On March 30th, The Forge officially opened its doors for business and what had been our dream for over 10
years finally became a reality. You’d think that preparing for such a momentous
occasion would be a time of sheer unbridled joy. Errr. Not quite. As we limped
over the line somewhere in the wee hours of the 29th March, broken,
exhausted and barely able to speak, we questioned whether this was the dream we
had signed up for.
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| All dressed up and ready to go... we, on the other hand, don't look quite so tidy anymore! |
After all, hadn’t we “left behind our stressful commuter lives” (according to our glossy marketing literature) when we moved here? I can honestly say, hand on heart, that the past couple of months have been way more stressful than any project go live I went through in my consulting days. 2am finishes? Check. 4.30am starts? Check. Heart palpitations? Check. Insomnia? Check. Immune system shot to shit? Check. Not to mention not seeing the kids for days on end, never sitting down to eat and constantly scanning pages and pages of To Do lists, all dog-eared and wrinkled being dropped over and over in the snow and the mud.
Nor did I expect my hard-earned life
savings from the past 20 years to be frittered away in the space of a month,
swiftly turned into about a million Amazon Prime boxes and eye-wateringly enormous
invoices from the builders’ merchants.
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| "This time next year, Rodney, we will be millionaires". Perhaps not. |
Less still did I realise I was signing
up to become a chambermaid-slash-toilet cleaner. As I tucked in the last
sheets and duvet covers on the 17th bed at around 5am one morning, in
the dark, barely able to feel my fingers in a -5c hard frost, I have to confess
to questioning my life choices. Even more so when the 17 guests departed, and I
was left with the unenviable task of cleaning the composting toilets, obviously
without running water (“the blissful off-grid retreat”, so says the website.
Hmm).
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| Mine all mine. Err, not anymore... |
And it was only as we watched the
first guests tottering through the foot-deep mud in their shiny white trainers with
their sparkly pink wheelie suitcases that it suddenly dawned on us that we are
now going to have to actually share our
place and all of our hard work with complete strangers. And not only share it
but be at their beck and call at all hours of the day and night, ensuring they
have everything they need, popping out for soya milk, fetching more firelighters,
finding spare poo bags for their dog, the list goes on. In fact, it has been so
cold in our opening week that I keep waking up in the middle of the night,
drenched in sweat, fretting that our guests are not warm enough and that I
should take them more blankets. Will our lives ever be our own again??? – no weekends,
no evenings, no summer holidays. Suddenly the corporate 9-5 doesn’t seem so bad…
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| A misnomer. Will our lives ever be free again?! |
But then we got our first guest
review….
And nothing in this world can compare
to the euphoria of hearing that someone has described their experience as “absolutely
faultless” and that all your hard work and visioning and late-night conversations
have actually translated into something that people LOVE. People actually get it! Our concept works and we now have several 5
star (and only 5 star – c’mon people, we’ve just opened a business, this is no time
for humility!) to prove it. Some relief I can tell you, although it also heaps
on the pressure to keep them that way!
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| "Absolutely faultless", apparently :-) |
Not to mention the buzz we are getting
from meeting so many new people from all walks of life and diverse backgrounds.
Just when we were in grave danger of becoming reclusive hermits, we suddenly
have lots of lovely new human interaction and it feels wonderful! Not only does
it assure us that we are not completely off our heads to embark on a project
like this (people have been incredibly passionate and enthusiastic about our plans)
but we now find ourselves with a replenished bank of new stories and witty anecdotes
from our interactions with our guests. We now actually have lots to talk about
(and apologies to any friends out there reading this a) for being as dull as ditch
water for the past three years and b) for now droning on incessantly about all our
new guest experiences).
Best of all though has to be the
fact that we get to see the place afresh again with every new person that comes
up the drive. Yes, it is a lovely view (how did I forget that?). Yes, it is so
green and fresh (guess I just take that for granted now). And yes, you do feel
like you are miles away from anywhere (yup, ‘tis true). Seeing the impact that
the place has on people and the difference between how they feel when they
arrive and when they leave is something I don’t think I will ever tire of. Sure, there will be guests that don’t love it
and there will be days when the cleaning and changing sheets gets a bit tedious
but this is our business. We get to
make all the decisions and set the direction. We are answerable to no one but
ourselves and the buck will always stop with us. It is both terrifying and
thrilling in equal measure. And do you know what? I think I could get used to
it…
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| Nice to be reminded that the view is not too shabby... |
https://theforgecorwen.co.uk
