"T i m" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 5 Nov 2004 11:28:59 -0000, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:


So, this means that we don't have a show house but a place to live /
sleep that reflects that we like to do 'things' .. ?

Hurrah!

A grandchild: "My mummy says Grandma has a mucky house because she's old."

How do you explain to a six year old that Grandma and Grandpa have a mucky
house because they has a life?

You can't .. and you can't hit it for being 'cheeky to it's elders'
now (doh) ;-)

I never hit our own and don't intend to hit theirs.

But it's hard sometimes :-)

There are limits to 'mucky' though ..

In this case it's not so much mucky as what we were talking about -
littered. Crowded. Messy. Full.

It's quite difficult .. sigh .. like with the social stigma re cars
.. not only the general condition of your car but what make / model
you drive ..?

And the colour for goodness' sake ... our vehicle used to be determined by
how many beehives would fit in, now it has to be the right size for our
boxes and leave room for the hen coop.

It seems it's not that easy re cars n kids? My 14 yr old daughter is
happy to be taken to school in our (currently tatty but being worked
on) kit car / jeep looking thing .. her mates think it's kewl
(apparent'y 'wicked' is out now), or the ever tattier Sierra estate.
If we go in the fairly tidy 1.4i Astra or Rover 218SD she insists
being dropped round the corner from the School?

When (male) mates come into our house they act like kids in a toyshop
.. tekky stuff, tous, gadets everywhere .. she just sees it as
'stuff' and should be elsewhere?

Yes, we have friends who think our house is wonderful becaue it's like a
museum ... but it's not consciously like that. We don't have collections,
just ... stuff.

We did talk it over and came up with a solution.

We sell this place and buy a patch of land somewhere in the sticks
(any vacant land near you Mary?).

I wish. We've thought about the same. Perhaps we could have a joint venture.

We build a barn (about the size of Wickes will do) for me and all my
stuff and a couple of portable buildings as the house bit (that I'm
not allowed to bring my stuff into).

Sounds good to me. Although without all that stuff we could manage in our
little caravan.

As long as I had a toilet, fridge, kettle and a broadband connection
out there I probably wouldn't go in the 'dwelling' bit at all!

The broadband connection is high on the priority list. The toilet - we'd be
happy with a hole in the ground. Fridge - or rather freezer - is a must for
keeping whole animals. Kettle ... well you can boil water for tea in almost
anything.

So. Do we need to separate your end of the barn from ours or can we overlap?
Tell you what, the stuff which is duplicated could be sent to the local
museum ...

Ah, pipe dreams ...

Mary