There is no doubt, in my mind at least, that a retired person needs his or her projects. I’d even go as far as to say that the key to a happy retirement is or are, ‘projects’. Of course the doubters among you might say projects are just a deceit intended to make us believe we are using our retirement time (and our lives) to maximum effect. But the truth is we’re kidding ourselves, our lives are slipping away and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it. Well OK, but you can see why I prefer the optimistic view.
True I’ve been accused of being a bit project-obsessed. And this retirement blog will do nothing to dispel that notion. The reason being for this project we’re back to sheds. Or something similar. I mentioned in a recent blog about my cunning plan to recreate our Derbyshire cottage in our Yorkshire vineyard. My, that sounds grand doesn’t it? The reality is of course a good deal more prosaic (lovely word).
The essence of it is that from the outside the ‘building’ will look like a beat-up old shack but step inside and there will be a scene straight out of House and Garden magazine. Well kind of. Anyway I thought you might like to see in this short blog what the outside of this building might be made from.
I have to admit there is a slight element of doubt about the exterior materials as depicted by these photos. In one way they (the materials) are exactly what I’m looking for. I have this slight obsession about old corrugated iron barns (as shown in a recent blog) and first developed in New Zealand, so the old barn I found on one of our doggie walks last week, (in the photos above and below) seems to be exactly what I’m looking for.
The guy (the tenant farmer) I spoke to said the owner was indeed wanting to demolish it and erect a new (but dull) replacement version. All I needed was some willing help to remove it, transport it to our vineyard and, with a fair wind, put it back up.
I asked my chaps up the dale to take a look at it. Which they did and they did not like what they found. In typical blunt Yorkshire fashion, they reported, it’s rubbish. Out of forty sheets of corrugated metal you’d be lucky to get two decent sheets. Oh.
But, here’s the thing. They, not unreasonably, thought I wanted the metal to be water-tight, wind-tight, a building suitable for the wild weather we get in these parts. But they are wrong. The metal is nothing more than a decorative effect. An exterior to contrast with the interior. Underneath the metal would be a normal shed / building with a traditional wooden frame. But why would traditional Yorkshire Dales farmers even think in those terms?
Anyway here it is in the attached photos, my latest potential project. If I can get all my ducks in a row, who knows this latest project my see the light of day. Maybe not, as somebody once said it’s not the completion of the project that kills you but the hope that it might happen. Watch this space.
Intriguing…. as Clouseau would say, ‘do you have a license for that plan’? This building will be a master of disguise !
You’ll never notice it’s there and it probably won’t be if common sense prevails