Our house is upside down
in more ways than one…
I wake in “my” bedroom
also my dressing room and study
to my right, from a huge shelf
hang my unenclosed clothes
a subdued rainbow – a male palette
with chests of drawers beneath
for more clothes and craft materials
Two bookcases bracket the bed
their shelves double stacked
with precious books and on
a pile of storage containers
my to-be-read are perilously perched
next to my desk – the space beneath full
four ukuleles lean against a bookcase
yearning to be played
one shelf above them
loaded with music
The ceiling is high since
horses once resided here
and through the window
our cobbled yard is packed
with plants and trees in containers
their aspirations to growth
also kept contained
Mock Orange, Olive and Winter Jasmine
now struggling with alternating
Yorkshire rain extended and
sun and wind induced drought
Rising I go to the spacious
though windowless bathroom
also given grandeur
by the high ceilings where
I had to lower the light
for effective illumination
and after some time checking
emails and doomscrolling
on the throne
I shave and brush my teeth
before breakfast
as per the latest thinking…
I look in on my partner asleep
at last, in the other large bedroom
where I began the night
falling asleep as she listens
to her talking book and enjoys
moments of snuggling up to my back
safe now the day is over
cut off from the world
by an evil disenchantment
forced to lie in bed like Brian Wilson
she may be asleep now but she knows
I am here and will feel safer for it…
I climb the winding stair
to the living area
once the hayloft
where two doors into open air
allowed the rapid transfer
of horses’ hay at harvest-time
Now made safe with Juliet Balconies
from which we can survey
the backstreet below or
the strange sight of our
garden yard seen from above
at night all a-twinkle with
sun-powered magic
The landing at the top of the stairs
is a library where recipe books
compete for space with novels
and therapy books and all open-plan
blends seamlessly into dining table
kitchen and sitting room
all traversed by a great King-post beam
in the centre of a roof rising
to twelve feet above me
I breakfast to the awful news
from Al Jazeera garnered
from around the world
and enough to make me as
depressed as my partner
if I were not able
to take action in polemic poems…
And so I descend to my study
and open the computer and work
at what the day provides
en route I note the cobwebs
and dust on the stairs
and when they get too bad
I will sweep them away
but not today
our house is upside down
in more ways than one…
© Andrew Wilson, 2025
Over at dVerse Poets Pub, Melissa Lemay in Poetics invites us to write a poem “wandering from room to room like a man in a museum.”
“the strange sight of our
garden yard seen from above
at night all a-twinkle with
sun-powered magic”
I really liked that part. Also the idea of sweeping away the cobwebs… but not today. Extremely relatable.
Boring housewies and househusbands have immaculate houses…
Thank you so much for a walk through your house…. I have caught glimpses of it during our video conferences, but this was so much more.
Thank you Bjorn, I did the design for the conversion and much of the work myself so I am proud to show people around…
NOW you’ve gone and done it. My fantasy is to live in a house like yours, each time I visit the UK I return home with “abode envy” a real thing … or maybe I invented it, who knows. From the garden to the high ceilings, the fact that horses used to call it home, sigh. Oh, your description is also mighty nice.
So sorry Helen – I used to feel the same way about those all wooden hoses in Thirtysomething (remember that?), glad you liked it…
Andrew, your home looks like a lovely fortress, keeping you two safe inside. I love the idea of standing at the upper windows and surveying the kingdom. Am I right in thinking that is your home as seen from the cemetery in the one pic?
I’m a little curious about the title and wonder what you had in mind about upside down. I think there is a lot unsaid between the lines.
Thanks Li, its an upsid down house because bedrooms and bathroom, utility, are all downstairs and living spaces upstairs, but due to my partner’s depression, I do almost everything, or not, in the case of dusting so yes, upside down has a double meaning… And yes, that is the house from the adjacent cemetery!
Love the personal tour and photo of your home. The cobwebs can wait another day.
Thanks Grace and that permission is most welcome!
I love your upside-down house, Andrew, and the photos that illustrate it. It looks so cosy and full of books and music. My to-be-read books are also are perilously perched, but next to my bed, and we had shelves loaded with music until yesterday, when our new sofa was delivered and we now have to reconfigure the room. I’ve always wanted to live in a mews cottage; I had my eye on one in Clapham when my daughter lived there. And we too have lights on our patio ‘at night all a-twinkle with sun-powered magic’.
Thanks Kim, I suppose it could be described as a mews cottage – it’s on a back street in West Yorkshire and there is a possibility it was a distribution stable for Fentiman’s Botanical Brew since the last owners found some large pottery flagons here. By the twenties it was a joiners workshop and latterly an upholsterers. He built the extension on the front where his wife ran a dried flower shop. He died unexpectedly in his fifties and when his wife and daughter asked to see what we had done with the place, they spotted two large nails from which the father had hung a swing for the kids when they were all there – I had left the nails in the King Beam – there were tears all round…
What a fantastic walk around your home with you Andrew 🙌
Thaks Ange – I was afraid it went on a bit…
I love your house, it sounds absolutely perfect and the photos are so lovely. An upside-down home sounds divine in my opinion.
Thanks Di, I love the upside-downness but Barbara feels cut off from the life at street level and she has one upstairs door open as long as the weather permits…
Love the photos, Andrew! Cobwebs can always be put off.
Thanks Sara…