Ending the week with an ultra-marathon… 

This week feels like things have started to move forward. We received our first draft of costs from our builder, which helped to give us an idea of what we can afford now and what we’ll need to phase later (the rise in building material and labour costs over the last couple of years has significantly extended our plans). We also discussed a realistic start date – we had originally said the start of October, but we’re still waiting for three planning applications, and it’s too risky to start without these in case the builders get as far as they can before these are approved and have to stop – which is frustrating and will cost us money.  

It’s such a shame but probably for the best as we still have so much to do to clear all the barns and make the site ready, and with the London Marathon in just three weeks’ time, Sundays are mostly taken up with John’s final training runs. This Sunday he ran his longest run ever – 36.3 miles through the hills and down to the South Coast and back, finishing in the pub for a well deserved pint [or few!]. John’s running the London Marathon in aid of JDRF (a Type 1 Diabetes charity in support of his nephew James), and this week’s run was both a training run and an effort to get over his fundraising target of £3,000 (here’s the link if anyone kindly wants to sponsor him). He managed to complete it in an astonishing 6 hours and 14 minutes – at least 36 minutes faster than his fastest expected time – Evie and I nearly didn’t make it to the pub in time to meet him! 

While John was out running i managed to make a start in one of the barns, moving all our stored boxes of kindling into the Elizabethan cottage (which is a later phase and is currently the only completely dry garden storage we have). After starting by carrying the boxes by hand between the buildings, I quickly realised that would take forever, so I piled the boxes into a wheelbarrow and took it as close as I could, then carried them on foot and stacked them (somewhat precariously) on pallets to keep drying out before we use them through the winter. It only accounts for a small percentage of the boxes we have stored in the barn currently – but at least it’s a start. 

Our other success was that we finally got some bathroom quotes!! I think we’ve said before how the first companies we approached never sent quotes across, despite us having appointments at their showrooms with them, talking through our plans and looking at items they recommended. So a month ago we went to a few places in Exeter and were so impressed with the initial service we received from one of them – Easy Bathrooms – we had a follow-up appointment on Saturday morning. We walked away with a reasonable quote for the first three bathrooms, which we just need to refine a bit more by the end of the month before starting on the next three. The likelihood is that we’ll actually build these in subsequent phases, but the design will help make sure we have plumbing and electrics in the right place. In the meantime – this week we’re aiming to start with the first kitchen design too…one step at a time…