Plastic fantastic

The weeks have finally started to blend into each other, and it’s getting hard to remember how far our builders had got last weekend, and how much they’ve achieved since. Not least because they’re working in every building and a lot is changing! The biggest progress this week feels like it’s been in the shippon, where the tanking company have been installing all the tanking across the floor and up the side walls. As we’ve not been able to change the height of the building at all, we’ve had to lower the internal floor to below the courtyard ground level so that there’s enough headroom under the roof beams – the tanking will stop any damp coming from outside up into the property. The tanking looks like huge sheets of hard plastic with imprints a bit like lego – it’s a particularly strange feeling walking around the building with it everywhere.

The aim is to get the underfloor heating down in the shippon in the next week or two. This requires our architect to confirm where the internal walls will be (which she’s done) and for us to decide where our kitchen cupboards will be (so we don’t put heating underneath these) and which cupboards the manifolds will go in (we’ll be ‘zoning’ our underfloor heating in different rooms, and the manifold is essentially the central hub where the pipes split off into each zone). Our site manager has been spraying the kitchen layouts onto the floor to check they’re right – it’s been really helpful to get a sense of the scale of kitchen in relation to the rest of the building. For the barn and the one-bed shippon building that we’ll be renting out, it does feel strange to be deciding what the kitchens look like even though we won’t be installing them for likely a year yet! 

Talking of kitchens – we have finally made a decision on ours and are ready to order! We’ve been back and forth with different layouts and styles, trying to maximise the space without taking over the entire room (we’re having a single open-plan kitchen / dining / living area), and trying to fit in with the building’s features (such as the internal stone wall John exposed). We’ve found it really hard to choose the colours given the room doesn’t exist yet, and we don’t know how light the area will be – it’s much easier to replace a kitchen than design a new one! But, incentivised by the fact the company we’ve chosen are putting their prices up at the end of August, we made our choices and finalised our design. We tried to put our order in today (it’s all done online) but there’s an issue we need to resolve first that we can’t see on the plan – so are waiting to hear back from the company – hopefully tomorrow! We went with a shaker style kitchen and a white belfast sink to keep a farmhouse feel, and after lots of voting on our facebook and instagram page, we went with the majority choice of cashmere for the cupboard colour. Such relief to think that’s one more thing close to being crossed off the list.

In the farmhouse, our builders have been busy both in the bathroom and ensuite and on the top floor. All the rooms are now double-insulated and the internal stud walls on the top floor are taking shape. The shower cubicle structure is in, complete with a small alcove for toiletries in the shower itself. It’s been fascinating to see the daily progress – as long as we get upstairs in the daylight that is, we still don’t have electrics on the top floor or in the bathrooms so rely on a camping lantern. The new rafters for the bathroom and ensuite are in, and the temporary roof felt has been replaced with proper felt and battened down. Both rooms have been insulated, with the insulation reinstating the ceilings again. We’d got used to the taller ceilings (and the cobwebs and muck that came with them) – and in a way it’s a shame to see parts of the old house covered up again – be that the old pegs holding the remaining original wood together, or the carved beam end that must have been visible at some point. It’s only been two weeks since the builders started in our bathrooms, and while this is no time at all compared to many builds, it’s starting to get draining being surrounded by green plastic and sheets and dirt, and having to take everything into and out of the bathroom every day while we keep bumping into the bathroom furniture in the bedroom. Hopefully not long to go though – the electrics should be going in this week and at least we might have light again..

Then in our garage/games room/communal area building, our builders have somehow found time to start building up the internal breeze-block walls on the first floor. The exposed flooring they’ve put down is only waterproof for two months so they’re on a timeline to get the walls up and the roof on. The new building will be taller than the original derelict one was, so it’s taking a bit of time getting used to the height. The first floor (which will be a communal area for games or team meetings if we can capture the corporate team-building market) has two large windows looking North and East across the valley – these are starting to take shape and you can already see they’re going to look fabulous.

Having had a three-day weekend, we’ve managed to get through a fair few things on our list (although not everything, which is a little disappointing!). John has been painting fascia boards again – this time on the shippon (both front and back), which is the longest building by far! At least he’s now only got the garage building to do once that’s built – I can imagine he doesn’t want to see green paint for quite a while after that!

We’ve also been tidying the garden between us – cutting back the bushes in the back garden and at the front of the shippon that have grown through/around the scaffolding and making things difficult for the roofers. It’s a good opportunity to get to the top before the scaffolding comes down too – the trees and bushes in our garden are so high it’s impossible to reach most of them so we need to make the most of chances like this. As the weather is starting to cool, we’ve been tidying up the vegetable beds – we cut back the mildewed pumpkin leaves and overgrown blackberry plants; and harvested the onions, fennel and courgettes, making space for the remaining brassica seedlings that struggle with the heat and prefer the cooler autumn weather (although we ran out of time to plant these – maybe next weekend). In an attempt to keep the kitchen vaguely clear of vegetables, we spent Sunday evening cooking up soups and courgette cake to go in the freezer. 

And what better way to spend an extra day off than doing online courses… At long last we completed our Food Hygiene certificate and Allergen Awareness certificates – we’ve been planning to try and sell our jams and chutneys to our visitors (and anyone else who wants to buy them) and wanted to do this properly after a former colleague suggested doing the courses – it’s only taken us 18 months to find the time! It took us most of the day so it was nice to head out for a walk afterwards for a change of scenery (which the pup enjoyed too, having been stuck at home all weekend). One more thing off the to-do list – and another potential way of making a bit more cash and sharing the lovely produce we’re so lucky to be able to grow here.