House in rural Irish Midlands

Hi! We bought an old derelict farmhouse in the middle of Ireland about 15 years ago. We’ve spent the past years battling the recession and although we have it well-habitable, there is still a way to go, but what’s left is cosmetic rather than necessity. It has four bedrooms – none of them huge, but all of them big enough for the purpose – one with a double bed; one with a sofa bed that pulls out to a double; my daughter’s room with a single; and a spare room mostly used for ‘stuff and laundry’ that has bunk beds. We only have one bathroom, which has our only toilet, a free standing bath and NO shower. Downstairs is a good sized living room with windows at both ends and an open fire (which you’ll needing in the winter!). There’s a small room I generously call ‘study’ and a kitchen/diner. In the kitchen is the stove, which takes mostly our own wood, and is the only source of heat to our radiators, so you’d need to light it during the chillier months (like July! and from about October to March most days) We do have underfloor heating in the hall and kitchen and in the bathroom too. We are steadily working through the great expense of replacing old sash windows, so most rooms still have these. I find it quite a chilly house, although my husband insists it’s just me. It stands on 2 1/2 acres of overgrown wilderness that I try to tame. We grown a lot of our own veg and have fruit trees and a polytunnel. There’s an assortment of old outbuildings too. I’m not going to pretend that this is a house that would feature in a Laura Ashley catalogue – it’s got rusty gates, overgrown land, and a LOT we still hope to get done when ‘One Day’ comes around. We also have animals – there are cats, dogs and sometimes ponies. I foster for a couple of animal rescues, so this can change quite quickly. Anyone wishing to stay would be asked to throw a bit of food at the cats every once in a while. Dogs would usually not be here if we are away, and any care of ponies would be negotiable according to what is here, what they’d need, whether you were willing and able, but as foster rescue ponies it would be likely they would be small, and unlikely that they would be riding ponies. We have hosted a lot of workaways in the last few years and had very good feedback. We are about an hour from the edge of Dublin, 20 minutes drive from the nearest big towns, and being fairly central to Ireland, we are located well for getting around, but not very close to the ‘picture postcard Ireland of tourist brochures. There is plenty to do within the area, but a car would be necessary. It would sometimes be possible to leave our car, on a case by case basis. My children are pretty old (23 and 15) so we haven’t very many toys left around. We do have a selection of adult bikes, trees to climb, about a million books, and a netflix subscription. We have ‘reasonable’ internet access, but the ruralness of our location means it’s not the fastest. I am very open to questions, and will always be honest! I’m open to hosting, pet sitters, swaps, but will consider almost anything if it helps us travel/meet people from around the world 🙂