Zanado - Home & Animals

Our home is a stone built house, made from local granite. This means that the walls are nice and thick, keeping the heat in during the winter, and the house cool in the summer.

It was an empty shell when we bought it, with only a very grotty toilet and shower room. Luckily the roof had recently been renewed but there was lots of work to do inside and out. Three wooden floors needed replacing, along with some joists to hold them up. Two new staircases were needed, one to go to the first floor and one to go down to the cellar. We needed to put a new kitchen and a new bathroom in and tile the floors. We changed the entrance to the cellar by knocking a wall down to fill in the existing steps and putting the new cellar staircase into the adjoining room.

We had the house completely re-wired and Ian re-plumbed the whole house. We decided to have some exposed stone walls which Debra did – knocking plaster off of walls was a great way to vent frustration!

Ian fitted double glazed doors and windows throughout, and ceilings were insulated and plasterboarded, whilst keeping the beams exposed.

The garden was a wilderness which took a while to tame. Over the years we have removed around 20 pine and spruce trees which made the bottom of the garden very dark and dreary, where little else grew. We added a vegetable garden, loads of flower beds and an above ground swimming pool with a deck area. The most recent addition has been a greenhouse which Ian built entirely from reclaimed material – donated old windows, an old door and some leftover pine flooring. It is brilliant, and Debra who is a passionate gardener fills it all year round!

We currently have 4 cats, Elric, Freya, Ginger and Mrs Cat.

Elric and Freya are our latest two abandoned cats that we have adopted and have lived with us for over two years now. Ginger and Mrs Cat are French cats which adopted us! They love the large garden and woodland, and spend hours sunbathing on the patio and the decking.

We have 8 chickens. Four white Silkies, three Marans and a Black Orpington. We also have four ducks and a drake. All of which are kept solely for their eggs.

They are all totally free range and are kept for their eggs only. They have a large straw filled shed to sleep in and have free access to our garden which is approximately an acre. The garden comprises a large grassy area, orchard and small woodland so there is plenty of variety for them to investigate and scratch around in. The ducks have a small pond to splash around in.

They all eat a mixture of grain, corn and layers pellets. The chickens have shown an interest in our blackcurrant bushes, something we are obviously keen to discourage! During winter they all enjoy some warm pasta on cold days.