About the 200 Year Old House and this Blog



We have been living in our 200 year old terraced house in deepest rural Scotland for many years now. My husband, professional sailor, woodcarver and artist Alan Lees, bought the house before we were married and although we've thought about moving, we've never found anywhere that we love as much as we love this place. As a freelance couple, a writer and antique dealer (me) married to an artist (him) we have never been able to afford to do major renovations all at once. But all the same, the work has been and continues to be done, a bit at a time. We have lived and worked and brought up our son here in this beautiful conservation village and we love the place.

I sometimes wish I had been able to film everything that we have done to and for the house, largely on a shoestring, over so many years. It would have made - and still continues to make - a fascinating, funny and frustrating record. But back in those days, it wasn't quite so easy to preserve a record of the goings on. All the same, it struck me recently that our experience, the accumulated wisdom of many years, might be useful to others embarking on the same weird and wonderful journey.

The problem is that old houses hate to be disturbed. Is it the previous inhabitants, making trouble? I've never thought of this house as haunted, except on a couple of slightly strange occasions, of which more in a future post, so I'm inclined to think it's just the house itself that hates change. Like an elderly, sleeping animal, it really doesn't want to be bothered. And so it sometimes bites back. All the same, it's a friendly house. When we first saw the old deeds, we were surprised by how few owners the house had had over so many years. People tended to stay here. It 'feels' right.

The blog title I owe to my husband. In the middle of our last small emergency (old houses are full of them) he groaned 'How to live in a 200 year old house!' With fortitude, with care, with love and with some difficulty, as it turns out.

Not all my posts will be 'how to' posts though, because we work in this house as well as on it. I write fiction and non fiction and you can read about those on my writer's blog. My husband Alan Lees paints, very much in the folk art style and you'll find some of his work on Etsy, as well as on his website.  I also have a couple of online stores, on eBay and on Love Antiques, where I sell the antiques, mostly textiles, that so often find their way into my fiction. Many of my posts will knit all these things together. It is, I suppose, a 'lifestyle' blog - although sometimes our lifestyle seems a bit chaotic.

And of course, we do a lot of gardening, because these old cottages tend to have very big back gardens and ours is no exception. I love gardening, even though I'm no expert. I do, however, as a friend remarked recently, have 'emerald fingers'. Everything grows. The problem with that is that the weeds grow too.

Drop in now and then, if you too live in an old house with an old garden - or if you want to! Follow me if you're interested in antiques as well, especially textiles, especially items with a Scottish or Irish provenance. Or if you just love Scotland. You can leave comments on individual posts, or contact me through my shops, or via the new Facebook page for the 200 Year Old House.