So, we're half living at the new cottage, we've finally got heating working, this week the land is being fenced and we've been, um, clearing.
Spot the two differences:
'Sunshine' doesn't count...
Next job is to make a new gate... That one has now been patched and screwed so many times it is literally about to fall apart...
We've had a man out to look at the orange paint. The conclusion is that it's cement mixed with paint, slapped on the outside and it's holding damp into the walls. It has to go... That will mean grit-blasting, scaffolding, a couple of weeks' work and a lot of mess. And then we leave the walls to breathe for a while...
We've had a man out to look at doing the building work. He seemed to think it was all perfectly reasonable, perfectly do-able and suggested repairing the lean-to end and putting the new oak end on first, then moving into the new oak end (sort of) whilst the middle bit was renovated. Timescale? A year. A YEAR. We'd rather not go into rented, so this sounds like a sensible option.
We've had a quote for a shed and we're awaiting drawings to go to planning with. Instead of the tumbledown metal shed we'll have a sensible wooden shed with a non-leaky roof. And space for a small tractor.
And the fabulous drawings for the house from Welsh Oak have gone to planning. Well, pre-planning. We'll get a heads-up as to whether it is likely to be accepted, and away we go. We need an ecology survey, so we're speaking to an ecological surveyor...
We've sold Hazelwood to a lovely couple, we're all just waiting patiently for the legal eagles to do their stuff, although nothing is happening very quickly. Sigh. Why does it take so long??
