In this weeks blog we look back at our first week of living in the Yorkshire Dales. Our early retirement plans have finally come back on track with our house move after 14 weeks living in our camper van. Alongside the joys of country living comes many challenges of rural life that we explore first hand.
Our first week in the Dales
We have been in our Yorkshire Dales home for a week now and that time has just flown. As you would expect, we have been really busy- we don’t know when we ever had time to work!
We have loved living in the Dales- simply having such beautiful places on our doorstep is more than we could have ever imagined. We haven’t strayed far from the house, because we have been so busy- but we haven’t had to go far to find the beauty. We have tried to get out every day and explore the lanes and paths around the house. I think that until the big freeze comes, we will stick to the roads as the footpaths and fields are absolutely waterlogged and not easy to navigate. Just up from the house is a paddock of very friendly Herdwick sheep that we like to say hello to, as well as a couple of stunning Swiss Valais black nosed sheep and their Alpca neighbours!
Everyone we have met so far has been so welcoming and enthusiastic about living in the Dales. We have had some lovely conversations and we are loving immersing ourselves in the local community.
House update
We have worked as hard as we can upstairs trying to create our little sanctuary ready for the inevitable chaos when the builders move in. We initially moved into the big bedroom, but have now moved to the smaller one as we start to decorate the main bedroom. The wallpaper came off really well and was quite a therapeutic process. To our surprise, the walls underneath were in a good condition, but we still had hours of patching and sanding to prep the walls for the painting. We also cleared the carpet to reveal the most wonderful reclaimed floorboards, which were again in pretty good condition- so we are starting the process of prepping for sanding them back. In addition, once we had got the carpet up, the skirting boards didn’t look too bad. In our initial plans, we had the idea of replacing them as they were just too shallow. On reflection, we have decided to keep them as we could not justify the cost of replacing them considering our less is more mantra- it was definitely a want not a need.
Whist lots of things went well in our work, the wood paintwork remains a stubborn problem in our lives that I am sure we are soon going to love to hate. We tried stripping the architraves back with a heat gun and it didn’t even touch it! Seemingly the 60 years of gloss are impervious to 500 degree temperatures. Goodness knows how we are going to get the original doors back to wood…our next attempt will involve a toxic chemical solution and we will see how the gloss gets on with that. Who knows, we may have inadvertently discovered the hardest substance known to man and we will be able to patent it and make our millions!?!?
Our current makeshift kitchen is a sight to behold- more akin to an army field kitchen with a few mod cons. We have no hob or oven, and until mid week had no fridge. We relied on the coldness of the house to keep food fresh, and have cobbled together a camping gas burner and an air fryer curtesy of Jackie’s Mum. Many thanks Iris- this had been an absolute life saver. We have become a dab hand at using the air fryer as an oven substitute, even cooking a full Sunday roast with our limited facilities. It was really fun figuring this out and was yet another illustration of less is more.
We have spent a lot of time meeting local trade people to start making progress on the house renovation. We have learned a lot- the main thing being that house renovation projects such as ours are not cheap. By mid-week we had made the decision to amend our plans, as the outhouse conversion was just going to be too expensive, and if not done to the highest standards could be a real burden in the future. It is to stay as an outhouse and will be very good at that, it just won’t be becoming part of the kitchen as a living space.
Energy and insulation have also being on our minds- not something that I ever though I would say in a blog! We are focusing our attention on getting a heating solution that works for us, keeps us comfortable without breaking the bank and is only electrically based as we have no gas in the village. We have made the decision to reglaze the house to make it energy efficient, we are looking at upgrading the insulation wherever we can, looking to use state of the art electric radiators and most importantly looking to install a wood burning stove ASAP. The stove is easier said than done, as lots of people are able to install them, but their waiting list is long and the supply chain for stoves is quite limited. Urban myth is that Germany cornered the market when they were faced with Russia cutting off their gas supply and overnight bought up all available stock of stoves!
It feels like we have trade appointments coming out of our ears, and we really do- not a day goes by without a meeting of some sort or another. What we hope for is that these meetings soon convert into work. We cannot wait to start the changes in the house and watch our dream develop.
The unique challenges of rural life
We never really thought that rural life would be so different to our life in Cheshire as we considered that to be quite rural- how wrong could we be!
Our village is so quiet and peaceful. On a night, it is plunged into absolute darkness with no streetlights at all. Although a little disconcerting to start with, we are growing to love it- particularly the clear night skies that we get with no light pollution. Similarly, the only noise on a night is the echo of the cows mooing in the barn across the village- eery to start with, but eventually quite a uniquely calming experience.
Within the local area there is an endangered species that is very hard to find- chimney sweeps! We naively though that in such an area they would be easy to come by. The regular sweep could give us a slot in February! We have since looked all around and have eventually found a sweep from Lancashire that can fit us in before Xmas (I hope he brings his passport to get over the border!).
We now realise that we took many parts of our life in Cheshire for granted- particularly with the day to day running of life. We do have a supermarket in our nearest town, but it is a Booths- which is lovely, but not great for living on a budget! Our nearest Aldi is about half an hour away so popping out for fresh food is not really an option. To keep our budget on track, we rely heavily on our weekly food plan and Aldi shop. We are just going to have to be even more efficient in making sure that we have enough provisions to last. We won’t starve as we can always get local food, we will just be very poor if we have to do that too often!
Likewise, our current spending needs are predominantly DIY related and the Dales is a black hole for the major DIY chains that we all know and love. We have found that we again need to be much more organised and make sure that we limit our time spent nipping out to get bits and bobs for the house decoration as those journeys can be long ones.
Digital frustrations
We thought that we had landed on our feet when our broadband connection from BT worked straight away- we could browse the web and stream Netflix to our TV, all very good right until we attempted to make a Facebook post or upload a YouTube video. It transpires the download speeds that BT offer us is 6mb/sec which is slow, but usable, however the upload speed is 0.3mb/sec which is just s***. We are not sure what to do about this, but in reality it is a modern world problem that we don’t need to really need to get annoyed about. Until we get a solution, we will be uploading our YouTube videos from Booths carpark using our 4G mobile network that is really good in that part of town. Happy days!
Memories of Mark
This week marked a year since my brothers death. Not a day goes by without me thinking about Mark or missing him. I cannot really believe that it is a year since his sudden illness and unexpected death. Without really knowing it at the time, Mark was such a big part of my life. Having a disabled brother was never the smoothest of rides for us both, but there is no doubt that we loved each other intensely and his death has left a huge void in my life. We marked his anniversary by scattering his ashes at the local church that he loved going to in the village. It was such a big part of his life and it was one of his happy placed (along side Bradford City’s Valley Parade). We know he will be really pleased that his ashes are there.
The loss of Mark remains so painful in my heart, but I have worked hard this year to try to make the conscious choice not to suffer. It has not been easy and to this day it remains difficult as the pain of his loss remains. However Mark would not have wanted me to be moping around and suffering in the memory of him. I know that he would have wanted me to be living my best life and taking him along with me in whatever I do. I am determined to do this for Mark and the changes that Jackie and I have made this year in our lives are part of that. Life is too short and is a gift that is given to us for only a short space of time. We need to be thankful of this gift each day and make sure that we use it to the full. The trauma of losing Mark has definitely brought a post-traumatic growth to my life. Mark taught me many things thought out his life, and he continues to do so. Oh I miss him so much…
A year of Stoic journalling
When I lost Mark, as a way of helping my emotions I started following a daily programme of Stoic journalling. I have completed a gratitude journal for a number of years to help keep me remain grounded and that has been a real success. The Stoic program is more reflective, on a daily basis asking me to think about my life against the teachings of the Stoics. Some of the days have been harder than others, but on the whole I have really enjoyed the process and I feel that it has developed me as an individual. I has brought me a greater understanding of my inner emotions and thoughts and has provided me with a consistent point in the day where I take time out for myself.
On an absolutely nerdy level, I have found that I can better relate to the teachings of Marcus Aurelius than the more esoteric teachings of the Ancient Greek stoics…now I would never have thought that sentence would be used in my life a year ago! If you are interested in this, I used The Daily Stoic Journal by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman.
Christmas is coming
Although we have a lot to do in the next few weeks, Christmas is defiantly coming and there is no avoiding it! We had a lovely Saturday evening in Settle watching the Christmas lights being switched on- Santa was even there…but it was too long a wait to see him! Seeing the community come together was a real delight and another affirmation that we have made the right move. The fireworks were amazing, the tree is beautiful and we are nearly at that time of year. All is good.
Have a brilliant week,
Richard & Jackie.
Great reading about the trials and tribulations of having a "new" house.
One advantage these days of not being on gas is you only have one standing charge to pay each day.