The first step towards restorations

The last seven days seem to have flown by! We’ve met both our neighbours as well as the farmers down the road – and can safely say we’re very lucky to have moved close to such friendly people. We’ve already been offered ice lollies, and swapped rhubarb for tomatoes, runner beans, beetroot – another point for the Country vs the City! 

We’ve also had our initial architect & planning consultant visits. This was the most nerve-wracking point of the week – we knew that attempting building work in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty was never going to be easy – add to that the listed Elizabethan cottage we have within our longer-term plans too (more on this in a future blog). So we’re very much hoping that our ambitions to retain the farmyard character and all the original features will stand us in good stead… My involvement in sustainability over the last 18 months has inspired us to look at heat pumps and solar panels too (as long as we can keep them discrete, I think the rule is), so again we’re hoping we can get these approved. The smaller the impact we have on the environment, the more we’ll consider this project a success. 

Finally – we spent our Friday evening cutting out rotten fruit and dead branches from the orchard, and picking our very first harvest (which you can see on our Facebook page – search “ley farm cottages”). Very different to our usual ‘out out’ Friday nights in London!! I can tell already – we’re going to need a bigger freezer!