Posted on by Lesley

Using the time wisely

As the weeks move on and progress inches along slowly, I try and keep my resolve strong and hold onto the dream by looking back at why we are doing this and using my time in active preparation for our new life.

Photos and videos that we’ve taken of the croft help me to reconnect. Endless lists and plans scribbled in notebooks also help. We are making progress, even if it seems painfully slow at this stage.

🍒We hope to have confirmed costs in this next week.

🍒The builder has visited the plot and is firming up initial estimates.

🍒We have a Quantity Surveyor appointed who is managing the activities around the build.

🍒We have the window and doors ordered, along with the request to start SIP panel production.

Yet somehow, until we break ground and I see something tangible, like the access road or the foundations for the house, it doesn’t seem real…

In the meantime, I re-read my books on bread making, jam making and crafts, all things that I hope to happily fill my time with once we are in our new home. I plan for years out when we have hedgerow fruits and can make blackberry wine!

I resist the temptation to peak too soon and buy demijohns, which we’d only have to cart a thousand miles to the island..

I create mood boards and source paint colours. I find floor tile and wood samples and try and decide remotely what will look best in the space and the light, balancing practicality with design.

We plan endless potential uses for the old barn on the croft. Book barn, accommodation, studio, willow weaving shed, brewery… I think we’re up to around 400 potential uses for it so far 😬. It’s become our family joke. I think it’s because it’s the only actual building on the land, however tumbledown. At least it’s real.

I think of my studio and all the things that I will create once I have the time and mental space to do so – canvases, textile works, sculptural objects, things with driftwood and beach finds. I’ve commissioned a weaving for the wall.

I dream about the croft. I think about how it will look once we have thousands of trees planted and birds and wildlife start to return to the land. I dream of those beautiful views across the sound, and the sheer magical peace of the place.

And I try and use the final months here in productive preparation. Organising the recovering of my bargain sofas for the house. Sourcing a local stone sculptor to make our house sign. Researching where we can find the cheapest scaffolding boards on the island. Thinking of buying a car suitable for the roads on Skye. Contacting the forestry commission and woodland trusts. Sourcing firewood. Registering the croft.

It’s coming, we tell ourselves. Hold on.

14 Replies to “Using the time wisely”

    1. We haven’t got a start date for the build but we’re hoping the groundworks can start in February. Again, not sure yet of completion date but they are hopeful that we will be in by October this year… we shall see!

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  2. So many things to think about for your future life. Don’t fill it too soon with stuff, part of the joy will be discovering the here and now when you are there, what is really needed and what is not. Between then and now try to be in the here and now where you are. Time goes so quickly, time we do not get back, and in living in the future we sometimes miss precious things now.

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  3. What a year for you, what a change in your lives. It is coming and I look forward to helping plant trees on your land and standing with you, peacefully enjoying the views over the sound.
    What a journey and what a prize at the end. Enjoy each step towards this dream you so deserve that prize x

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    1. I wish we could have done it that way too. But circumstances, work and family commitments meant we couldn’t stop work until now. The need to work meant we had to be in the City. Retirement is the thing that will release the time for us to build the life that we want. It will mean a steep learning curve when we get there, but we’ll manage that 🙂

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      1. We all have to do whatever works. 😁. There are advantages to both. I envy you retirement. We won’t be able to retire for another 15 years… if at all. One of the disadvantages of living for the moment most of our lives.

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      2. The retirement question is a tough one. We really shouldn’t be doing this for several years yet, but we’ve taken the decision to do it early because city/corporate life was killing us. Mentally especially. Depression and exhaustion were wearing us down and getting worse and worse. We figured that if we didn’t do it now we wouldn’t have the energy to do it after another ten years. This way we will live on a tiny fraction of the income we were used to, and I’m sure that financially things will be tough, but at least we will have our croft, our trees and a simple life.

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  6. Thank you Judy. It was interesting to look back on this post, here in January 2022. Although we aren’t where we hoped to be, we have made huge progress. I should go and write a list today and see how far we’ve got! We have the bones of the house at least, and some light at the end of the tunnel on this build ❤️

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