Is this really my new house?

This is the front of the house. It consists of two buildings - the original long house with central chimney / fireplace but now it has three small rooms and the barn conversion has a large living room, bedroom and bathroom. There are large French-brown gates which we can close on the outer world for privacy in the courtyard or open wide and to 'be on show' if we want! At the moment they are firmly closed whilst the demolition process takes place. I have discovered that the house decoration and barn conversion was made in 1985; the date under the removed wallpaper confirms this! The maçon also renovated the house next door but one with the same materials!

This is the back of the house. It was a barn. It is the building on the left. The neighbour's garden is behind it. The dishevelled atelier could re-incarnate into a verandah. The small building behind that is the boiler room and is like a cellar at the moment. In front is the fuel container enclosed by old house doors!!! The pointed building on the right is not mine, but to the right and out of the photos is a gate with a right of way to the street and some shed-type constructions. Do I have the inclination to keep chickens? No, not at the moment! A dog-leg shaped corner is taken out of the garden. There is a small barren field to the right and at the rear of the garden, behind the camera, is a breeze block wall dividing what once was the garden belonging to the next door but one neighbour. No one overlooks the garden excepting for the one neighbour who is absent at the moment.
I bought this house for several reasons but the carrot was that down the lane is what could become a very beautiful ancient-cum-modern small bijou residence. I have already visualised myself sitting in the front of the house reading my book, listening to the nightingale. There is an aura and gentle ambience there.

Stop dreaming girl, there is work to do before you can relax!

This big house is giving me some anxiety .. but my son is telling me to think more positive. He says it'll be ok and that I must tell myself I CAN make decisions and that I am NOT worried about this and that! There is a lot of work to do and already we have had the obligatory surprises that will probably consume the available funds! To begin with we are only updating the ground floor.

The demolition commenced! We removed a wall which separated a long thin bathroom from the large bedroom, removed the nasty shower cubicle and vanity ware. Why is it called that?

Then the chaps revealed the oak beamed ceiling continued from the living room next door. The same beams will be hidden in the bathroom to keep a lower ceiling.

The mountain of rubble, polystyrene, plasterboard, bedding materials and cardboard debris created in the garden from stuff from the attic, kitchen and elsewhere was removed before a photo shoot. It was too embarassing to show.

There is a lot of rubbish about! And we are creating more! No time to blog..... so posts are being written. put into draft to complete when I can!