Work has continued this week in our one bed cottage. All the insulation is now in and our carpenter has started putting in the stud wall between the bathroom, bedroom and kitchen. The plumbers and electricians are booked in for the first week of the new year which means we need to have all the bathroom bits on site on 5th January ready to install. With Christmas and New Year pretty much wiping out the two weeks beforehand, it means we need to order everything by this coming Thursday. So we re-prioritised Saturday around a trip to Easy Bathrooms in Exeter to look around their showroom and get a design for the bathroom for the one bed cottage. We were really impressed with the service and quality last time so it was an easy decision to go back there.
Since we were out already, we decided to make the most of an afternoon ‘off’ and head to Branscombe to take the pup for a walk on the beach. We timed it perfectly to catch the sunset and were treated to beautiful views of the sun reflecting on the water. So lovely to get out and enjoy our local area!
Of course – it’s not all play and no work here. We spent the morning bubble wrapping the greenhouses (as much as we could until we ran out of bubble wrap) and covered our new echium donated by a lovely family friend to protect it from the cold. We also covered our vegetables with fleece and plastic to keep the rain out – but the fleece isn’t really big enough and so it’s already blown off. Must try harder…
And once we were back at home after visiting Branscombe we had our annual planning meeting to look at occupancy patterns throughout 2025 and plan ahead for 2026. John’s done a lot of work with Cottages.com to look at our bookings, our prices and the discounts that have been applied over the last year to forecast the upcoming year and see how we can optimise our calendar. We’ve been booked most weekends in the year but have still had a few empty gaps which feel like missed opportunities – it actually feels strange not to see other cars in the yard and people enjoying the Farmhouse and games room. So we’re keen to look at anything that increases bookings to fill the empty gaps. It helps that John’s corporate career latterly involved forecasting demand and planning! And Cottages.com have been really helpful providing booking data and general trends in the market. We’ve been allocated a ‘Key Account Manager’ who John is in regular contact with – which has made a real difference in recent months.
We also received the proposal from the structural engineer to prop the lean-to in the Elizabethan cottage to make it safe and secure for the rest of the winter. The semi-permanent solution (in the warmer summer months) is to rebuild the walls – unfortunately we can’t do that yet as lime mortar needs significant protection from frost, wind and rain. We also need to get planning approval to do the work which we should be able to fast-track as it involves stabilisation work for a listed building. So in the meantime he’s suggested we get 11 new acro props in addition to the two we already have, to prop the roof to take the weight off the crumbling stone walls and stop them collapsing any further. We’re now just waiting to find out when our builders can fit the work in – ideally before the next strong storm comes through and does any more damage…
Keeping with the theme of a weekend without doing proper jobs around the house, Sunday saw our final pub hike with the villagers living in/around Stockland (the closest village if you turn right out of our house). John started organising these a couple of years ago and it’s a great opportunity to bring people together and support our local pubs as the walks involve stopping in at least two. Each time we’ve had a couple of new faces join us and it’s lovely to meet new people and find out their backgrounds. The weather this weekend has been perfect – dry, crisp and a little cold – which means beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and fantastic walking weather. We’re very lucky to live somewhere with great pubs, great walks and great company!
Ley Farm Cottages 