Making space

Good evening folks.
Well, finally I managed to sort out my camera card so we're back in business. It has been a busy time and lots is happening . Sometimes it's hard to take a step back and see how much has been achieved when all you can see is how much is still to do and you are surrounded by chaos.
This post is all about the studio (aka the barn) which as you can appreciate, is something very close to my heart as an artist. Finally we had the opportunity to start

 This first picture is not too exciting, just making some holes in the wall.

 For these beasts. Steel support joists, new floor here we come

 Safely lifted, ready to be fixed in place.

Once safely bedding onto concrete pads and cemented in place it was time to start adding the rest of the floor with heavy timber supports.

 The finished floor has given us effectively another decent sized "room" to work in. Though it's now pretty handy as a storage place. Though the space below looks pretty low there's still a good few inches above my height so it's comfortable to stand in.

 It's definitely a different perspective from up here.

 Of course, you can't have a floor without a decent access. I don't think Susan would be too keen on climbing a ladder to get there....so here come the stairs.

 Making sure they work.....

Just busy with the return.
  So, now they are finished it makes such a difference. I can now start to work out exactly to build the workshop spaces. Well, once the space is empty again that is. The place is full of stuff moved from the house so that we have place to work inside. Some weeks I just seem to move boxes from one place to another!

We're on the final heavy push before Susan arrives in December. Obviously we are massively behind where we wanted to be at this time but we'll just have to see how far we can get. For those who don't know, because of timings not lining up my wife has had to stay down in Kent working her (very long!) notice period. So when she arrives in December, that is it, all done, no going back. I cannot wait.

Righteo, I had better get cracking again. More chaos to tame.
Take care folks.

A lot of catching up to do

Hi Folks.
Forgive the long absence, things have kind of been a bit crazy here, and to be honest, it's been a tad overwhelming at times. On top of that, I have mislaid my memory card reader so I have a load of photos on my camera, no lead and a memory card playing hide and seek! O happy days.
Still, I have found a few pics lurking on the computer to share and then I am going to be hunting so I can share more with you.
Thought I'd carry on in the bathroom lol

We thought we'd be clever and have a wall mounted tap.... plumber wasn't amused

If you remember (that far back) we had to remove the floor and ceiling. Everything finally got put back together again and we could finish insulating and preparing the room ready for plastering.

Pipework for the bath and shower in place ready for the boarding to go on

Finally, time to plaster. I always find that it is at this stage that everything starts to look better....

 It was at this stage that I decided to make life a little easier and get an electric tile cutter. Definitely a worthwhile purchase.

 Then, finally, it was time to put the bath in place. This is when you realise the challenges of working in an old property where nothing is square. Got there in the end though.

 Once the bath was securely in place it was time to start tiling. Starting with the floor. I saw these woodgrain ceramic tiles and fell in love with them. They have a myriad of different patterns to them and looked realistic

Originally, my gorgeous wife and I had a , shall we say, difference of opinion on the wall tiles and grout colour.....
I am happy to say that an agreement was reached with a minimum of blood loss lol. I didn't want a bathroom that had the look and feel of a hotel bathroom and I hate gloss tiles so when I found these slimline elongated subway tiles in a matt finish I was definitely hooked. I think they look amazing.

When it came to th sink, we decided to go slightly different. So this is a vintage cupboard we picked up from a boot fair. I gave it a lick of paint

The Joiner worked his magic on a piece of gorgeous timber and we have a bespoke place for the basin..

And I have now run out of photos, so I'll leave it there but I am happy to say that the bathroom is actually virtually complete so in the next post you will see it looking much nicer....

And, just to add to the excitement, all of the upstairs construction is finished and we even have lights and power up there too so it's all very exciting indeed.

Still lots to do but over the next few weeks the posts should be coming thick and fast...
Until then, take care

Putting it back together...

Hi there folks.

Finally I can say that a corner has been turned and we are busy putting the house back together after what has seemed to be forever spent stripping it back.

First bit of outward change was putting the new windows in the front of the house.

These are the inside bits

and the frames.

 Taking the old single glazed windows out which were pretty rotten it has to be said.

and nice new shiny ones installed letting oodles of light flood the rooms.

Over the last couple of weeks we have been concentrating upstairs, things as usual haven't gone quite according to plan, or schedule. Though I have to say that I am not as surprised by that as I would have been six months ago.

 I have to say that I was not quite aware of exactly how much work goes into a bathroom before this project started, I am now LOL

Of course, my stress levels were not helped when I arrived one morning to discover.....

The ceiling had disappeared! It was in a pretty poor state so it had to come down and additional supports put in place.
Just getting to grips with that unplanned bit of work when the floor disappeared too!

 Again, the floor had more bounce than a trampoline which, since I was planning on tiling it, was a recipe for cracked tiles very quickly. So it had to be reinforced too.

Happily, it is now all safe, secure and all put back together again. The pipework for the basin taps is all in place

As well as for the bath, and the shower too though I forgot to take a picture then.

 The whole room has been plastered too so it now looks like a proper room.
I am going to stop sharing pictures now because, excitingly, the bath has been fitted, the floor has been tiled and tomorrow we will be tiling the walls so that later in the week the plumber may just be able to fit the shower and toilet too so I should be able to actually share it looking like a proper bathroom.........

  This vintage unit is going to be transformed into part of the bathroom too and those boxes are part of the bathroom fittings.

 We also have the potential for hot water..... new cylinder installed and ready for the sparky to work his magic.

And I even have some skirting board ready to do a couple of the bedrooms....

 I am sure that you can imagine how exciting it is to begin to see our vision take shape and I am really looking forward to sharing the progress with you guys as we create our home here.
See you soon.

Country life part two......

Hi there everyone.
I keep telling myself to make a list of what I need to do, like do this blog for example, but then I get swallowed up in decision making and sweeping copious amounts of dust up so it slips my mind....
However, I have now made myself a reminder and stuck it in front of my nose so shall we see if that works?

Before we get stuck into the building site you may recall that in my previous post I referred to the Brough Agricultural show.....there is a bit of a tale to be told.

Sitting with my cousin and sister one evening, we got to talking about this upcoming show (I need to add here that there may have been a fair bit of wine involved....) and my cousin informed me that she had decided to be big and brave and enter a couple of pieces of crochet for fun. It was then decreed that, now that I am a local, I should enter something too. Through the clouds of alcohol, this seemed like a good idea and after perusing the categories I found myself investing the princely sum of £2.40 and entering a number of items into said show.

Reality struck a few days later when I woke up to the fact that I had now committed myself to create a number of items in less than a week.......and having not been to the show before I had absolutely no idea of what I was up against. After a brief panic attack I decided to treat it as a little bit of fun and dove in to making

 I put the scraps of vintage wallpaper from the renovation to good use and made a notebook with them.

 Of course, I entered one of my hand made books too

 One of my pen and ink drawings

 This was my contribution to Christmas

 and, though you can't really see clearly, Konrad (who doesn't like mice) along with a felted journal went into the needlefelting section.

After a nervous wait while judging took place and we were all locked out of the tent you could have blown me over with a feather when I discovered......

 I took first in the drawing section

 Konrad took first place too

 and third place for my journal too. I was well chuffed. Janet placed too with her crochet which was pretty awesome as well.
Needless to say, planning is now well underway for next year ....... got to maintain and improve you know. This country life is serious business you know.

 All in all it was a great deal of fun and it was lovely to see how involved everyone got .
This has been a long post so I'll hold off till tomorrow before I get you back into the dust and grime of the house....
Take care

Country life

Hi there folks.
It has been a while, so I do apologise. It has been a proper topsy turvy time to be honest with nothing much happening with the house. However, things are momentarily calm so let me bring you up to date...
After the initial chaos of moving was over it soon became apparent that me being eager to crack on did not equate to my builder being ready to do the same. So I had to reign in my enthusiasm and exercise a little patience which wasn't easy.

 Fortunately I had my sister visiting which was lovely. Then it was the summer holidays which meant Susan was able to come up. So we have been enjoying some much needed family time as both daughters managed to come along to visit. I won't bore you with too many pics but here are a couple.

We went through to York for the day and came across this immersive Van Gogh experience which was such a visual treat.

 Popped over to Low Force which is such a favourite spot for us.

Walked over to High Force too.

 Spot of creative time at Wainwath Falls...

 The a walk up to The Watercut Sculpture in Mallerstang....

Just a tiny snapshot of our summer.....
Inbetween all that, we bought a car.

Entered the Brough Agricultural show just because I had a moment of madness (but more about that experience next time.) and did a lot of planning, dreaming and buying.........

It has been a busy summer and I was blessed to be able to spend the time with those I love. As always though, all holidays draw to a close; Susan has had to go back south again while she finishes working her notice and I am getting myself back and focused.  Fortunately, work on the house is beginning in earnest again now so you can look forward to some more regular updates from now on......
Until then, take care