Location, location, location.

A film company is going to shoot part of a film at our house in a couple of weeks. It's a horror/thriller film, with people I've heard of in it, a director I've heard of, and a real budget and everything.

They're going to film here for just three nights, so we're moving out for the duration. They're going to use our entrance hall, kitchen, and staircase, and part of our sitting room, all of which will be decorated for the filming, then redecorated to our taste at the end of it (which is, to be honest, the bit that thrills me the most); they're going to revarnish our wooden kitchen floor so that the fake blood doesn't stain the wood; they've even offered to let us use their boom-lift to have a look at the top one of our chimneys, which is leaking (otherwise we'd have to scaffold it, which will cost a lot and take a while).

On top of all of this, they're paying us quite well for the use of our house. Who would have thought that all these years of letting the place fall down around our ears and never managing to get it clean and tidy would have been so very profitable?

I am a very happy person today!

Don't worry, 42, we have a contract with them which specifies that they have to repair all damage to a pretty exacting standard. As it stands, they're going to plaster a couple of walls which are not yet done, and do a few other things so the house should be better when they leave than it is now. We're expecting reasonable wear and tear, but won't let them do anything bad to our lovely (!) home.

Chumplet, we aren't registered with any location scouts: our house is pretty special, though, as it's big and remote and imposing: the company originally approached a friend of ours, but her house wasn't quite suitable; they asked her if she knew of anyone who lived in a farmhouse with a long hallway, and she suggested us, and that was that.

They need the long hallway because they intend to nail someone to the floor at one end, so I'm told.

At the very least, it'll give us a bit of a laugh. At best, it is a LOVELY little earner. We could buy a new car with what they're paying us. OK, a tiny new car, but still.

They should be here Saturday to start transforming our hallway. It's going to change from bare plaster and apathy to dark wallpaper, stuffed animals and filth. I'll post before and after photos if I can. Meanwhile, here's the house (you should be able to click on the photos to enlarge them, if you're interested enough). I love living here.

We have a few hallways, several cellars (not basements--ours are stone-built, completely underground, dark, and dripping with damp), eight staircases (I think), and lots of rooms: six on the ground floor, twelve on the first floor, and six attic rooms. Roughly.

However: very little of it is useable. There are two bedrooms and one shower-room finished, and the sitting room and kitchen downstairs; and the rest is in various stages of renovation or dereliction. So don't be too impressed by it.

I don't think it's creepy here after dark. It's beautiful. We're quite remote: we can see the city lights in the far distance, a few miles away, but no other houses or roads. At night there's an orange glow from the city, but here the skies are deep, dark blue. Last week we took our boys outside at 11PM (they're 11 and 7), to watch the incredible shooting stars, and a few weeks before we woke them up to look at the full moon. We wouldn't be able to do that under a city sky, with all the streetlamps. And today we've had a digger up all day, to put in reed beds, and our boys have got so dirty they look like they've been dipped in chocolate. Heaven!

First day filming today. All seems to have gone well: no damage that I can see, hordes of people rushing about and whispering, and asking us if we really lived here because it's all so remote and big and odd.

The funniest bit was huddling downstairs with some of the crew and watching the filming on their great big monitors-on-trolleys. It's very strange seeing your house, transformed and yet familiar, on screen like that.

The film is called "Hush"; it's being made by Warp X, which is based in Sheffield in the UK, and is directed by Mark Tonderai, who also co-wrote it.

I'll try to get some photos tonight of the rooms they're using, and see if I can post before-and-afters. It's amazing the transformations they've carried out.