Things are getting done - fast!

This has been a week of Getting Things Done...

First of all the barn was finished - by Tuesday! Ian and Pete, the ace fitters, worked all through the weekend and we now have a very beautiful wooden barn.

Just remember what it looked like:

And now we have this:

Gorgeous or what? We have electrics ready to be installed, and there's already a table and chairs in there for the builders to have their tea breaks. 

We did think of installing a dart board, but we'd kind of like them to concentrate on the cottage really...

And there's been more concrete - lots more concrete. The base is done for the kitchen, utility room, bathroom and music room/piggery. It still needs insulation, underfloor heating, a screed layer and a bamboo floor, but it's beginning to look like we could live in it.

There have also been footings for the oak extension - a superb digging out job, filling with concrete and block walls built. We can see ourselves sitting in front of the log burner already... 

We've been talking to the sand blaster who will start next week, and there may be a slab on the oak extension by the end of next week too. Golly!

At the rental house we have a blackboard with Things To Do on it. So much has been done this week that there is now only one entry...

That's our kind of To Do List...

Purchases of the week:  

50 bird friendly hedging plants to replant the newly moved corner on the lane.

More concrete - but we only had to pay once this week, hooray!

Hardcore, blocks, sand, cement. You know, building stuff.

A barn. We love it.

And we have an Important Date. The new oak roof is due to arrive on 20th February. That's only THREE WEEKS AWAY!!!

More walls...

This week we lost our last remaining internal wall. It was in the way of the bath, so after consultations with the architect and the engineers we were allowed (that's 'we' as in 'the builders') to take it down...

And then build it back up thinner. 

This means we can have a proper bath AND see the amazing bread oven remains in the bathroom. It will be the best dressed bathroom in Catbrook... If you can see small dots of colour on top of the bread oven lintel you might like to know they're plastic ducks. Obviously.

The beautiful long wall behind the oak extension is almost finished and is looking stunning. 

It now just needs slabs for the top, which took us off to Black Mountain Quarries to look at stone slabs. We couldn't decide between Hereford Brown and Hereford Green, so we brought one of each home. Brown it is then... While we were there we spotted some enormous pieces of slate which would do for the hearth, we had a quick chat with BOB and we bought two while we were there. The quarry is kindly going to hang on to them until we have a cutting plan... As we don't actually have the room they're going in yet, that might be a while.

And the barn is going up - we now have a wall on that too! YAY! 

The two men putting it up are (brace yourselves) sleeping in their VANS to get the maximum working daylight. And they've worked the weekend. Tonight we're taking them to the pub to warm up... we can do caring.

We also had yet another trench dug to take power up to the shed. 

Eventually the shed will have lights, sockets and even an outside socket just in case we want to put fairy lights through the trees. Well, you never know...

And we have proper drains which don't have cracks in them, and even drains for gutters and an outside tap. Talk about thinking ahead!

The pipes were put in forming a complicated lattice work (we're very glad somebody else has to work all this out), and then promptly covered over.

Neat or what? The low wall on the left will be below the oak cladding on the music room - it will be painted stone, so it's yet another stone wall.

This week we also had a visit from Phil who is going to sandblast the orange off the walls. Maybe as early as the end of this week. Or next week. This really is going along at a cracking rate.

So we had to go shopping....

We have now chosen the units for the utility room (IKEA, Hittarp doors, Karlby pretend oak worktop) and discussed wood burning stoves with Deco Heat in Tongwynlais who are brilliant. For the size of the opening (which doesn't exist yet) and the size of the room (which doesn't exist yet) we were guided towards two stoves. As the room is classed as a new build we have to have a drafty air vent next to the fire, which is not only annoying but apparently does create a draft just when you're trying to get warm and cosy. Building Regs, eh? One of the stoves has a direct air supply - no air vent needed. YAY! So that's sorted then, choice made!

Purchases of the week:

Two beautiful bits of slate (Chinese slate, but it was end of line, so they were a total bargain) for the hearth.

A sofa cover. We don't know our colour scheme yet, but we have A Vision, so we've chosen a reddish tartan sofa cover.

Concrete. Several times over... Sadly Cemex had problems with their card machine which resulted in us paying £1200 for concrete three times over. We are now waiting for a refund and, to be fair, they have apologised profusely.

An Aga. Yes, an Aga. Oil fired, two oven, claret, ordered on Friday. 

Walls...

This week there have been walls going up and walls coming down. BOB (who is doing excellent joined up thinking) decided it would be easier to build the garden retaining wall before the oak extension was in the way. Sensible. So last week we had a block work wall and now we have a partly stoned wall. That’s ‘partly stoned’ as in ‘it has stones part of the way up it’ as opposed to off its face on illicit substances… It’s going to be beautiful, if you visit us in the future you may get taken round the back of the house just to admire it.

Yes, that is snow. You know how everything looks so much better with a covering of snow? Not when it’s a wreck of a house, it doesn’t!

There were only two internal walls remaining in the cottage. On Friday the builders said it was so cold they were going to work indoors. We did point out that ‘indoors’ doesn’t really count as there is no roof, no windows and no doors….  Now there’s only one internal wall left…

and if BOB has his way then the other one will disappear too - it will make the bathroom bigger and actually allow us to have a bath that doesn’t have to be super narrow and super short. Which would be, let’s face it, a large sink.

The power has been moved away from the house and into the outside loo. It is now the best equipped outside loo in Monmouthshire. Ugliest, but best equipped.

And we have a wall going up for the Music Room/Piggery. First of all there were trenches,

followed by more cement and then BLOCKWORK! For WALLS!  That’s proper building, that is.

In the next couple of days we need to finalise the plan for the electrician. At our meeting in the greenhouse on Friday (it’s pretty much the only place with a roof…)

… the conversation went something like this: “So where is your underfloor heating control panel going to be?” “We don’t know, do we need to?” “Yes, and let me know where you want the switches for each light to be.” Gulp. We need to get thinking and find a brain between us… Things are moving so fast we’re beginning to Make A Lot Of Decisions which is exciting and is stretching our brains somewhat…

And the barn should be finished this week. I know! Soooo exciting. We had the slab laid (more cement again) this week and it does look lovely.

We’re also beginning to buy things we need, so a new category (you’ll notice that Sarah’s Tip Of The Week didn’t last long - I don’t have a lot of tips) will be Purchases Of The Week:

Purchases Of The Week (see, new category): 3 outside lights, 5 pendant lights, 1 table lamp, a coffee table we’re not sure we need but it’s gorgeous, 12.5 cubic metres of cement, a 3m length of drainage pipe. We’ve also looked at shower cubicles, tiles, bricks and slate for the hearth. We’ve talked about getting the sofa dyed or re-covered, we’ve seen the nice man from Plumbs, and we’ve found some suitable spotlights…

Scary New Year

You'll remember how we left the cottage for Christmas:

Still looks like a cottage, right?

Er, not any more. The builders, clearly rejuvenated by an excellent Christmas rest and quite a lot of turkey, returned with a vengeance on Tuesday and got cracking.

By the end of Wednesday we had this:

We find it's best to focus very, very hard on the gorgeous blue sky.

It's even more scary from the back...

We sent the photo above to our lovely friend Ed by text and he came back with "OMFG - you were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off".

We couldn't have put it better ourselves...

Just in case you thought enough damage hadn't already been done, the last remaining internal wall is also coming down

The builders tell us they know how to put it all back together. We do hope so.

There's a bit of a mess in the utility room too...

All of this stone is being passed out through the old bathroom window, piece by piece, to be ready for our new retaining wall. This is actually the First Bit Of Proper Building, and it is absolutely gorgeous!

It's a curvy wall! It's currently made of blockwork, but it's going to be faced with all that stone and it will be stunning. There will be little gaps so that we can put plants in to soften it, and the top will be a flower bed with colourful things tumbling over the top. Well, that's the plan anyway.

And there's more positive news (it has been quite a week!) - the new barn (or 'replacement agricultural building' as we put it to the planners) is on its way!  It all arrived on a truck (which luckily could get up the drive) and the posts have already been concreted in place. 

I quite like the look of it this way, but apparently the cross pieces are just holding the posts in place and will be taken off again. Shame. Although walls and a roof would be good...

The base is prepared and the concrete is due to arrive first thing on Tuesday. Which brings me to my New Best Friend - Gary at Cemex in Bristol. He is completely unflappable - on Wednesday (the first day back after Christmas for Cemex) I rang and said 'can we have 3 cubic metres for Thursday oh no hang on its going to be frosty how about today' and he got it to us within 2 hours. I am hugely impressed, so here is a very nice picture of a mini concrete lorry:

And the best news of all:  BOB (previously Best Option Builder, now Boss Of Builders) has told us he'll be finished by JUNE!  O.M.G.  We are now furiously looking at kitchens, tiles, lights, sockets, switches, landscaping, baths, taps, sinks and a myriad of Other Stuff. Decisions will need to be made.

And there's a housewarming party to plan...  August OK for everyone?

Many happy returns of the banana!

Yes, banana.

Once upon a time there was a little banana. Actually it wasn't a little banana at all, it looked just like a normal banana, so much so that when it was found in the grass near a car belonging to one of the builders, everyone thought it had fallen out of his lunchbox.

It was carefully picked up and taken to the lads, who kindly pointed out that they didn't usually eat plastic bananas. And it was indeed plastic. Very realistic solid yellow plastic.

After much hilarity (gosh what larks) it was decided that the banana was, sadly, rubbish, and that it should receive a ceremonial burial in the hardcore under the new shed.

It was duly, um, chucked into the hardcore.

It resurfaced.

It was thrown in again. 

And it was run over by a JCB...

Then everyone thought 'What if it's one of those treasure hunting games devised by the Daily Mail where you have to find the golden ticket [plastic banana] to win a million pounds?' The thought of having to dig the concrete slab up again was too much, and the banana was rescued from a fate worse than being buried under six inches of concrete.

Hooray!

The little banana (ok, it's not little, remember it's not little) was washed and dried and only had one little dent in it from the JCB. 

And then it became a Christmas ornament, hanging happily ever after...

Happy New Year to people (and bananas) everywhere!