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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nhitting yo k<\/p>\n\n\n\n I walked on and by mid-afternoon the sun was out as I passed the hamlet of Wester Whyntie, which consists of a single duplex building. Both front doors were open and it seemed to be under renovation, although I didn\u2019t see anyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I stopped because there was wall in front of the house where I could rest the pack and get it off easily; also a place to sit when that was done. I sat in a tired daze (but no longer soaked!) for about 15 minutes before a man wearing a tool belt appeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cChecking to see if you was all right,\u201d he said in an accent that wasn\u2019t Scottish and was harder to understand. I told him I was okay, and he invited me in. His name was Mike; he didn\u2019t want to give his last name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Formerly a warehouseman, Mike is from Norfolk, England. He and couple he\u2019s friends with had been looking for a house in the country to renovate and move to for several years. They looked in Cumbria and then in Yorkshire but couldn\u2019t find something they could afford, (Mike insisted it had to have a roof on it at time of purchase.) So they started looking in Scotland, and found this place for about 100,000 pounds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n An old woman and her son had vacated it two years earlier. They were hoarders. Mike and the couple made periodic trips up to clean out the place before moving up last fall to work on it full time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou couldn\u2019t get some of the doors open the whole way. Things was stacked to the ceiling,\u201d Mike said. They filled seven dumpsters \u201cand we had a fire burning rubbish for six months.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n A room at one end of the house had been used by domesticated and then wild animals. The floor was rotting away and it had an unmentionable smell. They found nothing of value, although Michelle, the wife of the couple, said she kept a \u201cmangle\u201d\u2014an old-fashioned machine that squeezes the water of washed laundry between two rollers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI liked that. I\u2019m going to get it restored,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They\u2019re turning it into a single, shared house. They\u2019re putting in bigger windows upstairs to make the most of views of the sea.The couple have two children\u2014a young man and woman\u2014who will live there, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Except for where they\u2019re changing the slope of the roof with the help of a builder, they\u2019re doing the work themselves, learning what they don\u2019t know as they go. They\u2019re even moving the staircase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I asked who is designing the new structure. Mike said it was Michelle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201dIt\u2019s all in her head. She\u2019s brilliant,\u201d Mike said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201dIt\u2019s all in my head,\u201d Michelle confirmed. But her daughter is a tattooist, so can draw, and has helped (along with some online programs) with coming up with written plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I didn\u2019t ask about ownership, where they were getting the money for all the work, or where they were staying in the meantime. Even if they were willing to tell me, I didn\u2019t have the time. I\u2019d already stayed an hour and it was time to crack on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n