A snoop around my home in England
"You cannot begin to build until the birds and bees have stopped breeding," said the representative from the South Oxfordshire District Council. What? David and I were confused. "And then there has to be the bat survey. If bats are living in the area, you won't be able to do anything..." Part of me was thrilled that someone was looking out for the birds, the bees, and the bats. But another part of me was terrified if there was a bat about, we could not build our new home.
A few years prior, David and I had decided to build on a small parcel of land I owned close to my mother. All we wanted to do was to build a home very much in keeping with the local architecture, a home that would look really old and not new at all.
After several months of back and forth, our plans were approved. We had adjusted the pitch of the roof, we had twisted the house by a few apparently crucial inches, and we had battled over roof slates. Spanish slates are less expensive than Welsh ones, but were they prettier?
It was hard to spend unnecessary money on slates you don't often get the chance to show them off. ("Oh, do come over and look at our new slates.") In the end, we went with the Spanish ones at a considerable savings.
By now David, accustomed to the warmer climes of the tropics, had discovered that the nearby village of Benson and its surroundings are known to be southern Britain's coldest spot….