It almost seemed it would snow again. It sure was cloudy, humid, rainy and cold enough. But - in the end - the snow stayed away this time.
Nevertheless,
somewhat more comfortable and definitely more spaceous home in the city. The place where Clare has lived around 15 years and that we are trying to sell.
In fact, Clare is focusing on that process right now and clearly struggling with/ frustrated over whatever the every more silly and more automated Internet expects from her. It is very hard, nowadays, to figure out if those who reach out are actual real people or bots/ trolls etc.
It almost seems like selling a house has become as difficult as building a new home, these days.
Talking about the latter, on the pictures inserted you can see what we are calling our new home, since last July.
Believe it or not but we have been sleeping inside this ugly duckling of a brick building since early December, aside from some temporary stay-overs in our other home.
Before that we were camping on our own land, sleeping in a tent and experiencing a brief, turbulent, disappointing 5 week stay in a rental house nearby our land.
It is good to be back on our land, mostly full time but also far from easy.
It's not for the faint of heart, let alone in the Winter months.
This casetta, that has been constructed on old stables ( that aren't really visible on this pic, aside from a small grey patch under the ladder ) looks slightly better and definitely more homely from the inside.
Despite its ugly exterior, the wonky stove pipe ( see the second photo ) that is only partially cemented in place, as well as the ever changing rubble and items on the porch/terrazzo, we are slowly but steadily improving the place.
On this photo you see Clare working on a side window ( of our kitchen area ) that has been mostly closed, a day or two ago.
Our cat, Fridha, is not able to ninja through the opening any longer, which confused her for a while, as she had finally discovered a way to enter and leave the house whenever she pleased.
Doing all the work on our house ourselves can be a frustratingly slow process. Let alone with limited funds. But at the same time, it is also quite beautiful, very rewarding and a great learning experience.
And if we are getting tired of it all or when the walls start closing in on us, we still have 11 thousand square meters of garden/land to escape in, work on, marvel at, strengthen our muscles and as an added bonus (?) get even greener fingers.
TO BE CONVINUED...
