Another week, another giant hole in the ground. This time our builders have been burying the attenuation crates, which essentially create a giant soakaway system that captures rainwater as it flows through our network of drains, and lets it seep more slowly out of the ground. The aim is that it means surface water can be taken away from the site without creating pools on the ground, and without overwhelming the existing drainage – which, given we live on a hill and get a lot of run-off from the farm and fields above us, could be problematic when it really rains.
The back of the site is now a complete mud bath and difficult to access, we’re all hoping for a dry stretch to let the ground dry out soon. The company supplying our bathroom and kitchen work surfaces attempted to deliver them this week – the bathroom surface had no issues and is now installed, and the smaller of the kitchen surfaces is in. The other two kitchen surfaces were deemed too large and heavy to get around our corridor corner – the alternative route would have been through the back french windows except the ground is just too slippery to walk over, especially with something that heavy. Our builders are adding the finishing touches when they can, but there’s a limit to how much we can do until the surfaces are in….
In the other barns – the beams in the three-bed barn have been treated for woodworm. Given its age, the beams seem to have survived remarkably well – we’ve only had to strengthen one beam that was rotten (albeit it was a major beam on the hay loft). The woodworm treatment is precautionary only (well we hope) but it means we can’t go in there for a few days until the fumes dissipate. The February dampness has continued to cause issues in the top floor of our communal building – the next stage is to plaster the walls but it’s just too damp. A dehumidifier has been running almost constantly for the last two weeks – we started painting the garage underneath it on Sunday and you could hear the vibrations through the ceiling. We dismally failed to correctly estimate just how much paint we’d need for the garage, and how long it would take us, thinking a 10 litre and most of a 2.5l pot would be enough – in fact we only managed to finish a third of it, so John has plenty to get on with during the week. Turns out we had a little helper as well, who, after tramping her way through the muddy building site, decided to help paint the walls with her ears and eyelashes… lucky us!
Ley Farm Cottages 