Up to the first floor… 

With our site manager on holiday this week, we thought progress would be a bit slower this week, but the remaining team have still ticked a good few things off the list. The first floor is almost fully installed in our garage building. Our builders have laid the joists and started gluing down the main boards – until rain meant they had to stop about two-thirds of the way there. The boards are only waterproof for 2 months, so they don’t have long to build the first floor and get the roof on, especially given the weather we’re currently having. Countdown has begun!  

In the farmhouse all the ties and the stud partitioning on the top floor ceiling and walls have been installed, and the builders have already started putting the insulation in, completing one room and part of the landing. They’ve measured out the space for the new shower room – although in doing so they’ve realised that our original design won’t work because of the roof slope, and so they’ve come up with an alternative option. Because it’s already a fairly small room, we’d hoped to have a walk-in shower with a fixed screen, but the headroom simply isn’t there, so instead we’re having to have a shower cubicle. It gives users a bit less space, but does mean we’re able to add small shelves for wash bags and toiletries, which is a definite positive. 

After the near-excitement of last week with our Mixergy cylinder being plumbed in but not connected to the electrics, on Tuesday the electricians arrived. They installed both our Eddi (which connects to the solar inverter to optimise electricity generated between powering the house and heating our water) and our hive (to control the heating and hot water remotely). However this was a bit of an anti-climax as air in the system meant we had to get a plumber out on Wednesday to switch it all on. By the time he left though – all the radiators had been tested and I had hot water! I’m blaming the lack of time on the fact I waited for John to come back on Friday night to set up all the apps and the timer schedule though…  

The scaffolding on our two-storey barn and the front of the farmhouse is due to come down this coming week, so the other job our builders finished was to get the guttering back up. While it’s mostly covering the fascia boards that John painted, you can still see a small glimpse of green paint underneath it, which will tie the building nicely together with the windows and doors once they’re installed. We took the opportunity at the weekend to install two swift boxes on the farmhouse while the scaffolding was still there, and to trim the magnolia as well which had got out of hand and had started coming in through our bedroom window. It’s not easy cutting it back while on a ladder, so having the scaffolding made it feel much safer.  

With John being away, and now we’re in the final throes of planning the Yarcombe Terrier races, I didn’t get much time during the week to do anything except walk the dog (who never seemed to be as tired as she is when John is around!). We lost a couple of fruit-laden branches of our plum tree during the bad weather though, so spent an evening stripping them of fruit and looking for green plum recipes to avoid wasting them (without much luck, it seems not many people eat unripe green plums!!).  

We did also prep for the annual village flower show though, which was held on Saturday. Our vegetables have been disappointing this year (a combination of a lack of time delaying planting, and poor weather) so we tried entering mainly flowers instead. I think I’ve learnt a winning strategy though – entering categories with typically very few entries means we’re more likely to do well – this year we entered six and got 3 second places and a third place! Very chuffed, especially given I’ll admit I did have to check with my mum whether one flower was actually what I thought it was! It’s a far cry from anything we’d have done before we moved to the village, but with the pub still closed there isn’t very much that happens within the community so it’s nice to take part and keep events like this going.  

On which note – next weekend is the Yarcombe Terrier Races – our annual village fundraising event. We’re just keeping our fingers crossed for decent weather and for no last-minute hitches. As it is, we have a mountain of things to finish before the day – and with evenings taken up setting up the site from Wednesday onwards. Not long to go…