by Tom Evans | Dec 12, 2023 | Timing
The refurbishment and extension of our home has taken nine months – this seems appropriate for a rebirth I suppose.
In this time, we have relocated over 35 times, squeezed in a couple of mini-holidays, met and caught up with old friends and spent a humungous amount on the refurb. You can’t take it with you, they say.
Has it been worth it?
Well the old house was exactly that : old and tired, damp, draughty and mouldy. The new house is fully insulated, fully electric with temperature and humidity controlled by our new MVHR. With the solar panels going back on in the New Year, as sun behind the hill at the mo, we are aiming to be close to net zero. So yes, definitely it will be worth it.
In addition, we have 50% more space. We didn’t need the space per se but all the old rooms were a less than ideal shape. Now the house and garden are married together with a living room/diner in the new upstairs extension, opening up into the gardens. The bedrooms and wet rooms are now mostly downstairs in the ‘European-style’ we understand. All rooms have had new floors, walls and ceilings and triple glazing fitted.
The journey had ups and downs of course. We had a really fast demolition and rapid construction of the new extension, with piles driven six metres into the ground and three one ton steels man-handled in : due to cranes not being able to operate with overhead electricity cables.
Discovery of asbestos set us back a month and the best part of £20k. We probably lost another month as our main contractor had taken on too many projects and there’s at least another month of exterior insulation, rendering and cladding works to be completed early in 2024.
Now though, the scaffolding is down and the skip has left the property. We have now moved back in before Christmas.
If you have been following my blog, you will have noted that, in parallel, the materials for the Path to Overstanding have been flowing out regularly and I only have a moonth’s worth of content to create in the New Year. There’s been much new freemium and premium content added to Insight Timer and some ‘waves have rippled around the planet as a result.
I need a break, as perhaps do those walking the path with me.
So 2024 will augur in a new way of being from a personal level. As my creative output is personal in its very nature, it too will inevitably change. For the first time in over 20 years though, I have no plans for any project. I have some ideas milling around but next year, I will go with the flow and really allow my soul to guide me.
p.s. All suggestions and nudges for what you’d like to see more, or less, of much appreciated.
by Tom Evans | Jul 17, 2023 | Scribing
Just when everything was going so well with our refurb project, our builders discovered a layer of asbestos between the walls of the ground floor and the roof joists. Apart from an unexpected emptying of our bank account, it’s put the project back by a good moonth.
Fortunately, the hard part of the project and construction of the new extension was virtually finished before this happened. It means, once the asbestos is removed by the end of July, it is more like a conventional project with 1st fix, 2nd fix, decoration, followed by a phase move back in.
A big hiccup like this though pulls the rug from under your feet. The delay means that we will only just be in for Christmas so we are looking for a short term, out of season holiday let from October. We also made the decision that the motorhome is going as, after living in it for five months, we think we will want to see the back of it.
Hopefully, selling the moho will more than fund the asbestos hiccup and still allow to decorate and furnish the interior of the house as we envisaged it.
It does however make you take stock and check in on what you are doing elsewhere in your world.
The Path to Overstanding
Although the noise of band saws and hammers has meant it’s been tough to keep up with the recordings, I still have managed to hit every delivery date – aided my Sister Moon, of course. I am about two months ahead with the writing of the scripts and 2-3 weeks ahead with recording and production.
More importantly, I can see the end of this section of the path now and I am chuffed that I have expanded upon, and contemporised, the seven levels of initiation in the classic Cube of Space. More importantly, I have created an 8th and 9th level of initiation which, as far as I know, is a first in the recent history of humanity.
Onwards and Upwards !
Insight Timer Premium Content
I hear that launch is imminent, this month even, so my current 8 bits of premium content will go live soon. There will be a lag but it means that monthly income should start to increase from September onwards. This is important as it funds my creative output. By the end of the year, I’ll upload a new track each month to build a considerable archive of metaphysical wisdom
In the interim, each month I create and upload a new ambient track and a new guided track that I upload to the app with free access.
Keeping Plates Spinning !
Plans for 2024
Plans are forming for next year.
First and foremost, the Path to Overstanding audios will be converted to a print and ebook.
Second, I’ll be starting a new project to create a fully immersive audio version of my novel, Soulwaves : A Future History. At 100 chapters long, I will create 10 parts each of 10 chapters and upload one a month to Insight Timer Premium. My muse and inspiration for this is the radio version of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
After 10 months, I will then segue straight into the serialisation of the third book in the trilogy, The Duadex. Incidentally, the 1st part of which is already written and recorded, so writing can start in Spring after the Book to Overstanding is being readied for publication.
Keep Scribing !
