the ground floor) but all pretty rudimentary. The place will pretty much need to be totally refurbished, re plumbed, wired etc so living will be pretty hard to start with. Hard and cold if the sodding boiler won't start.

And the grand plan - we want to run a Guest House.

But first we have to pack up this house. We've been here nearly 11 years so have accumulated a lot of stuff, including 2 cats and a dog, all adopted from work over the years. No children, prob sensible as we don't want them falling in the Mill race, getting tangled up in machinery, lost in the cellar etc. So back to the boxes!

Bloody hell the things you find in kitchen cupboards, enough lentils to - not sure what really but obv more than we ever wanted. And the cats keep falling asleep in the boxes, if they don't get shut in a box and shoved in the removal van it'll be a miracle. The poor dog (Dennis) is freaked out by all the packing and a tough decision to know which toys to pack and which to throw and great nostalgia at finding the "first toy we ever bought him" in the cupboard under the stairs. Right MUST do some packing...