MORE ABOUT THE HOUSE - Spring/Summer 2011

The main part of the house is estimated to be about 400 years old. It appears to have originated as a one roomed cottage with large inglenook fireplace and a crog loft above. Over the years, existing barns and outbuildings have been added to the original building to create a four bedroomed cottage with 2 lounges, 2 bathrooms & 2 kitchens, clearly one half has been used as a holiday let. It also has a large dilapidated shed and a small detached garage. It borders close to another property (a holiday let) in one direction and other properties are distanced by a small field.

                                            

The cottage can be found along a very narrow (and steep in one direction) single track mountain road between two villages. It sits in about an acre of land including a field in the middle of farmland on the side of a mountain. 

 

It has views of mountains, the north coast of Wales, the sea and Anglesey depending on the viewpoint and the weather.

Following some wet weather, grass, nettles and weeds were growing in abundance around the property. Inside, toadstools and fungi had taken over, growing up from soggy carpets and more interestingly out of walls. Ear shaped monstrosities would open up and eject puffs of spores each time we passed them! Dr Who and Harry Potter would be proud of the cobwebs and their residents. A soggy arm of insulation hung down to face height from a large hole in the ceiling waiting to attack anyone who dared walk beneath it. All in all it was wet, cold and smelly and we couldn’t wait to get our hands on it!

 

In August 2011, our offer on the house was accepted. The house was full of the previous owner's belongings. Bit by bit during weekend visits, we sorted and bagged up the contents. The council have an excellent recycling policy and everything taken to the local tip is accepted (except Japanese Knotweed) and neatly sorted. Most items were too soggy to do anything with other than include as general household rubbish. I tried to sort through piles of papers and documents in case there was anything of importance. Other than the old man’s death certificate, there was nothing. As I picked through the papers to dump into black bin liners, they slipped through my hands like gigantic slimy slugs!

 

 Living room 1

 

 Living room 2

 Lower kitchen

Shed

 Conservatory floor

 Room, later to become utility room

We decided to explore the walk to the peak behind the cottage. So we set of on an afternoon stroll up the mountain which we estimated would take a couple of hours at the most. After 3 hours we were still to be found scrambling very steeply up through heather, gorse, bilberry bushes and bracken, legs torn to shreds, with no obvious path and no summit in sight. I swore I would never ever attempt this again! The vegetation was soon replaced by rocks and shale and eventually we reached the peak. This is the coldest, windiest place I have ever been on an August day, but the views over the whole peninsula are spectacular. (I was later to discover it was comparatively mild!)

 

 

On the way down we came across the path we should have taken on the way up. Perhaps I will climb it again!

Next blog - Work starts on the house