Busy Weekends and bucket loads of patience...

...It's now May and frankly i'd be lying if I said i'm not fed up with nothing happening!! On the other hand I have to understand 
(no! Richard is not standing behind me twisting my arm up my back making me write this!!!) there are so many processes involved with building a house and I have to remember we only completed on the land at Easter - so officially it's only been a few weeks???!!!?!?!?!

Well at least we now have the caravan on site and have spent 3 weekends over there; It's actually surprising just how much work we've managed to find. The garden itself takes allot of mowing and there are hedges and trees which haven't been pruned or maintained for a long time.
We are also lucky to have a lovely neighbour Tina who has provided us with water and electric and the wheelbarrow.. the list goes on!
Here's a picture of the caravan with awning and yet another bonfire! (Saffi The cocker spaniel in foreground)

We have been marking out the house with neon spray paint (you know the one that completely disappears after it rains?)
I find it so very hard to visualise the spaces; for example the hall way is 6m x 3m which as a rectangle on the ground looked small!! Everyone i've mentioned this to has exclaimed "it's massive!!" so it's probably best I don't comment on room size at this stage!
Here are a few photos where we marked out the studio - this is 10m x 4m, the last photo in this section is Not erected it is just an example of what the studio will look like. We are going to have Bi-folding doors measuring 3m and two long windows, it will be clad horizontally in Larch (same as the house).
Marking out also showed that there are trees that sadly need to be removed - I can't believe how this makes me feel, We have tried every which way to not cut down the silver birch, the others are self seeders sycamore and laburnum - luckily there are allot more trees on the plot and we also intend to plant more, we have to get the balance right where the neighbouring house are; we don't want to see them and i'm sure they don't want to see us!

Well that's about all we achieved this weekend, we are still waiting to sort out the groundworks and also and more crucially we still have a number of conditions to discharge with Wychavon panning - they have now come back and asked us to use ACO systems either side of the driveway (its a long driveway!) this in itself will add considerably more cost and more labour and well more grief!! We aren't happy about it and cant understand the logic? We are having a gravel driveway which will drain naturally! anyway I will update about this as soon as we know more..

In the meantime I continue my "research" with interior design and have include a few more pictures of inspiration. As we know where the stairs are going now we can be more specific with choosing the design - this is first choice so far:

We are having black natural slate flooring (2 dogs and lots of visitors mean the cream/white option is a NO!!) but the staircase is just about spot on, the glass balustrade is also what we want but not the stainless trim on the outside - here we want to see the wood and possibly some nuts/ rivets (sorry not sure of correct terminology!

And finally here are just a few more ideas I have, I love bookcases and have 100's of books so I will NEED something like this:

 Lovely hall table:

 I already have this bedlinen tucked away in storage, not sure if it will make it to the master bedroom or guest room..

 This little gem of a chair is my inspiration for a project: I love Danish furniture and bought a lovely but very tired & old danish chair from a well known auction site last year, Im hoping to get it out of storage and a friend will reupholster it (more pictures to follow)

 and finally finally I couldn't resist this lovely photo - Im having a walk pantry and have a minor fetish for organised storage (perhaps I should get out more?!!)

Thanks for reading and I hope to have more 'concrete' news soon (LOL!!) xxxxx