It has rained a bit.....

....so the site is a tad muddy now!
But Clive's managed to get the scaffolding up and is finishing off the S/W gable end to make it a bit more watertight! He finished the North bit yesterday in driving rain and is hoping to have the the South bit done by the end of today!
And here, specially for the Doris' perusal, is Clive taking a well earned break, but still looking determinedly rugged and handsome ;)


And, as a counterpoint, here's me looking scarily moobed (its the jumper, honest!) standing where my pillow will be when the bedroom is finished!

We dug down so far we hit coal!!!!

....its just waterproofing bitumen really....

First coat went on yesterday. Hopefully it'll be dry enough for a 2nd coat today. It needs doing, though, as the outside ground level is approx 1m higher than the inside floor level at the moment.

This will change once we have the external digging done, but there'll still be a ground level difference and its best to be safe.

The bitumen won't show as all that part is going to be walled in due to wall rocks that stick out and are too big to cut back - instead there'll be a shelf/cat walkway that is at the level of the floor in the living room and carries all the way along the kitchen (North) wall to the door into the extension...

And here's how the roof's progressing - Clive's hoping the weather will hold out long enough to get it finished over the next week or so.



Luckily(?) there's so much work to do inside that, if it does rain then we can always get on with walls/ceilings/floor etc etc etc....

And we've got 20 weeks left to finish it!!!! Eeeeeeek!

Dave's first post...

Well Kate is in Australia and has left me here to keep up the work on the barn......

Obviously quite a bit has happened since the last update, the most important thing being that we've got concrete floors in and Clive's started on the downstairs bedroom/shower room walls....

The view from the kitchen through the living room to the front door:


Looking the other way:


And a closer look at the bedroom/kitchen dividing wall with profiles for the windows made by Clive:

Roof update

Look at our roof now! Clive's been a busy boy - all the velux windows are in and he's started putting the tiles on!

Interior shot - the floor has been covered with hardcore in readiness for the concrete which arrives on Tuesday. Excitement! The higher level as you walk in the barn is going to be our living room, then there'll be four/five steps down to the rest of the ground floor.

The downstairs floor has been marked out for our bedroom, our ensuite and the kitchen walls. The red spraypaint is our bedroom and ensuite, the green is where the kitchen cabinets are going - its nice to finally see how much space we're going to have!

Visitors!

We've had a few visitors to the site from the UK (mostly parents!) and in this post I'm going to put pics of you all! Ha!

First up, Kate's Mum and Aunty Diana (the Dorises) having a cup of tea admiring the view from the farmhouse.......

It's been a busy old week!

Look at the roof! The felt and the insulation are on in readiness for the tiles - yippee!!

The inside has been dug out for the (sort of) spilt-level ground floor. Next step, hardcore then concrete before the lovely quarried tiles go down.

This is what we've been waiting for!! Two of the velux windows went in the roof on Friday and they look bloomin' brilliant - another 5 to go in. There's going to be a lot of light coming in.

Everyone wants a go on the Bobcat!! Clive does the proper work in the 'cat......

.......while Dave mucks about a bit before work

And Michael (D's dad) has a go too! They're all going to be so upset when it goes back....

Chimney!

Clive has built the chimney! Was a bit foggy that morning, but looks amazing, eh?

Sorry, sorry!!

OK, no excuses - we're just really slack at keeping up with this blog thingy. Oooops.

We marked out all the downstairs rooms with spray paint the other day. This is our bedroom with GIANT CAT!! Awesome.




Kate on the roof! I know I said I'd never do it, but needs must....

Clive has done a great job on the roof - all the wood is in place, ready for the tiles & veluxes!

More to come next week after the roof starts going back on! Yay!

Progress!!

Sorry it's been so long since our last post - we've been working!! More pics to come this week as Clive has finished putting all the wood on the roof and its ready for tiles and windows! Really exciting!

The roof is completely off & all the rotten old timber stacked ready for a huge bonfire on the 5th November! Looking good eh?

Pretty open to the elements.....

The interior wall being destroyed!

And its done..... just need to shift all the stone and sort it into size order for rebuilding....

Clive's arty shot of the top of the a-frames. Wouldn't catch me up that high frankly!

We've had some great ideas for this little window/cubby hole, but we've both agreed that it'll probably end up being a kitty seat. Tsk.

Interior Stuff - getting ahead of ourselves!

Oooooh, this is the wood burner we've chosen to keep us snug in the winter!




And these are the floor tiles for the whole ground floor - quarried, cut & polished right here in the Lot! They're a bit expensive, but our excuse is that they're an investment - ahem

Roof Update.......

.....it's off on one whole side - yay!!

Dave showing off the living room.
(well, it will be a living room one day)

Clive & Suzy's dog Maddie after a hard days graft....

Corblimeyguvnori'mtired........

Done a proper days graft today and no mistake (though I'm sure builder Clive & his wife Suzy would disagree - they're like the bloomin energiser bunnies. Tsk) - just over a half of the roof tiles off on one side of the barn. You can see everything inside now! Like the spiders webs - eurgh.....

Spider Monkey Clive!

Clive & Suzy on roof

Get orff moi laaaahhhnd!

Interior! Hmmm - looking good eh?

Work, work & more work....

Been clearing again today - completely shattered..... Nice to see the progress though! Don't you think its a bit churchy?? Just need to get the second floor beams down now, then next week its on to the roof! Exciting....



Clive (our builder) took off a few tiles to see what we could save so D took an arty photo - nice, huh?

Today at work.....

The side of the barn has been cleared now (a LOT of hard work - our legs were ripped to shreds by the brambles) and today we moved on to the interior - pretty dusty work! Anyway, we found a few moments to take some pics......

It's starting to look like a proper building site.....



See how tiny I look in the big doorway?? Way to look skinny Kate!



Chainsaw Dave



Boys on a break

Managed to get a lot of the floorboards removed from the "second floor" in the barn today. We're going to finish it tomorrow, then move on to removing the supports and interior wall. Yay. Anyway, proper shattered so that's all for now.......

There IS some indoor plumbing!!

We were investigating the cellars (pretty rank & NO light) and have found a shower!!!! Gawd knows who might have used it - not sure you'd feel clean afterwards......

Forgotten all about this hard work malarkey.....

Getting stuck in to the real hard work this week - been clearing all the wood/old tiles/rubble round the barn today. Haven't been this tired in years! (ok, a lot of the rubble we had to move happened to be on a trailer already, but hey!)

Dave doing "catalogue man" pose with the trailer he manfully... er.... trailed from the barn.

Kate posing with tiles which she picked up by hand and restacked by hand, er, womanfully.
(note : photo taken after wheelbarrow emptied. Tsk)

Looking better already! Just a few more bits to move..... it'll be reet!