Column: Making peace with our house to see England
A humorous look at bribing a finicky old home—roof leaks, foundation cracks and all—to finally take that long-dreamed trip across the pond and fall for Britain’s charming (if inconvenient) houses.
Published
For several years Taller Half and I dreamed of traveling to England. We knew our house didn't like for us to be gone any great length of time. Such trips are fairly expensive, and no house likes to have such large amounts of money spent on anything other than itself.
It became increasingly clear we had to decide to do what we wanted to do and do it. Of course, our house immediately needed work done, expensive work. For instance, there suddenly developed a leak in the roof, which had to be repaired. That was followed by a crack in the foundation that called for immediate attention. Once those problems were done and paid for, the extra money for our dream trip was spent for that year.
It became increasingly clear to us that to make our dream trip, we had to resort to bribery. It took a new couch and chair for the living room, recovering the porch furniture and having the porch swing repainted. After all we accomplished making our house happy, we bought our tickets and packed our bags. Within a few days, we were on board the ship headed across the pond.
Britain is beautiful and chock-full of houses — great ones, small ones, new ones and lots of old ones. It is a house lover’s paradise. We made the obligatory visits to palaces and castles — great, proud places with huge rooms, soaring ceilings and miles of hallways. Built of stone on a massive scale, these pinnacles of househood endure to this day as testaments to the skill of their builders and the desire of their owners for monuments. They reminded me of dinosaurs, magnificently preserved, relics of a time long past.
What really won our hearts were the lovely old houses of more modest dimensions. Like jewels in the settings of city, town and country, those old houses have a patina only great age bestows.
As charming and gracious and lovely as they were, we’re glad they live in Britain. The houses of England and Scotland are long on beauty and charm but rather short on modern conveniences. To visit older British houses is a joy. To live with older British houses requires a stiff upper lip and a great sense of humor. Fortunately, the British people have both.
Laura Moore can be emailed at lehmoore1@gmail.com.
