This is the week that we have finally turned our early retirement dreams into reality as we moved into our forever home in the Yorkshire Dales. It is fair to say that it has a long way to go to become a dream house at this moment in time, but we are excited about the journey ahead. In this weeks blog, we look back at our first few days in the house, explore the beautiful local area and get ready for a lot of hard work and emotion ahead in the next few months.
Our first week in our new home
It was with much relief that we finally got the keys to our new house in the Yorkshire Dales this week. We have had real mixed emotions when moving in- fluctuating between the enormity of the work ahead- to a strange calmness that we have got this and we have a plan.
Throughout all of this time we have never once had any regrets. In only a few days we have made the house liveable and really quite cozy. We have our little sanctuary upstairs that we can retreat to when we want a bit of a calm, clear and clean space. We have blitzed all the carpets and done a top to bottom clean so that we know that any muck generated is at least our muck!
We have come to terms with life without a modern kitchen, but we have things in place so that we can live for the next few months as the work is completed. We are becoming more adept at using the Air Fryer that Jackie’s mum treated us to, we have a little camping stove hob and a fridge freezer on order that is due to be delivered next week. As another cheeky bonus, we also have a kitchen sink that actually drains into the drain rather than into the bottom of the cupboard that we inherited as we moved in- such a lovely surprise as we flooded the kitchen. On a positive, it was a great little job for me to grow my DIY confidence, with the motive of a working sink at the end of the job!
Getting to know the local area
We have loved exploring around where we now live. On many times this week we have had to pinch ourselves that this is our new home and actually the place that we now live, not just visit. We have passed through this area so many times on our adventures and yet we are now lucky enough to call it home.
We have been for morning walks down deserted country lanes mainly to say hello to the local livestock. Jackie was particularly pleased to find a flock of Herdwick sheep close to the house- I think that we will be regular visitors! The Herdwicks were only trumped later in the week when we discovered a pair of fluffy Swiss Valais sheep in the pen next to the Alpacas that are kept just up the road from the house. Life is now complete.
On an evening, we were struck with how dark and quiet the village is, it is like going back in time to a time before street lighting, but with the benefit of absolutely no light pollution, clear night skies and crisp fresh air.
Everyone we have met so far have been absolutely wonderful and welcoming. The locals are clearly intensely proud of the lovely area that they live in and are keen to welcome newcomers to the area. In the first few days we have met some lovely people which all bodes well for the future.
Jobs to do and progress made
This week has been mainly about getting settled and comfortable and getting the house clean so that we are happy to live here as the work progresses. On reflection, we think that we have made a lot of progress in only 3 days in making the house liveable. We have been repeatedly using a Rug Doctor carpet cleaner on anything that is remotely carpet like. We have started to prep for the extensive decorating work ahead and have made sure that we have all the tools to hand for said work.
We have a number of appointments with local builders and trade people booked in for next week to start the major renovation work, but who knows how long we will have to wait for their availability?
On Sunday our steep learning curve of DIY begins, with stripping the upstairs wall paper and paint and getting ready to sand the floorboards back. We know that we have a solid 2 weeks of work ahead before we head off to the Lake District a couple of weeks before Xmas for a spot of house sitting for friends. We are excited to see how far we get in that time.
So that’s it- another week done. It’s been a tough one to keep on top of the blog this week as we have been so busy and in a state of upheaval. Hopefully, normal service will resume next week as things settle down. We are so excited about getting our new house on the way to being our dream house…in some respects it already is- but we just want to make it truly ours.
Have a brilliant week,
Richard & Jackie
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