This has been our first week without builders on site since February 2023 (other than Christmas) and it’s felt extraordinarily quiet around the place. Having said that, it’s been as busy as ever for us so I’m not sure we appreciated it as much as we could have!
It’s been hard to balance the different jobs on our list – do we complete the finishing touches in our new house before moving or leave these until we’re in and prioritise getting the farmhouse ready to rent? Or is it easier to finish and furnish the farmhouse once we’ve moved out? We also need to paint the communal games room and finish with the builders’ tower before the floor goes down and the kitchenette is installed – while we can technically leave that until the farmhouse is rented, our builders will need their equipment back! Or do we catch up in the garden, where we have out-of-control bushes, vegetable seedlings climbing out of their trays, and grass seed that would love the upcoming weather.
We ended up doing a mixture of all of them, which means we’re making progress but not reaching any milestones. The biggest job we’ve done is to get the grass seed down in the gardens of our new house and the three-bed. John spent most of the weekend getting rid of yet more stones and flattening the soil to get rid of the lumps and bumps and weeds. Where our builders laid the top soil it wasn’t too bad, but one section consisted of soil dug up from elsewhere on site, which is hideously stony. He then proceeded to sow 27kg (!) of grass seed and start soaking it with the sprinkler (the first use of our new tap!). Now we just need a good combination of rain and sun to avoid killing our water bill.
Our new house is gradually getting there. The cleaners came on Tuesday which has made a real difference, and I’ve been touching up the paint in each room – mostly covering up scuffs and edging over the caulk along the skirting boards (if only we’d painted after they’d been added). It’s taking so much longer than I expected – partly because there are other odd jobs to do along the way – filling holes around fixtures and turning light switches the right way round. I managed to paint the ensuite cupboard in the evenings which was much easier to do before we moved in and filled it with things. We still have a bit left – 4 more walls to touch up, accessories like door stops, some final electrical bits and then snagging.
The concrete contractors came back during the week to stone up the drive outside our gate, taking it to the level of the concrete. We sprinkled cement on top so it’s more likely to stay in position when we get deluges of rain – learning from our neighbour’s experience when their driveway washed out down the lane!
The rest of the week has definitely been filled with odd jobs around the place. In the farmhouse we’ve started painting the woodwork on the top floor landing (the final bit left) and we painted the soffit board below the roof, which we’d missed when the scaffolding was up. The window company came to replace the final blown window too so that’s one job ticked off the list. And in the laundry we put the first layer of Polyfilla around the light switch and filled in the screw holes on the door frame to make it a bit neater. We started edging the high walls in the communal games room so we can finish with the tower as soon as possible – the blue has turned out a little brighter than it was meant to so I hope It looks ok!
We spent Saturday morning out visiting various suppliers to get materials for the rooms in our communal building – the stone merchant outside Exeter for the work surfaces in the kitchenette (games room) and guest laundry; a vinyl floor for the games room (we went for a hard wearing one for outdoor shoes); and the aforementioned too-bright paint. Most of the other bits were delivered this week or coming tomorrow – the laundry tiles and the games room kitchenette arrived on Wednesday and the white goods are arriving tomorrow. Slowly but surely…
Somehow we managed to get a bit of work done in the garden – mainly by getting up extra early to steal an hour first thing and planting things out in the kitchen garden. We’re nowhere near keeping on top of things though, and looking back at this time last year we must be at least a month behind. We managed to chop back the worst of the bushes in the farmhouse back garden so it looks a bit more presentable. Although now we have more sacks of garden rubbish under the terrace to dry out before we can burn them. Definitely a job before we rent the house out!
Ley Farm Cottages 