Nesting

Hi folks.

It's funny isn't it that, even though I know that the next few months are going to be filled with dust mess and chaos, I found myself trying to create one little space where I felt a bit more that I was in control. Somewhere to find a little calm in the midst of the whirlwind.
Seeing as every room in the house needs to be worked on I turned my attention to the courtyard garden.
It was a bit of a dumping ground. Full of old wood, metal, rubble and stone.

I spent a bit of time contemplating where to start but in the end I began to cut and bag the timber pile in the corner filling a ton of bags. Followed by a good few runs to the tip.

Once I had a corner free I set to work. Starting out by using some of the old bricks from the house I built a platform and set up my water feature. I then just started to play around with the plants and stones. This is the end result....

 Still a long way to go  but I am please to have somewhere to sit and relax for a while. I love how our chairs look so small against the height of the walls. Over time though I am sure we'll be able to bring some green height to soften the walls.

I moved all the spare stones to the bottom of the yard for now. Ultimately we'll use them  to create raised beds to plant in and to hide some of the pots. I kept the original chimney pot from when we repaired the chimneys and now it holds a fern.

 I used the cracked lintels from when we opened the fireplaces to create some shelves and giving the cats a few hiding places too.

 Just a little whimsy. I love this little guy, a gift from my daughter.

 It's nice to see the splashes of colour from the pots and flowers that we brought up from our previous home.

 All our special roses have survived the move and are treating us to a bloom or two. The fragrence is gorgeous.

So there you have it, my oasis of calm in the midst of everything. All ready to be enjoyed when my daughter and her partner come to visit over the weekend, followed by my beautiful wife next week. I can't wait!
 Hopefully the next stage of construction should begin over the next couple of weeks which will be very exciting. I'll keep you posted.....
Take care till next time.

Here we go again.....

Hi there folks

As I am sure you will appreciate, it has been a pretty hectic time recently. We definitely seem to do things in a different order to usual.....
But, guess what, I am finally here!

 I am still rather bemused and bewildered though incredibly grateful to be here. Moving day was slightly chaotic as you can imagine. Things didn't quite go to plan but I guess that's been the story of our life so far so you just roll with it.

 Effectively our life is now packed in boxes all over the place....along with two cats who are still not quite sure whether this is a good idea or not. Though they took a little while to settle, now they are exploring away. Hopefully the next stage of work should begin in the next couple of weeks which will be exciting as things should start to change fairly rapidly.

 Though the house cannot yet be lived in I am obviously spending most of my days here so I have been painting some of the plastered walls.

 As you can imagine, working around everything is fun. I have resigned myself to the fact that for the next few months I will be moving boxes and furniture from one place to another while rooms are being finished off properly.

How do you like my comfort zone lol. Somewhere for the cats and I to be nice and lazy. For the first week the cats must have thought they had been sent to jail, spending their days shut up in here and being taken out to the yard for an hour or so each day....
Now, they have the run of more of the house and into the yard with plenty of places to explore (and hide!)

Except here, I don't want to take the chance that they will get out onto the road so this is still out of bounds to them.

I know this post is a bit all over the place, but just wanted to give you a snapshot of things at the moment. The next post will be a little more focused (says he optimistically)
Take care

The other side.

Good morning folks
Well, it has been a while I know. There is, of course, two sides to this move, and though it seems to have taken forever we are now approaching the final stretch! I am so happy to see this sign outside as you can imagine.

 That means that I am now having to pack up almost a decade and a half of our life down south! Which is what I am currently doing. Our excitement for the new chapter is tempered by remembering all the times we had here. After all, this home is where we raised our two beautiful daughters and celebrated many special times.
They say that moving is very stressful and in many ways it is but every time things get a little too much we remind ourselves of where we are moving to, and what we hope to achieve with our new simpler, more creative life. It's hard to believe that the time is almost here, it seems that we have been in limbo for so long.

Wherever I look I am surrounded by boxes and chaos....

 and empty walls too. Except for our larger pictures and a few that need a bit more care while wrapping.

I am going to miss this garden. It has been rather strange working in it recently knowing that we are going to not be here for much longer. The plants have decided to give us a lovely send off though and everything is blooming profusely.

I have gathered a few of the plants we couldn't bear to leave and these will form the beginning of our new space which will be a very different one though I am looking forward to having a blank canvas to create something special in.

So, here we our, getting ready for our new life in Eden. Though there is still a massive amount of work to do I am looking forward to really getting stuck in and cracking on.

Right, better get back to the packing.....
Take care.

Floored

Good morning folks.
Back again, work arriving.....
This was a very exciting time for me as this is for the barn, which is going to be our art studio space.
Laying the floor so we can determine where the new mezzanine floor needs to go.

Four delightful bags, one of quarry waste and three plant mix. All needing to be moved to the back of the house, happy days.....

 Time to get set up for a busy day. Luckily I drafted in re-reinforcements. Time to get cracking.

 First up was getting the quarry waste onto the floor of the barn

 Then time to fire up the "whacker plate" Once everything had been flattened nicely it was time to cover everything with sand. Followed by a layer of  heavy duty plastic to create a barrier to prevent any damp.

 Then it was time to bring in the mixer and begin to trundle the plant mix through.

 One floor taking shape.

 Two days later, we now have a floor in place in the barn. It's all very exciting isn't it?

 The pile of wood in the corner is going to be used to build the two separate internal workshops once the mezzanine floor has been installed. The front of these are going to be made up from old glass windows which I think will look amazing as well as allow light to filter in.

 Standing on the floor, from this angle it doesn't look very big does it, but that floor is over three meters deep by almost four meters wide without the side bit.

Luckily the back of the barn floor was clay rather than cobbled so I didn't feel too bad about covering it with concrete. We kept one bit of cobbled area to the front and I salvaged some of the other cobbles that we had to cover in the corner.
The smaller section of floor is where the stairs will start as well as for the sink area.

It's going to be fun cleaning this lot . Though I will probably end up re cobbling the floor which will be a fun project for later.

So, progress on the studio space is underway. I can't wait to see how it progresses.....
Take care folks.

Taking shape

Good afternoon everyone, no I haven't fallen off the planet. It's just been a period of not much to show you. After all, there is only so much of the same old mess that you could remotely be interested in I'm sure. But at last I do have a couple of progress reports lol. Some pics are not the best quality but you'll get the picture.....
So, firstly, the first "scratch coat" of plaster went on in the back bedroom.

Then, the other two bedrooms got their final plaster finish which is very exciting as they are starting to look like rooms again .

Still  a mess but at least it's taking shape.

 

Now we have two rooms plastered and looking more like rooms again, not that I have photos for some reason.
All the first stage wiring is in place both upstairs and downstairs which is another big job ticked off. It is still a long journey ahead but we are at least putting things back together again  upstairs and that's not a bad place to be at really, is it?
Enjoy your afternoon, I'll be back later with another snippit.....