Groundworks commence

It seems I'm a terrible blogger! always signing off from the previous blog with " see you soon"  I cannot believe where time disappears to - its as though it rushes away with out any control. 

There is a positive here I suppose- when I get a quote for a job and they say they cant come out until September, it isn't that far away!! (I'm refering to the Electricity company, they are in fact so busy they really cannot connect us until September!)it is actually only 45 days, 6.4 weeks away

But the positive news is the groudworks have begun. Our builder Paul started just over a week ago and frankly is making great progress. We have a driveway albeit made from MOT type 1 (hardcore) its opened it up and changed the perspective hugely.

Here I am (below) in the hole that will be my studio! Richard did get carried away with the "toys" on site and yes we did consider an olympic size pool...!!

We have had 12 lorry loads of spoil taken away so far and its estimated that there will be at least 30 in total! the driver from Scotts is a real character called Pete - he informs me that each lorry load is approx. 22 tonnes!! we've had 12 lorries so far - you do the maths... (thats 264 tonnes of spoil for those without their calculator handy)

Paul hopes to dig out all the foundations and service trenches by the middle of next week and we'll then be ready for the block and beam floor.

I am busy speaking to the services and getting quotes for various things including doors and windows.

We had a visit from a local archeologist who was interested to see if there is any evidence of Mediaeval foundations - Pebworth is in the Doomsday book and it is rumoured that William Shakespeare himself belonged to a drinking club here! The Archeologist didn't think we would unearth anything although I did find the usual blue & white china pieces strew around about 4ft underground.

We have stayed over on site in the caravan for most of this week as there has been so much going on and I seem to be giving out cheques constantly!!

We've had really good weather here its been hot and sunny for the most part which is great as we don't want Somme like conditions yet - saying that its just started raining..

Paul at SIPS UK has continued on with the building regs drawings and we have approved the house and garage and have just received the studio building regs.He thinks we are still 10 weeks away from delivery which is a surprise as we felt we were closer? lets hope we can get the studio up and running to at least live in and we can take it from there.

On a much different note:

Last weekend our Tuesday Textiles group (tutor Edwina Mackinnon)were part of an exhibition at Avoncroft Arts Centre in Bromsgrove. It was a very well attended event and the standard of work was superb. I have put up some photos as a little diversion from the build..!

My mono printed cushions 

"Dump Pot Alliums" a lino cut print that I embroidered 

Fabulous work by Sian Kibblethwaite


And so thats about it for this week, we are fast approaching the weekend and of course I have a long list of jobs to do. We will continue to try and keep the remaining garden in some sort of shape and have even more trees to tackle!

Back with more news soon
Bye for now Wendi xx

Latest News

I haven't been here much lately and think perhaps I'm the worst blogger ever?!

Hopefully as things progress this month we'll have much more to share..

So I suppose the most important news is that we finally chose the building company
Sips Eco Panels based in Suffolk.
http://www.sipsecopanels.co.uk/ 
We went to see a project in Market Harborough in the early construction stage and just by chance met the owners too. It was fortuitous as we were able to question them about the company and it turns out they were really pleased and couldn't fault them - this was the final clincher!

And so we are currently working with Peter Keogh the building surveyor who is doing our Building Regs drawings
We are only on the second revision and feel we are happy with the plans! He definitely understands and translates our ideas well.

Here's a little preview of the regs so far..











We understand that delivery of the house will be approx 10 weeks once drawings are finalised! 







Richard took the day off on Friday and we received our first machines! A 2.5 tonne digger and a dumper truck - the dogs could tell something was arriving!! 

first glimpse of the delivery lorry

Heres Richard bringing the dumper truck.. 

Richard started to dig out the foundations for my studio - no prizes for guessing who like playing on all the toys!!!

I did master the art of dumper truck driving but only wish my legs were a little longer!!

Here I am in the digger...

A good weekend was had and a very productive one too! and the very very good news is that Paul our ground-worker starts on MONDAY!!!!

...and so the blogging I hope will become more interesting and I will be back sooner than you think..

bye for now
Wx

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

Gardening and general clean up..

This weekend with much better weather proved to be a great excuse to do a spot of gardening. We have spent two days cutting back very overgrown and neglected shrubs and brambles that were pretending they were trees! It was incredible the hold they had over some of the trees, and very tricky to remove - Richard and I have the scratches and irritations to prove it!
What was amazing was the space that all this was hiding, now we have a much better idea of the size of the driveway entrance and we now have a lovely corner where we think we'll plant our first Maple Tree. We are looking at Acer Griseum (The Paper Bark Maple) which has gorgeous autumn colour and striking bark. There are a couple of pics at the end of this blog of the Maple and of the area cleared and view looking up the drive towards the house (well it'll be there eventually!!!!) note the bonfire - a very successful burn up today!
We are off to look at a house tomorrow built by SIPS ECO UK http://www.sipsecopanels.co.uk/
It won't be the kind of house we are building but it will be constructed the same, we are yet to appoint our chosen building company and we are still trying to sort out ground works.

In the meantime we went to Ikea last week to have our kitchen designed - it was stressful (for me only when I found the kitchen windows interfered with my run of units and yes I did have a stroppy moment and said "well you'll just have to move the window!") we struggled with their computer programme but once Matt the manager of kitchens at Ikea Wednesbury took over .. He was brill! We haven''t decided on an Ikea kitchen but we are really impressed with what they have to offer... The pics at the end of the blog are similar to the kind of kitchen look we are after..
Well I'll be back with more progress as soon as there is any!
Bye for now

Astounded! Thrilled! and Excited...

The above words can only begin to describe the last few months, to say we have been stressed would be an understatement! BUT we have finally completed and now own the plot of land in Pebworth
*#%¥$€*#% 
I am however astounded to have only found this out yesterday (Weds 3rd April) as our solicitor "forgot" to let us know last week that we had completed!! Therefore we spent the easter bank holiday worried and wondering.... I can only go on what people say but I never seem to hear anything positive at all about solicitors? Does anyone have a positive experience about conveyancing? And then they charge an astronomical amount of money in the process! Rant over...:-)

But we are thrilled that we can now finally put our plans into action, we are just about to appoint the building contractor and we have of course changed our minds many many times but we have finally decided to use the SIPS system and not timber frame
(if anyone is interested in what SIPS is here is a link http://www.claysllp.co.uk/ )
The first thing that will happen is of course the ground works, we are waiting to hear back from the planners for the go ahead!

So exciting times ahead - Something we are going to do (this weekend) is plant a Maple Tree. This in itself is exciting choosing the right variety and position - we finally have something tangible to play with!

We have had the privilege (for the second time) to house and dog sit for friends Ineke & John in Littleheath near Bromsgrove. It is an Eco house and has many of the benefits we intend to use in our build. It's a real treat to "try before you buy" and we have spent a week scribbling down even more ideas for our house! There is also a full on textile studio as part of the house so I have been utterly in my element! I have finished projects and started new ones, dyed, sewed and printed to my hearts content - exactly the kind of thing I needed before we commence our build...

So watch this space more closely now as I will indeed be blogging our progress regularly.. Here are a few interior inspirational photos to whet the appetites

Back soon....Wx

Happy New Year!

2013.. I write this blog with practically nothing to tell!

Richard and I have just spent Christmas with the flu! We've been properly poorly and still not fully recovered. Richard in fact has to go back to work tomorrow and feels he's achieved nothing whilst he's been off. The lack of energy is totally frustrating.

But we have to think positive and continue to plan ahead and that is still what we are up to - its very difficult to try and visualise kitchen units, worktops and bathroom fittings before we even have a shell but it turns out to be essential as once the house frame is up it will be a very fast process and I wont be able to hesitate for a moment!

I have been collecting images forever, scrap booking them but now I need to start selecting real contenders.. also we have to make some savings financially so I really have to find some bargains.. Suddenly as Christmas is over it all seems rather real. We are hoping mortgage stuff will be in place asap but think we'll have to wait until after February to start the ground works to avoid "Somme" conditions! We are going to try and stay at my parents for a while longer - my ideal would be to go from here to the studio and miss out the caravan bit all together... No idea why?!!!

Here are some more images (to whet my appetite as much as yours!) to be going along with and we remain hopeful that things will soon begin and Maple Barn can get under way...

Wxx

Long time no blog...

... Its been a while and its been eventful!

We finally completed on the sale of Grange Barn on December 5th and what a week it was building up to it. 
Our buyers had a last minute wobble and pulled out of their mortgage deal - this meant we had to wait for funds to clear as they borrowed from family, this pushed our completion date back from 30th November to 5th Dec. 
Richard wasn't able to have much time off work and so the bulk of the move was left to me (And my dad who worked like a Trojan!) 
We had so much stuff to get rid of that a charity came and collected furniture and we hired a skip!!! 

This is the Barn almost empty!

We had to relocate our Koi carp - (Richards fish babies :-/ )
this involved as many (large) receptacles we could lay our hands on, plastic dustbins,tesco boxes etc. We drained the pond to an acceptable "catching" level; this initially proved quite easy but then the fish were so big they were either wedged in diagonally or bent in half. We had to rethink and in the end took just a few at a time!

The Angel Koi in a plastic dustbin!

Dad & Richard preparing for the catch!

By the Wednesday lunchtime I was so exhausted that any emotion & feelings I might have had for grange barn had evaporated. We had also spent two nights in the caravan on the drive as our furniture was now in storage in 5 locations over 3 counties!!

Our moving card from Dinah & Richard

We couldn't move onto the plot as the mortgage still hadn't come through and by now it was -5 degrees and although we had the oil filled radiator which meant the caravan was toasty the thought of showering and pipes freezing .. need I say more?!!! So we put the van onto my parents drive! We have totalled 10 nights so far in freezing temperatures in the caravan & finally conceded to move in with my parents (a whole new blog on that story!!)
So in the meantime progress on the build............. None!
Well we do have chickens on the plot (our two remaining ones Camilla & Brown hen)

and a toilet...

Oh and a post box and sign as we have obviously had to re route our post - Maple Barn doesn't technically exist until the title deeds of the land are owned but we are so very hopeful that this will be sooner rather than later as the Mortgage situation has been a nightmare - The current climate means that lenders are quite risk averse and we have to provide actual costings for everything even as far as what flooring, what taps etc etc. Complete headache!

In the meantime we are keeping positive about it ALL! and continue to plan, Richard is aching to get going with the ground works but until the valuers and underwriters are satisfied we just have to wait..

.. in the meantime we have had some casualties of the cold, sadly 2 very large Koi have died (they had NOT been drinking carling black label - that is merely for scale with my size 5 boot!!!)

So thats about all I can summon the energy to write - with Christmas looming and the stresses of the build too I'm just about resisting the urge to run off to Mexico!!! 

See ya soon......x