Swimming against the current........

Hello you!

Feels like that sometimes doesn't it?

Real life is craaaaaaazy at times.

This is us going into month five of the farm house rental!

How quick has that gone?

Just keep swimming.

Look, we didn't really want to do any work on a house right now, especially not a rental and not after the full French renovation from hell, so it's been a tumultuous 4 months so far. Nothing like we thought it would be! In fact, if truth be told we are a bit sick of it all and despite those glorious Wolds views, a lot fed up. Sometimes we have to take what we can get and figure the rest out another time eh! I think that time may come sooner than we hoped!

I'm just sat down and P has taken over the kitchen painting, I do the middle bits for small people and he does the tall person bits before his work day starts, we should be done in there in a few days, it's been a lot. The walls needed a lot of prep first and there's lot of kitchen to cover! Of course we toyed with employing someone to sort the tiling and painting for us but quotes were stupid money and we are capable soooooooo. Also, spending money here doesn't help us save for a forever home now does it? The positive take away is that we have confirmed we hate painting and tiling even more than we thought and frankly are too old for this shit!

I honestly think, this time we glued those rose tinted glasses on a bit too firmly. To be fair, when we returned from France, the rental market was crackers, there wasn't a choice as such (never return from abroad in the summer), we took what we were offered, in other words, the leftover lemon we didn't need and the upheaval to go with. We are both now really ready for a break from either having workmen in the house or tiling and painting.

The real crux of the matter is that we do pay a decent market rate for a property that needs further work and so on. They sure saw us coming this time! To add insult to injury with the threat of the energy grant being employed here, there's a good chance there's more disturbance to come. Although to be honest the house desperately needs insulation, get rid of those useless electric radiators and would defo benefit from a new heat source.... but so soon after the French renovation? It may in fact finish us off completely! Not sure we can stomach anymore!

P obviously works from home, so in hind sight we should have held out for a modern rental but it's spurring us on to think if we can hack it here or not? Can we? If not, what do we do? For another measly 100 a month we could get a lot better conditioned home and some views, although not the tumble down barns he loves and isolated privacy we have here.

Renovating is hard but harder when you are spending your own money on a house that long term will benefit someone else. I guess if we had decided to live out the rest of our days here, it could work, but we are young enough to buy several times over and have another adventure or two in us yet!

Initially we were convinced it would just be cosmetic work here, it certainly looked like it but it soon became clear that we needed a new kitchen and our time here so far has been caught up with that issue. Next the bathrooms need a good makeover but we've discovered one of the bathrooms is very damp (why landords paint over glaring problems I don't know) and the walls are running with cold bridging moisture, getting mouldy despite cleaning and airing. Whilst we could change out the ancient fixtures, we are not prepared to deeply renovate the building, why should we invest to that point? The floor is a tad spongy too and points to a bigger issue to solve. I don't believe it's for us to resolve! I guess we will see how it all goes this side of Christmas? After the silly season we can bash our heads together and decide if it's doable or just too much for us at this time.

All that aside, once we've given the kitchen a good post painting scrub, apart from dressings, it's done and it will be a lovely place to be. I suppose worth all the upheaval in the end, for now anyway. Although, It does beggar belief why the landlord doesn't fix and invest in his properties himself! He's of the mistaken belief that we should maintain the property and he's right, if the property is handed over in a good, working, clean and safe condition in the first place. If he wanted anything more I guess it would have been a different kind of lease and much lower rent!

With winter just around the corner, it's clear the driveway needs gravel, a lot of it. The lane to the house has suffered from further damage from the summer farming vehicles and the pot holes are huge! Our fence is about done for (as reported when we moved in, they did two sections!) and it's suffered further damage in the winds, hanging on by a thread. It's looking very tatty. The silly buggers also put our new oil tank at the wrong height and it will be too low for us to get the use of our full tank of oil! They will fix it of course, no rush at the moment as the tank is full. However, we were left with the job of getting rid of the old metal oil tank which I'm not hugely pleased about! No one seems to oversee any of the work done here ever! Finally, we are still waiting for some window panels to be changed and the two upstairs loos are still leaking. All this and P is trying to work full time.

We manage but we are starting to feel like fools in the process. It's our money we are spending here and it just feels that we may as well stick it up the open fire chimney! Then we remember that we needed a safe harbour and very much needed these views after all the nonsense. Grateful doesn't cover it. We certainly needed the healing peace, just without the noise, people, mess and dust! Often I just wander the gardens or gaze out of the windows, take deep breaths and take a minute.

Back at the French house we still have costs. We have very recently discovered we need more repointing on the back house wall. Until it's done we can't redecorate the room affected. There's also other bit's and bobs to do that we put off until P was back in full time work, but as we are settled here, his work is back to full throttle and we are getting viewings (3 so far) we need to crack on. There's not an endless budget but we must maintain the fabric of the building regardless.

It is difficult to manage a property effectively from a different country but with a lot of help from good folk, we are managing. Of course in winter we need to keep a closer eye on things and today discovered some electric had been switched off in error and the basement pump wasn't on. It's things like this that could lead to disaster down the line if not caught in time. We worked really hard on drying out the building and ensuring it would remain dry thereafter. Our maintenance guy will keep a closer, more regular eye on things whilst completing the work needed. We've been lucky with our help but she only went and left the country!

Despite recent health issues I'm back at the coal face and feeling more energetic every day but the early dark nights are a struggle, most nights I could snuggle in by 7.30 pm! I believe my husband made a comment that the dogs get him up before dawn and his wife goes to bed before the five year olds! Oops!

We are getting out and about now and are inviting family for lunch this coming weekend. We had intended to do so earlier but the place was a building site. Does feel a bit odd at times as we were just getting to the finishing this time last year, the log burner going in ready for Christmas and now it sits there unused. I'm actually looking forward the seeing the house again soon and to pop some bits back in there for us to visit until its sold.

What has come to light whilst living here, is the fact we need people in our lives and isolation to this extent isn't something that encourages interaction. He likes a pub and I think the wish list for the future will be edge of a village, even another town house but off the main drag and with a big garden. Surprised? There's no one more surprised than me! There's a long road to travel until we can buy again but it's fun to chat about the possibilities.

Meanwhile, I'm on operation get my legs moving again in anticipation of long walks in Ontario at the end of the month! I'm really looking forward to a festive escape and revisiting our old haunts. There will be snow and lots of wildlife spotting I'm sure. We've got a dog sitter this time, for the first time and we hope it all goes swimmingly. It does feel like I'm leaving my dogs with a stranger. I kind of am.

We are just two months out from the end of the year 2025 and I'm just as frazzled as when we left France. We await the French tax decision which is imminent I believe and I hope we can start to move forward thereafter. Would be nice wouldn't it? Also we are awaiting the new Operators licence so he can go and retrieve our stuff, finally! We've overstayed our storage welcome, someone else needs it and also we need our belongings here pronto. Hopefully, it will be through any day now.

Love and gumption

D x