Floored!

Our builders have made good progress in the Cow Shed this week, putting the final wall boards in the ensuite and installing the cistern. The thing that has made the most difference though is the flooring – which after latexing the floor, has been installed in the living area. We’ve gone for hard-wearing karndean and matched it to the colour of the beams, and the colours work pretty well! Although it’s already been covered up to avoid any damage as the work continues. 

We’ve been working through our list of things to buy as well – this week starting on the light fittings. It seems to take so much longer than we expect – finding options, measuring the drop from the pitched ceiling, checking colours, narrowing down the options, measuring the drop (again!) and finally buying them. Our electricians have agreed to modify the lights we’ve chosen for the living area to accommodate the pitched ceiling which we’re very grateful for! A couple more lights to get and then we’re on to furniture… 

It’s amazing how time just disappears at the weekend when we’re working in the Farmhouse. Our latest guests left on Friday so, with a gap between bookings, John started the changeover and we finished on Saturday. John took advantage of the extra time to deep clean the table football – it’s incredible how mucky it gets inside even though it’s mostly sealed.  

I’m starting to catch up with kitchen garden jobs – this weekend netting the gooseberries and then planting out the first seedlings into the vegetable beds. In a case of perfect timing, our neighbours have been shearing their sheep this weekend and they kindly donated a fleece which I’ve duly spread round the plants in an attempt to keep the slugs off! I also tidied up our chilli (and now aubergine) greenhouse in an attempt to fight the aphids that have descended in there – and to make space for the latest plants that I’m potting up from the main greenhouse. I’ve tried so many things to clear the aphids – from rehoming ladybirds, buying lacewing larvae, encouraging birds in, and now flypaper – something has to work eventually!