Sam początek

...there is an old wooden cottage hidden in a tiny village in the forests of Warmian - Mazurian Voivodeship.
...głęboko w lasach warmińsko - mazurskich, w maleńkiej wiosce, stoi stara drewniana chata (post w trakcie tłumaczenia).

It had been built on the foundations of its predecessor that succumbed to a village fire. It survived the last war, watched its owners leaving the village and new people settling down. The house has served them just as faithfully. They changed the thatched roof for a new one of fibre cement that - ugly as it was - had saved the house's life. 

But time sat heavily on its shoulders. As it wasn't properly cared for, it started sinking and tilting. Water dripped into the deep basement supported with huge oak beams, until it half collapsed. Winter frosts and summer rains have eaten through the wooden weatherboarding. In the attic ghosts napped in the ancient beds left by the original owners and waited for better times. 

Only one person still lived in the house and she was old and lonely. She listened to the creaking of the floors in distant rooms day by day, night by night  - and finally decided it was time to leave too.

This - in short - is the story of my house that is around a 100 years old. But it doesn't end here.

One day in 2011 I was doing my regular internet search for countryside houses, without much hope. After some time of futile looking through many adds, in frustration I opened  an interactive map and enlarged an area that looked the greenest. There was a name of a village in the center that I had never heard of.

I put the name into the search engine and the first thing that clicked was a picture of the house. I grabbed my phone to call my family and told them to buy it.

My website and the house behind it are two projects in the making joined by one idea. The FeltEssentialCottage (online and real) provides a roof for almost everything that I think essential in my planned "cottage life", but more ideas keep coming!
The whole project is to be based on permaculture principles. The property consists of about an acre that will be made mainly into a forest (edible) garden. Other permaculture solutions will be implemented from the start to make sure the place goes towards (at least partial) sustainability. I would love it to become a permaculture hub and a local demonstration site. If you're a fellow permaculturist interested in lending a hand in the project, please let me know! There is a blank green canvas to paint.

I find it both intriguing and convincing that as I trample a new path in life, my long dreamed of house is getting a new life too. I am already doing things and initiating activities that shall one day hopefully be transferred under my new roof.
A wise teacher once told me that every development is an organic process that cannot be hurried: for everything there's a time. I love to think that a time has come for me to make life in that house.
I've already met many wonderful people that have helped me to start, people who were or got personally involved with the house. I know I will meet more such people. Because it is a magical place.

And I won't hurry, because it's the journey that matters (provided the heating works!). Anyway, time stands still in my cottage.

You're welcome to accompany me on this journey.
I post regular updates not only of my personal endeavors, but also about the restoration of the house. The house (that is an example of historical regional building tradition and is listed) will retain its character with some elements added - for instance the frontal arcade.
Here you can see some of the great features.

Beside well preserved low beamed ceilings and wooden floors, I found here doors with original frames, locks and handles, two tile stoves, a wood fire kitchen and oven and many more, plus an enormous empty attic with a huge furnace for smoking, connected with the chimney.

I want the house to become a place not only for me, but for other people to enjoy. Beside permaculture workshops and demonstrations, there will be different courses - herbs, natural nutrition, Reiki, shamanism, craft and more, as well as rooms for dear guests, to rejuvenate in this breathtaking place, where deer, boar, wolf, badger, fox and moose still run free and people live simple hardworking lives.

Welcome to a quintessential cottage.