The end of an era

Things have been a little quiet here on the building/restoration front as most of our time of late has been spent sorting through boxes as we slowly move our things into the House. We are also in the process of clearing out stuff from the Hut, and boy did we squeeze a lot of stuff into there!

As we are preparing to take The Hut down, it seems a good time to take some photographs of how the Nave is looking with the Hut still there. We have taken down Owen’s old bedroom and the spare room ‘Number 30’.

Removing ‘Number 30’ has already begun to open out space in the Nave.

The extra floor space will give us room to work on the outer wall of the House hopefully later on this year.

Inbetween all the sorting and decluttering, we have been building our wood shed and processing wood for the boiler. Four months of having the boiler lit has made quite a dent in our wood stocks so this is an important task to get done to ensure we have some warmth next winter!

Restoration work in the Apse paused during the autumn and winter but work has begun again, with just the central part to paint now.

It feels very exciting to finally reach the point of being able to restore the interior of the Nave and to increase the usable space there.

As much as we are all looking forward to taking down the Hut (or as the boys say ‘bashing it down’!), it will also feel a little sad as we have had a wonderful 13 years of Hut life. But as it was only intended to be our accommodation for 2-3 years it has done us well and we are certainly ready to move on from this chapter of Christ Church Living.

But just as we were busily looking forward to a new way of living here, life threw us an important reminder to appreciate the present. Our dear cat Astro, who moved here with us, sadly passed away. She has been part of our lives here at Christ Church from the very beginning. Astro thoroughly enjoyed Christ Church Living, especially greeting everyone who walked through the churchyard. In her younger days she would frequently catch mice, bring them inside and let them go. We just know that as we clear away the Hut we are going to find some of them, in a rather desiccated condition! She was incredibly loving and loyal and we are all missing her terribly.

And so a new chapter of Christ Church Living begins.