This week was definitely a major milestone week as the Farmhouse went live to rent on Cottages.com – with a start date of 23rd August. We only have a few photos of the house so far as we’ve not yet furnished it and we didn’t want to show a property that people wouldn’t experience themselves. We wanted to go live early so we could learn about the booking process and make sure everything was right and worked (we’re glad we did as the description needed rewriting and we still need to tweak a couple of elements like the diary availability). But it’s exciting nonetheless and definitely feels like a weight has been partially lifted!
One of the key priorities for us this week has therefore been to start ordering various bits of furniture so we can add more photos to our listing. It’s been hard to prioritise ordering things while we’re still living there and don’t have empty space, but we’ve realised we’re running out of time to get the farmhouse furnished given delivery lead times. We made a start moving [most of] the kitchen and dining room this weekend – now we’re in a weird state where we have some things in one house and others in another – and generally we’ve found that whatever we need is in the wrong building…
Meanwhile we’ve still had a lot to do to get ready for opening. Since clearing the covered terrace at the back of the farmhouse last week, John pressure-washed the concrete floor and walls. It looks completely different now – much cleaner and not as grey and depressing. It must be the first time it’s ever been done! Our next step is to paint it so it looks more appealing – we’ll do the walls a pale colour but can’t decide whether to stain the wood so it looks a bit distinctive and has some character. Maybe we’ll see what we have time to do…
We’ve not mentioned the games room in our listing yet as we’re not sure when it’s going to be ready. Our carpenter has installed as much of the kitchenette as he can for now, and the stone mason came during the week to measure up for the work surface. Our electricians have been very busy replacing sockets and light fittings – everything is now flush and in the simple style we wanted. Annoyingly the stairs – which had the treads taken away to be repaired – were due to be installed this week but have been delayed due to an over-run at another job. It can’t be helped but it’s really frustrating as we had the flooring person booked in at the end of the week to get the floor laid, and we’ve had to postpone this as he can’t get the flooring up into the building. Hopefully he’s been able to bring work forward to fill in the gap.
Our builders have been busy outside too. Dave has been repointing various parts of the three-bed barn and the front (roadside) of the shippon. It was left in a bad state before we moved in, with ivy and jasmine growing all over it (and in through the roof) and completely destroying the mortar in some places. It was so bad that when we cut it all back last year before the build started, we could actually take some of the stones out of the wall… It’s impressive how much better it looks already.
Another of our builders Tim finished the stone wall next to the one-bed cottage – and he’s done a fantastic job. It’s been built because we’ve changed the height of the courtyard and needed to have a clear separation between the higher ground by the gate and the lower ground next to the cottage so that cars didn’t just drive off the edge. It’s also part of the visual separation required by the council for the air source heat pumps, so they can’t be seen from the courtyard. We still need to come up with a way to screen them from the gate, which is more complicated given that the courtyard level is now much higher than the level of the air source heat pumps and the outbuilding (part of the design to divert excess rainwater away from the properties). Our builder has added a wooden bed in the lower part so we can plant a hedge there – we’re planning to find an agricultural-looking trough to go on the higher part to do the same. I’m still slightly disappointed that the council won’t let us put up a planter with a trellis as we have so many jasmine cuttings ready to go that would grow so fast. Instead we’re looking at something in keeping with a farmyard but that will take longer to grow…
We’ve managed to get through a few more outdoor jobs as well. John has been super busy with the grassy areas, weeding our new back garden and then doing the first cut of the three-bed barn’s lawn before it gets out of control. It’s such a big job getting the ground ready and then seeding and watering the area to get it to germinate, that if you don’t see it through then it wastes all the effort put in before (or so I’m told anyway!!). He’s also put grass seed down in the orchard where the septic tank was diverted and in the wood where the water supply was taken from – which is slowly starting to grow.
And while I was away with work, he also cleared the weeds next to our new mega-drain. It might not look that much but he managed to fill an entire dumpy bag with weeds!! And there’s still more to go… maybe that can wait until later in the year.
We made the most of the good weather on Sunday – finishing the fascia boards on the three-bed barn and on the outbuilding for the shippon (with all the heating equipment for the one-bed), both of which John had already sanded and primed during the week. He then repainted the fascia board for the new barn, which he’d done over winter but the cold weather caused it all to flake and so needed to be redone. We also painted the first coat of the door frame in the one-bed cottage; and touched up both front doors in the shippon (the one-bed and our new house) which have cracked in places and were covered in concrete splashes and render dust. We still have one more coat to do in the one-bed before the glass window can go in – hopefully it’s dry enough on Monday evening to finish off. And we finished the first coat of paint on the rendered shippon wall, covering up the areas touched up by the renderer a couple of weeks ago.
And we managed to squeeze in the installation of both our third arch along our brick path from the farmhouse to the games room; and our runner bean frame just behind the greenhouse. We’ve trailed our vine up the third arch – when we moved in this vine had been fed into the greenhouse and taken over – and gone mouldy. So we cut it back to try and get rid of it, but it’s been so persistent in growing that we thought we’d try to train it instead. We’ve planted jasmine on the other side of the arch just in case. And while we didn’t get time to plant the runner beans (and importantly adequately protect them from slugs and mice and everything else that will eat them), the frame is in place. It should be quick enough to plant them during the week…
Ley Farm Cottages 