We’ve seen a real step change in our new house this week, as the plasterer has been incredibly hard at work and almost finished the entire building (save for a tiny triangle that’s been missed). It’s strange how much bigger the house looks now the plaster is on the walls – apparently this is very normal and is because of having smooth surfaces instead of being able to see all the beams and insulation. He’s done such an amazing job – it’s a tricky building to work in because of the beams cutting in at inconvenient places and the height of the vaulted ceilings – but every surface is completely smooth, even in the spaces behind the beams that look too thin for a paintbrush.
With the tiler coming on Monday to do the bathroom and ensuite, this gave us a week to prime and paint both rooms. Cue a couple of mornings off during the week and our first Saturday job – luckily we only needed to do the areas that aren’t being tiled or we’d never have got it all done.
The rest of the weekend has been less satisfying. We’d hoped to finish one of the bedrooms in the farmhouse so spent Sunday afternoon finishing off the remaining wall and tidying up a few edges, before starting on the woodwork. We ran out of paint a third of the way around the skirting board and so will have to waste at least an hour tomorrow making a special trip into town to get more, before we can tick that job off. It also means we’ve not been able to finish painting the bedroom door, which is currently balanced on the chest of drawers in our bedroom (so we could paint it flat). With one more door still to take off and paint, it looks like we’ll be living in chaos that bit longer!
The top floor shower room is pretty much finished now and is looking lovely. Between the plumbers and our site manager, they tiled a section behind the sink and installed all the fixtures within a week. The only things left to do are to wire up the mirror, sand and paint the filler around the toilet flush, and then install the door (which was waiting for us to paint the architrave and is now held up by the lack of paint). Oh and then silicon everything in. It’s a nice milestone and is a real transformation from the water cupboard it was originally.
We’ve had some fun with the council this week. Living in a listed building has some up sides – but trying to do building work really isn’t one of them. Having previously been granted planning permission for two air source heat pumps and an outbuilding for the equipment for one of them, we then decided to add a third air source heat pump for the one-bed property on cost grounds (cheaper to run than an electric boiler). Even though this third heat pump and accompanying outbuilding will be exactly the same as the others, and tucked behind one of the ones we have approval for, we’re having to put in another application for it at the same time as discharging the conditions on the approved application. The approval is contingent on the council approving the style of the outbuildings (a slate roofed shed) and how we’re screening the air source heat pumps from view. The latter essentially means the council have to approve us putting up trellises… no wonder there’s such a backlog of planning applications.
The other problem that’s come up this week is the plan for the external groundworks in the yard out the front of the properties. It feels like we’ve been talking about this for months but now we’ve got to crunch time as our builders need to start digging up the courtyard to finish putting the drains in. There’s a risk that in periods of heavy rain (especially downpours) that the rainwater coming down from the hill and around the side of our farmhouse is too much for the main culvert drain, so instead of flowing down between the gate and the shippon, it comes down into the courtyard and towards the properties. The difficulty is that the courtyard is already fairly sloping, so the preferable option of creating a downward slope in front of the properties and having a gulley in the middle of the courtyard would mean a much more dramatic slope on the courtyard coming down from the farmhouse. Not ideal given that’s where the parking is going to be. Our architect has gone away to draw up some cross-sections so it’s going to be interesting to see what they come back looking like.
Most of the builders’ work has been groundwork again – mainly digging more drainage. Despite still discussing the lie of the land (literally), they’ve put in the new culvert drain pipe underground and covered it up, and they’ve concreted in the drain cover too. Previously we had a channel that ran down the side of the site and across the front of the gate, so it’ll be nice to have this area flat and easier for vehicle access.
Wednesday was a day for concreting – at the same time they finished repairing next door’s driveway after we dug it up to bury the electrical supply, and they also created and concreted the base for the first outbuilding round the back of the barn. At the same time, we’ve had other builders on site continuing to build out the top floor of the communal building – insulating it and boarding out the bat loft, which is now looking particularly cosy and hopefully large enough for several bats. And the stone masons have nearly finished the second gable end – despite the freezing temperatures. It’s really coming on.
The final bit of progress this week was with South West Water, who finally found our water meter. It’s been an ongoing saga since we had a water leak above our farmhouse by next door’s cow barns around the start of the year. The first leak was fixed in late Spring, at which time they found a second leak by the water meter itself (in another neighbour’s field). This was fixed early summer, but somehow involved the meter being reinstated lower than before, and quickly disappearing under a huge pile of mud. John has been trying to sort this out for months, so it’s a bit of a relief to have it sorted before another department at South West Water have to install the new meters for the conversions.
Ley Farm Cottages 