This week has gone quickly. After a crazy week at work and then away for two out of the three weekend days, most of the progress this week is down to John’s hard work – mostly deep cleaning. Once we had our first booking confirmed (now in just four days’ time!) he booked both the chimney sweep and the aga service for this week; and ordered more oil to top up the tanks. He’s given the wood burner and fireplace a proper clean and topped up the wood so it’s ready for our first guests. It’s a relief to know everything is clean and working fine.
The next job was cleaning outside – starting with the porch and soffit boards at the top of the house, which we’d neglected to do when the scaffolding was up and it would have been much easier to reach! He’s cleaned the windows both inside and out across the whole building, even removing the plant that had taken up residence in the gutter.
Then during the week he tidied up the bushes at the front of the house so the place looks a bit more welcoming and not as wild! I’m not sure we’ll get the gardens sorted for our first guests but hopefully we’ll have enough time to get the worst out before our second booking.
The electricians have been back for a day and cleared through most of their snagging list across the site. When doing our electrical safety check for the farmhouse they’d identified a couple of safety issues (such as metal lights not being earthed!) so started by replacing these. They also fixed the smoke alarms in the first floor bedrooms – now if the alarm goes off it’s almost deafening in the farmhouse! And they disconnected the underfloor heating in the conservatory which hasn’t really worked since we moved in; plus any heat that is generated disappears out through the glass! In the New Barn (the new name for our communal building) they connected up the outside lighting and powered up the remaining appliances, including the dishwasher and water heater in the games room and the water heater in the laundry, which feeds the sink and the dog shower. The building looks so pretty in the evening now when all the lights are on. And they also fixed the venting hob we have in our new house. As we have an open plan kitchen, dining area and lounge we wanted all the cooking smells to go as quickly as possible. We visited a couple who’d just finished their own self-build before we started ours, and they recommended a venting hob – and we have to agree! It’s so effective.
On Friday we had the Building Inspector come round to do the final checks and hopefully sign off the shippon (the part we’re living in). There’s just one sticking point as far as we know, which is the fire escape route out of the spare room. As it’s next to the kitchen there needs to be access out of the window in case the corridor is inaccessible. The previous Building Inspector was happy with a chest of drawers under the window to act as a stepping point, but the new one is suggesting it needs to be built into the wall, which is really frustrating since we’ve already decorated and have furniture there. Fingers crossed we can stick with what we’d been told before.
We spent Bank Holiday Monday working through our remaining job list. I was on furniture making, mirror and picture hanging, and painting duty – touching up all the areas that were looking a little tired or had been scratched while we were living there. Once we’d cleared our clothes out of the built-in wardrobes we’d realised just how faded the woodwork was, so I made a start painting them too. I also realised we’d never finished sanding the windowsill in the master bedroom – I remember giving up when it was the fourth windowsill in a row to flake and crack – but it looked so terrible there’s no way we could have rented out the farmhouse without fixing it. I’ve sanded and primed it so it’s ready for the first coat which hopefully I can squeeze in tomorrow… The house is slowly coming together.
John’s job was to empty and clean the two back rooms in the farmhouse, setting up the back one as a rental storage room for us and installing a padlock; and then setting up the other one (which has the back door in) with various outdoor items for our guests. It wasn’t a particularly nice job seeing as though we’ve been storing all sorts of things there for the last four years, and things just inevitably piled up. It’s looking much better now things are more organised and clean!
As well as getting the building ready to rent, our job list also includes writing the Welcome pack for our guests, which John has started with various guides on how to use things in the house. As with all old houses, it has all sorts of little quirks and we want our guests to be able to enjoy the house despite these! We also know it’s easier to enjoy somewhere when you know how things work – we had a specific request to include instructions for the TV in particular!
I managed to update our website to include photos of the Farmhouse and new photos of the other buildings now they’re looking quite different. The Farmhouse has a whole page so that guests can see what it’s like. It’s strange looking back at the blogs we wrote back in 2021 featuring each of the other buildings and what they looked like then. It’s amazing how quickly you forget what something looked like when you see it day-in-day-out in its new state.
Ley Farm Cottages 