Harry Man - Which Brings us to the House
In 2013 an average of £13,000 was spent on individual home improvements projects per household in the UK.
When I first moved in it was like I was living in a dream. I used to wake up Saturday mornings and say āIs thisĀ it? Am I really living in the countryside?ā So from that point of view the plot was a perfect find.
Thereās more involved than people think. I could so easily have fudged it, but in the end thereās nothing betterĀ than having the jewel in the crown of the house being a real timber frame. Modern fixtures and fittings and thenĀ this, my large replica Victorian aviary. Itās about four times the size of an average Victorian bird cage and itāsĀ probably the one feature of any room in the house that gets the most attention.
In my day job I deal a lot with jewels, so having a lot of light in the house was something that appealed to me. IĀ like the drama that you get from the different light conditions throughout the seasons. I wanted the windows toĀ be traditional and airy. Typical double-glazing can be a bit characterless, thatās why I went for this. If you comeĀ a bit closer, here, touch the window. Now lick your finger. And again, what do you taste? Sugar! Exactly! NowĀ tell me thatās not the most amazing thing.
People come over all the time and they say how nice it looks. I say it will look a lot nicer when the beds haveĀ been dug in properly, and thereās not so much wet jam everywhere. Iām glad to be in this part of the world, andĀ this particular part of the New Forest is an area where wheat straw is the predominant thatching material. I had aĀ thatcher in who could do lime bootlaces, and I wanted them for the roof, because itās in keeping with the forest.
You want your house to be as much your home as it is part of the landscape. So sponge on the inside to keep theĀ heat in, and then bootlaces on the outside.
This is my dining room. They call it an āopen-planā dining room. It runs from the kitchen right through theĀ living room. Dry walling took me about a week. These are marshmallow with a fine Japanese maple coating. ItĀ gives the interior a bit of a pebbledash, contemporary, unfinished feel. If you look at the necessity of a home, theĀ house has created that home, the home that I needed. I did all the furnishings and interiors. The house was a bitĀ of an experiment. I think itās really important to make it comfortable. If youāre happy then you can achieve allĀ sorts.
Well I wanted a large oven because I like to have guests. Some people like a walk-in wardrobe, I like a walk-inĀ oven. Thatās a German tiled chimney. We can take a look inside if you like, or would you and your friend likeĀ another look at the aviary?
Harry Man was born in Aylesbury, England in 1982. He is the 2014 recipient of the UNESCO SPE Bridges of Struga Award. His work has appeared in ditch, Battersea Review, New Welsh Review,Ā Popshot andĀ Coin Opera 2. He lives in South London.