It definitely feels like we’re coming to the end of the build phase now – with most of our jobs being finishing touches outside.It’s mainly been our site manager here for the last few weeks – plus any tradespeople such as the concreters that were needed. This week one of the other builders came back to help with the final push, as our site manager is now due on another project. With a week of wall-to-wall sunshine, their focus (and most of ours) was getting through the outside tasks – the cement mixer seems to have been going constantly! They’ve built a headwall in the bank in the wood just where the water pipes empty into, to give the area more stability and prevent any risk of the bank slipping in future. They’ve also done some lovely concrete sculpting inside the drain covers – we can only assume it’s to effectively channel any water down into the drain as it would be a real waste of a fabulous job otherwise!
And they’ve been building various stone walls across the site – the first is around the main drain entry point for the water that comes down off the hill, that had been left as breeze blocks since they first built it. The second is by the French windows of the one-bed cottage. Now the concrete yard has been laid and levelled to direct excess rainwater away from the buildings, we have a level that the wall needs to build up to so that you don’t open the French windows and just stare at concrete. We want to make this area into a little garden for the one-bed cottage, but as the council don’t like the idea of sectioning the yard off or using trellis of any kind, we need to think a bit more about how to make this work.
The other work they’ve done for us is to put tiles on top of the wall of the old barn that adjoins the farmhouse front garden. This was left when they demolished the derelict barn over a year ago and moved the new barn a foot away to avoid the need for a retaining wall. It was mainly grey concrete render and broken breeze blocks and looked a mess – it’s so much smarter now! It also meant we could finally lay the weed membrane and move the pile of soil from outside the front of the farmhouse without worrying that anything we did would be in the way / get trampled in the process. The weeds tried reclaiming the area over the three months since we first cleared it – the membrane was definitely required! Hopefully it’s thick enough to work, and the wild flowers will hold them back (once we seed it that is).
Being able to move the soil has meant we’ve finally been able to start clearing the front of the farmhouse. Previously used as a collection point for all our pots, the soil and the bricks we’d used for the front brick path, it was a real mess with moss and leaves we’d not been able to reach, and overgrown bushes that were running wild without any space to cut them back. We’d inherited two bushes in half barrels that stood either side of the front door – the bushes had seen better days and the barrels had rotted through and turned into a snail haven (which we found out when we moved the first one to build the brick path last year). John spent most of the weekend moving and clearing everything and sweeping up the mess, before making a start with the pressure washer. He’s only done some of the area but again it looks so much better! He’s also cut back the bushes to a more manageable size, and rescued our Leonard Messel magnolia and one of the front apple trees from the clutches of the overgrown lilac. It’s left us with more garden waste to burn (we already had five huge dumpy bags from clearing the back garden) but it looks so much more appealing now. A much better first impression of the farmhouse for our guests!
We’ve also made real progress with painting – or it feels like it at least. We wanted to finish painting the games room before the internal fittings (balustrades in front of the windows and a small kitchenette) went in, so it reached top priority of the job list for us this week. It’s been a bit of a nightmare room mainly because of our choice of paint – the dark blue is almost impossible to edge straight against the lighter colours, and it needed between 3-5 coats which took extra time. We managed to finish it this week though – painting the white ‘projector wall’, finishing the final coat of light blue, edging the whole room multiple times, and painting the window and door sills ready for the balustrades to sit on. Despite getting this far, we’re unlikely to actually finish the room for a while now. Once the builders have finished, the last thing for us is to sand and paint the skirting board, but it’s not on the critical path to renting out the farmhouse so it’ll wait until that’s ready. The stairs have finally been taken away to be repaired/replaced and won’t be ready for at least two weeks, so there’s no point in holding any rental up for them.
We also finished touching up the paint in our new house – which means it’s pretty much finished!! There are a few snagging bits to fix, then a temperature sensor in the bathroom and we need to re-fix the service cupboard doors, but it’s edging ever close. The lawn is growing nicely and I even started painting the rendered wall outside – starting with a coat of watered down paint first to seal the render. We still need to choose the final colour – it’s got to be some sort of cream colour but we picked up samples from B&Q at the weekend so we might end up prioritising that next weekend. Still too many jobs to choose from!
Ley Farm Cottages 