Celebrating our one year ownership-anniversary. Happy new house day.
I say I bought this house sight unseen, but that is not entirely true. I had seen pictures of the courtyard. And I fell in love with this house because of the courtyard. The extended in-law family had all seen it of course, and various of the siblings had friends who lived there when it was owned by the owner before the last two (although not Walter). But I had walked and driven past it hundreds of times without even noticing it. I did notice the huge hedge of course, and picked flowering branches from it for Andrée (my MIL), but the house was a surprise. And the courtyard behind this door is as perfect as it was in pictures. Better actually. The door is huge enough to allow a cart piled with hay to pass through when what are now the studios were working barns, but it is perfectly proportioned for the house IMHO.
This is the realter’s image that sold me on the house. We have moved the table under the covered area, leaving the outside for those who want to sit in the sun or in front of the stove, and the stones rarely look this pristine because although I am at perpetual war with weeds I will not resort to chemicals harsher than dove, salt, and vinegar (the place smells like a chippie when I get done, and new weeds move in to replace those I shrivel).
But this is what I imagined. Family and friends around a long table sharing food, conversation, and the pure pleasure of being alive. And this is what we have. There’s a grill at one end and comfortable chairs at the other and I spend most of my waking hours out here — there is a wifi router in the roof. We set up a screen on the far wall and watched the olympics and world cup, and I imagine movies there when the evenings are dark enough to permit. There’s a chiminea for chilly evenings (we can even toast marshmallows), but mostly we use the space for sitting, talking, and listening to music.
Perfect!
There are also two fully outfitted studio apartments, a large attic bedroom/en suite (two full size beds and 7 shorter beds), a futon in the library by the bathroom with the gold lion-foot tub, and a spare room in our part of the house. I’ll describe those later — or invite a guest post.
And we have been adopted by a local cat who also claims this space as her own and has rid the rafters of roof rats (aka fruit rats). Walter feeds her, so hopefully the birds will remain relatively safe…
This is how she spent the winter
