Early Tuesday morning our concrete contractors arrived with two big diggers and a large trailer. They spent the week breaking up most of the existing concrete in the yard and carting it away, before laying stone down to create a flatter firmer surface. Our builders have put shuttering all around the outside of the area to be concreted except where it meets the existing concrete, where they’ve cut a nice clean edge to make it easier to link the old with the new. Frustratingly we’re having to replace most of the concrete in the yard because the council wouldn’t let us build a small wall to protect the shippon from water flowing down the yard. Instead we’ve had to add an aco drain about a metre before the shippon and slope the concrete from the building down to it so any overflow water is taken away before reaching the shippon. This means we’ve had to take up more of the remaining yard than if we’d had a wall – the aco drain is lower than the previous level was and further into the yard so we need to create a steeper slope down to it. Had we kept most of the existing concrete it would have left some very strange gradients and been difficult to drive on. More time and more cost just to keep the area looking like a farmyard – the joys of living on a curtilage listed site.
Our builder has been busy concreting various smaller parts of the site in preparation for the main concreting work. He’s created the ramp up to the three-bed barn, which he built the shuttering for last week. It’s the only part of the yard which isn’t flat because without it, we wouldn’t be able to have step-free access into the building and it wouldn’t pass building regulations. And he’s concreted the base of our external dog shower and added shuttering around the top so that when the new concrete is poured it creates a hole that we can fill with pebbles for a nice clean look. He’s also concreted the ducts in for the EV chargers – we’re only installing one for now but wanted to future-proof the site as much as possible to minimise disruptive building work required when we have guests staying.
We’ve also had our electricians on site for the week, working incredibly hard to finish off snagging in our new house and install all the electrics for the communal building. We’ve now got lights in all rooms; all the plug sockets and smoke alarms have been installed, and we have extractor fans in the laundries. The main electrics are in place for the solar tiles – hopefully if British Gas can upgrade our electricity meter on Monday then we can get the building live and get the solar tile company back to install their kit. With all the sunshine we’re getting, we want to start generating power!
The steel fabricators came to visit the site to check the problems with the stairs and discuss potential solutions. It seems promising that things can be resolved to some extent without having to dismantle the stairs and take them away, although again we need to get Building Control’s approval on some aspects to make sure the solutions will pass building regs. It’s a little frustrating that the lack of care taken initially has led to these delays and so much extra work – as long as it can be fixed before we have guests arrive and the design isn’t impacted too much.
And we’ve made a bit more progress in the farmhouse, with one of those jobs that you just put off for ages. Two of the double-glazed windows were blown when we moved in, and a third one went a month ago. So we finally got round to getting someone in to fix them, although one will be finished in a couple of weeks as the measurements weren’t correct and the window supplied doesn’t fit.
Most of the work we’ve done ourselves this week has been to catch up on outside jobs and maintenance – cutting the foot-long grass in the orchard and wood where we’ve not been able to get a mower through until now; and planting out a few more vegetable plants. The new asparagus crowns should have gone in two months ago – I’m pretty sure it’s too late and they’ve died but better to try than just throw them away. With some help from our visitors we made the final two garden arches that will go along the brick path and give the kitchen garden a bit more screening from the front lawn; and re-stained one of our picnic benches before it goes down to the wood – not really an essential job but one we could do in the vicinity of our new patio and still be sociable!
We did make a bit of progress in our new house too. The broadband is in and set up – a critical requirement before we move to enable working from home and managing our new business. And I managed to finish the second coat of most of the remaining skirting boards, with just three walls left. We’ve set ourselves a deadline with the cleaners coming to do a “builders’ clean” in just less than two weeks, so everything has to be finished and tidied by then. Hopefully we can move soon after that and finish the remaining work in the farmhouse in time for the summer…
Ley Farm Cottages 