Restoration by Alice May - Book Tour
The House That Sat Down Trilogy: Omnibus Edition
Inspired by a true story, The House That Sat
Down Trilogy is a tale of triumph over tragedy. It is an astonishing account of
sudden, first-world homelessness in the heart of the New Forest, and the
unexpected consequences. Written entirely from a mother’s point of view,
following the collapse of her family's home, it is an uplifting and positive
read in spite of the subject matter, with a thread of wry humour throughout.
Follow this ordinary woman on an extraordinary journey of survival and self
discovery as she reels from disaster, before picking herself up and coming back
stronger and wiser than before.
Packed with humorous observations about what it
is like to live in a tent in your garden with your husband and four children
after a significant part of your house falls down out of the blue one day, this
story takes you from the depths of despair right through to the satisfying
heights of success against the odds, with lots of tea and cakes on the way.
Follow this crazy family as they cope with
disaster in their own truly unique and rather mad way, and celebrate each small
triumph along the way with them.
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Restoration
– More tales from the House that Sat Down.
Book
2 in The House That Sat Down Trilogy
Let us return to the crumbling cob cottage
in the country, and our intrepid heroine and her hilarious family.
They are about to start rebuilding their
home and their lives. Of course, nothing is going to go smoothly for them, is
it?
In this sequel to ‘Accidental Damage –
tales from the house that sat down’ we accompany our heroine on her journey as
she bravely battles to restore everything that she loves; often against the
odds and with a liberal sprinkling of humour, art and home-made cookies along
the way.
One this is for sure, it’s going to be a
bumpy ride!
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Link
Excerpt
Hello and welcome to a
small section of The House That Sat Down.
I
chose this particular extract because it deals with the very beginning of the
rebuild program at The House That Sat Down. In the story so far, we have
learned that, while a fair portion of the family’s cottage appears to still be
standing, the vast majority of it is uninhabitable, due to massive structural
damage and the integral failure of the 350-year-old cob walls. Only a very
small part of the property can be used, the kitchen, right at the back. Hence,
they have all been camping out in the garden.
While
the start of the rebuild is a significantly positive step, the family members
experience mixed emotions. It is often a factor, that things need
to get worse before they can get better. In the case of the cottage, it is
necessary for a large amount of demolition to take place before any useful
construction could be achieved.
Having
experienced almost exactly this sort of scenario myself, I wanted to
successfully impart the confusion invoked such a juxtaposition of conflicting emotional
elements.
‘For
now, the first damaged wall had to be deconstructed.
The Boss had assured me that this would be done in a
carefully controlled manner. However, after watching this particular stage, I
was beginning to think that The Boss and his building team had very different
definitions of both the word ‘careful’ and the word ‘controlled’.
Five minutes after The Boss had left the property, the
builders’ radio was cranked up to full volume and Thor was dancing around on
top of the thatched roof above the damaged gable. - How on earth had he got up
there so quickly? - He was wellying the chimney rhythmically with his
sledgehammer, whilst singing Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ at the top of his
voice.
Occasionally, he would get a bit distracted during his
accompanying dance routine and start smacking the other chimney too.
When this happened, Lofty would quickly stand up from
where he was putting together a scaffolding tower with Shy Guy and yell at him,
“Wrong one, mate! That one is staying! And be careful!” Thor would pause, shrug
and skip back along the ridge to the right chimney and resume his whacking with
renewed enthusiasm.
From my perch next to Skelly on the bench by the
garage, I began to suspect that Thor might have some ADHD issues.
Although the chimney stack over the damaged gable did
put up a valiant fight, it eventually conceded to the demands of the
sledgehammer. Then, once the weight of the stack was gone, it was time to start
on the removal of the cob wall.
Never in my entire life had I thought I would ever,
willingly, allow someone to take a pneumatic drill to the side of my house. Yet,
there I was, shivering in the January wind, watching in fascination as huge
holes were repeatedly drilled into the side of my home.
You might ask why the drill was necessary after
all. If they just took the external
supporting props away, surely it would just fall down, wouldn’t it? That was the point though. The cob was
already cracked and disintegrating, but the wall needed to be brought down in a
controlled manner so that no additional damage was done and nobody injured.
Hopefully, this meant a significantly more controlled manner than the chimney
dismantling operation I had just witnessed.
Thus, Lofty and Shy Guy stood at the top of the
newly-erected scaffolding tower, and were drilling into the damaged wall with
grim determination. Beginning at the peak of the damaged gable wall, they cut
the cob into manageable sized chunks that could be lowered safely to the ground
and put into a waiting skip. It was slow, heavy work and I found it
surprisingly exhausting to watch.
Controlled and safe it might be, but the amount of
dust generated was unbelievable. It went everywhere.
It is a most surreal experience to watch from the
outside while one of the rooms of your home is being revealed inch by inch from
the ceiling down, as the side of your house is taken apart. Eventually, I
couldn’t take it anymore and went back round to the kitchen to put the kettle
on and try to calm down.
After several hours, I returned to the work site laden
with refreshments for the builders. By then it was possible to see directly
into the first floor of the house and what had formerly been Quiet’s bedroom.
You could still see his big, old wardrobe standing where the corner of the room
used to be, the door wide open, as if he were up there, in the middle of
choosing an outfit for the day.
It felt so wrong.’
I hope you enjoyed this
Love Alice
About the Author
I am a multi-tasking parent to
four not-so-small children, and I am fortunate enough to be married to
(probably) the most patient man on the planet.
We live in, what used to be, a ramshackle old cottage in the country.
Our house began to fall down out of the blue one day, which resulted in the
whole family living in a tent in the back garden for quite some time, while we
worked out how to rebuild our home.
A few years afterwards, I
decided to write a book and, once I started, I found I couldn’t stop.
Inspired by true-life events
‘Accidental Damage – tales from the house that sat down’ wouldn’t leave me
alone until it was written.
Within six months of
self-publishing my novel, I was delighted to learn that it had won two ‘Chill
with a Book Awards’. This was a massive honour and motivated me to continue
writing. Accidental Damage became the first book in a trilogy.
The Omnibus edition of all
three books in the House That Sat Down Trilogy is now available via Amazon in
both paperback and kindle format.
Social Media Links –
Website: www.AliceMay.weebly.com
Facebook www.facebook.com/AliceMayAuthor/
Twitter: @AliceMay_Author
Instagram: alicemay_author_artist
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