Official approval!

Yep, we have official approval from Building Control and have been 'signed off'!  We arranged the visit for yesterday when our man should have been back from his holiday, but their office rang in the morning to say he was not back and so the chap we had last week would be coming.  I guess the good side of that is that a different inspector may find new things for us to do, but this one just had to go through last week's list and tick things off.  Somehow it didn't feel like quite the wonderous moment we were expecting and we had to think about it a bit to realise that he had actually paid us some compliments.

Bob had put up a temporary handrail because the blacksmith one would take too long.  The inspector wasn't really happy with this because it wasn't continuous and someone might fall down the stairs while they move their hand onto the next bit.  We said it was only temporary and we had the blacksmith coming later in the day to measure up for the proper handrail and after a lot of umming and ahhing he said he'd lower his standards for us and pass it, although he wouldn't usually, because he realises we have it in hand and will do a proper job.  It takes a bit of thinking about, but I think that is actually a compliment.  There were a couple of other things in the same vein, but generally he was happy enough to pass it.

The temporary door between the kitchen and the
hall - it looks really weird and makes the opening
look much narrower.

In the end he shook our hands and said we'd done a smashing job, well done - so, from a council official I think we should be pleased enough with that.  And so, we are free . . . . free from official intervention and inspection, wooh-hooh!  In the age-old tradition, we had a celebratory beer and curry last night of course.

While Bob was doing doors I did some pointing-in around the stairs and the doorframes - that's what the pink stuff is everywhere.  It should all look much better once it's limewashed and blends in to the rest of the wall.

So, the blacksmith came and we have a plan for the handrail.  It'll be quite small and plain and will start at the top with a leaf-shaped piece which screws onto the newel post on our bedroom side.  It will then curl round and down the newel post (at regulation height of 900mm from stairs) in an eliptical helix.  Then down the stairs, fixing onto the oak post with a small bracket which ends with the same leaf shape, and then it will curl round the wall at the end and finish with another leaf shape fixing.

All the baby birds are growing up rapidly.  The baby woodpeckers have mastered the peanut feeder and are quite proficient on it now as are the baby jays - all regular visitors.  The seed feeder on the kitchen window is like Paddy's Market with constant to-ing and fro-ing.  Yesterday a pair of goldfinches dominated it and between them just about emptied it.  I don't think they ate much, just emptied it!  The chickens were in heaven of course with all those sunflower seeds on the floor!

We have a chaffinch who definitely thinks he should be allowed in.  He has taken to sitting on the little ledge outside the utility room 'draft hole' window and tapping on the glass every morning at about 6am and then he sits there all morning.  He then comes round to the other side of the house and either sits on the window sill and taps or sits on the window bar half way up looking in!  I assume it's the same one.  A couple of days ago, we had a very smart male bullfinch doing the same thing.  The mother woodpecker has started taking a seed from the feeder on the window and she then clings onto the wall, lodges the seed in a crevice and taps away at it to get the husk off to feed to the babies . . . . . it's really quite noisy here with all these birds tapping away!

The other day Bob had a little helper in the form of a baby robin who came into the lounge to inspect the doorframe he was working on.  He then flew into the end bedroom and perched on our 'chandelier' while he had a good look around.  This picture is a little fuzzy, but believe me, baby robins are very sweet!  The same little chap was trying to learn how to use the peanut feeder this morning and quite persistent he was too - no-one's told him yet that robins don't usually use those sort of bird feeders!

Well, it's the first day of summer and we have the woodburner blazing away, it's been pouring down for ever and it's almost dark at 5.30pm!  I know we've now had the shortest night, but I didn't think we'd notice the evenings drawing in quite so dramatically!  It's a good job we did our log chopping and weed pulling yesterday!


How filippin' posh are we?!

Oh, we are now sooo posh!  We have lights in all our rooms and working sockets too.  It felt so strange after the electrician had been on Monday to finally coil up all the extension leads and bulbs on the ends of cables.  We have never been here without trailing cables before.  The electrician actually seemed quite sad to be saying goodbye (after all these years!) and said we could do his barn up when he gets one (which is quite a compliment).  He seemed quite pleased when we said there was still the workshop to do and we were hoping he'd come back to do that.



This is one of the lounge lights.  They are made by an old company who used to make gas lights and have now moved on to electric versions modelled on their old styles.  Of course they will have glass bell-shaped shades and possibly different bulbs, but there's no point in getting too posh all at once - we do still have building work to do in there!  Just below this light (although it's not easy to see here) was where the wrens nested last year.  I did have thoughts of leaving the nest, which really was a work of art, and somehow covering it with glass or perspex, but realistically, it's probably not a brilliant idea as it would probably rot or something.  So last week we sadly pulled the nest out which was a shame.  I did manage to get a photo of the babies peeping out of the nest, so we are going to print that and hang it near where the nest was to remind us of our little visitors.  As you can imagine I had to nip in and take a pic really quickly before the babies ducked down out of sight, so it wasn't the best photo, but Ben kindly did a bit of work in photoshop or something to take away the glare form the stone and make everything a bit clearer so it should be fine.  Also in the above phot you can see we have put one small piece of plasterboard up on the lounge ceiling.  This is because a smoke detector has to be wired in that corner as there's a bedroom next to it so it was easier to put the plasterboard up before the electrician came.


And here's our chandalier in the end bedroom (ex-padded cell)!
This also has clear glass enclosed shades which are safely
packed away.  We're really quite pleased with how it looks
hanging from the new beam.  We bought this light fixture what
seems like years ago, so it is really exciting to finally see it
in place.  Makes my fingers itch to get decorating!



And here's the batloft and that wall I spent two days
pointing and smoothing off.  We quite fancy painting this
wall quite a dark colour and making this bit into a cosy squashy
den eventually.

So, with the electrician's visit out of the way, that's another deadline met and past.  Our next major deadline is Building Control sign-off which we have to have within three months.  Since moving here we have had self-build site insurance which covers equipment hire, contractors on site and quite a lot of public liability and is, therefore, quite expensive.  As of next week we have more traditional buildings insurance.  I assume that you usually have to have your Building Regulations sign off certificate for normal insurance, but this company will cover you so long as you get signed off within three months.  So, that's our next aim.  For that we need the electrician's certificate which he is now doing, that energy rating certificate I told you about which is in hand, a stench pipe which we've almost done (just need to get a couple of pieces of cast iron downpipe to finish that) and, of course, some stairs.  That will no doubt please a lot of people no end - it seems to be the thing that bugs the most people, except us!  Mum will definitely be excited when the stairs are in because she will be able to see our upstairs for the first time (dodgy knees don't lend themselves to climbing ladders really) and lots of other people seem really concerned that we don't have stairs.  As I said, it doesn't bother us really - we're quite used to our ladder.  Once they're done, the building inspector will have to come round and check all sorts of things - oohh it'll be like taking an exam!

Non-building things we've done include starting to thin out some trees across the path which make that corner quite dark and damp and spoil the view.  Bill and his new lady friend came round for dinner - she seemed very nice and we had a really good evening.  We were a bit concerned that Maggie may have popped round as we know she is really curious to find out what the new lady is like - now that could have got awkward,  but we got away with it!  We just got quizzed about her the next time we saw Maggie, but told her in no uncertain terms we weren't going to discuss it.  It's quite difficult trying to juggle staying friends with both of them!  We've also had the woodburner flue swept, and not before time apparently.  The other thing we need for Building Control is the commissioning certificate for the woodburner which the plumber was supposed to sort out but hadn't.  So the chap came today to do his smoke and draw test.  When he lit the bit of newspaper the smoke just billowed out, filled the room and set all the smoke detectors off!  That's not supposed to happen apparently.  So he checked the flue and pulled out loads of tarrey clinker and then swept out a tonne of soot!  Oops.  Apparently having the backboiler means the tar builds up more than normal (the water cools things and that's when tar forms) and so we should sweep the flue twice a year to include the middle of winter, but nobody told us that.  It is, apparently in the maintenance manual which comes with the woodburner . . . . we don't have one!  Once he'd swept the flue though it performed beautifully and the certificate will be in the post.  I was at work while this happened and when I got home I chucked a log on to up the temperaature to cook the potatoes in the oven and the temperature shot up past the top of the scale . . . so, it's made a difference.  Bill came round for a chat just as we were about to have tea, so by the time we ate the potatoes were very, very crispy - they actually didn't have much potato left in the middle!

Oh, I still have a job after next week . . . . until 28 April!  It's really quite unbelievable, but apparently they don't have next year's budget yet.  One of my temporary colleagues (there are three of us) resigned today which has them on their toes a bit! 

Isn't it nice now the evenings are lighter?  All the birds are in full voice and very busy doing what they do.  We were woken this morning by pigeons doing an awful lot of flappy stuff in the trees - guess there'll be baby pigeons around before too long!  We usually lie in bed in the morning listening to the greater spotted woodpeckers hammering away in a nearby tree and this morning a green woodpecker was cackling away close by.  Bob has heard the first chiff chaff of the season and the nuthatches have, once again, been showing interest in the old woodpecker hole in the dead beech tree.  Everyone's busy, busy, busy.

and a Happy New Year to everyone!

Yes, Happy New Year.  Hope you all had a good time and the going back to work/school/etc isn't too bad.  We had a quiet, but good one.  Laura went back to Scotland on Friday - they make quite a thing of New Year at Samye Ling with a huge bonfire and all the one thousand plus butterlamps lit, so she was quite keen to be there for that.  So we were back to just we two on Saturday.  I worked in the morning, then Phil and Ann called in for a cuppa with their son in the afternoon and we followed them out for a quick once around the 'block' for a breath of fresh air before coming back to light the fire and read for a bit.  Somehow, when we 'read' we always end up falling asleep - well we had been up since 6am for me to go to work and we had a late night ahead of us!  We made Beef Wellington with fillet steak for dinner which was just scrummy.  Bob went outside just before midnight with a log, money and bread to throw in as the first things to cross the threshold in the New Year for luck (it's a Northern thing I think).  Then a bit later one of the neighbours called round bearing a piece of coal which was nice.  She stayed for a while and we finally went to bed at about 2am.  All very nice although I will admit to a bit of a fuzzy head in the morning . . . . can't think why?!!  And so we can now say that we moved into our cottage last year - how strange!

On Friday we put the first door-sized window in the lounge.



The glass is, of course, made to measure and is a fairly snug
fit, but it has to have a slight gap all the way around to allow for
a bit of movement in the wooden frame.  Once it's in place you put
wooden beading on the inside to secure it and hold that in place with
panel pins.  It's a bit nerve wracking hammering the pins in so close
to the glass I can tell you!  I'm pushing on the beading to make sure
the silicone we'd put round the frame seals the glass in place.



And here we are looking out of our new window.
The old door frame is still there.  The idea is that
the glass is set back and so is unobtrusive (maybe
when it's mucky and doesn't reflect, that'll be the case)
and we are supposed to hang wooden doors that are
hooked open to maintain the look of the barn it used to be.
Whether we'll ever get round to that last bit, I don't know.



And so we survey our work.  Handy to have Laura here to take
photos of both of us together!  These window thingies'll take a
bit of getting used to, it looks a bit weird.  From the outside, with the light on
in the 'lounge', it's starting to look like some sort of barn conversion!
It certainly confused the chickens when they went in the other door, but
realised they couldn't get out of this one anymore!

The blackbird has been back pecking and flapping at the oak room window.  I think it must have been away visiting relatives for Christmas because I don't think it came while Laura was here.  The bird feeders are now very busy and seem to get empty rather quickly!  That may be because the woodpeckers and jay have found them.  The jay was quite funny when it first found them - it sat on a small branch next to the feeder and then tried pecking at it from there.  Of course, as you can imagine, the feeder just swings away when it does that.  The jay actually lost its balance once and swung down under the branch with one particularly wild lurch at the feeder!  One day we had a herd of redpolls in the birch trees outside the kitchen window, there were loads of them and were thoroughly enjoying the birch seeds.  I don't think they're that rare, but it's the first time we've seen them and I read in the paper the next day that their numbers had declined dramatically in the last couple of years, so I guess we were quite priviledged.  Once again, we have a robin who likes to think of himself as a chicken and hang out with our girls (they don't seem to mind this honorary member of their flock).  Elvis went through a bit of a wambly patch over Christmas and we seriously thought she might not make New Year, but she seems to have perked up.  She's definitely getting old though and needs her regular naps while the younger two go exploring and running around - she's not laying eggs anymore again, I think those few a while back were just a last fling!

Rabbit wars!

Look, we have a new work bench!  Quite useful really.  We have plugged the washer in (it says 'Hello' on the digital display when you turn it on), just to see what it can do.  Blimey they've got complicated all of a sudden.  You can choose the temperature, spin speed, etc, etc.  I used to just run our old washing machine on the same programme for just about everything.  Mind you, I just used to put everything in the oven at Gas Mark 6 too.  I think Laura and Ben grew up thinking that those were the only settings you could have!  No doubt once we've palyed with this machine a few times we'll find a new standard setting.  It is one of the larger sizes (8kg), but it looks absolutely tiny inside - I've got used to the 35kg machine we use at the launderette . . . . . . must remember not to put a whole weeks worth in in one go!

I was using the washing machine as a work bench while I tiled the surround for the sink in the utility room.  Mmmm, looking at that picture, there's not actually much surround at all is there?  Bob has been building the carcass for the cupboard underneath and that is now put together and has had one coat of paint (it's only plywood, so we can't leave it as bare wood).  Tommorrow we will try it in place and put some battens on the wall to support the bit over the washing machine and then put another coat of paint on it.  We could also attach the sink to the top so that when the paint's dry it can all just pop into place.  That will then be ready for the plumber to sort out the pipes underneath.  The sycamore work tops around the kitchen sink have had their two coats of 'Seal & Finish', so they should be heat, grease and waterproof after tomorrow.  I caught a glimpse of that corner of the kitchen through the hole for the stairs this afternoon and it looked just lovely (I thought) - very cottagey.  I went to get the tiles for the splashback this morning - 20% off, so that was good timing and while I was there I noticed that they also had 25% off Little Green Paint Company's mixer paints (English Heritage approved colours, no less - how posh are we?!!).  They have a colour - soft, pale, olive green - that would look right on the cupboard doors in the utility so that was good too (so long as they still have it when we go back).

WARNING:  The next paragraph contains tales of a violent nature, please don't read it if you are squeamish

The rabbit wars have started.  We have put up with rabbits eating things in the garden for the last two years.  We've put chicken wire around the flower bed which looks lovely as you can imagine.  We've put chicken wire around the hedge and the vegetable plot.  We've clapped our hands at them to scare them off, made allowances for the baby rabbit we found in the flower bed, we even moved their babies carefully to persuade them to live elsewhere.  But, enough is enough and they are really taking the mickey now.  They live inside the wire in the flower bed, they've eaten the tops off all the leeks (they've never even liked them before) and have completely stripped the flowers off a 15 foot length of planting.  Yesterday we decided that the baby rabbit that used to run straight through the small holes in the chicken wire must now be too big to fit through and so it would be safe to plant some veg in the gaps in the flower border.  As we looked at one such gap a rabbit ambled into it, saw us and went and hid under the holly bush.  That was the last straw and Bob got his air rifle and made short work of it.  I know, I know, they're cute, but we have a constant battle with them and they don't seem to understand the rules!  Anyway, it didn't look as though there was much meat on it so I took it up to the clearing at the edge of the quarry across the lane and left it for the buzzards.  An hour later it had gone (and I'm pretty sure it hadn't made a miraculous recovery) so last night I think the buzzard chicks had a tasty rabbit supper.  Unfortunately, I found another blessed rabbit in the flower patch today . . . . oh, why don't they stick to the woods, there's loads of lush greenery?!  hold on, maybe that rabbit did make a miraculous recovery and has moved back in!

UNWARNING:  OK, you can open your eyes now, the violence is over.

We have other wild life which is not such a nuisance.  The family of woodpeckers are around most of the time and the kids do an awful lot of squabbling.  There were three of them on the top of the telegraph pole yesterday making a huge amount of noise.  I think that was two young and their mum - young have a red cap, adult females don't have any red on their heads and adult males have a red patch at the back of their neck.  The young nuthatches have definitely worked out how to get peanuts out of the feeders and we regularly have three around.  You can't tell the difference between the young and the adults except that the young are not quite so 'busy' and spend far more time just looking around.  We had a young jay on the feeder a couple of days ago - they just look huge hanging off the nuts.  Again, the young just look like the adults, but act differently.  Once this once got a peanut out, it didn't really know what to do with it so it went and spent five minutes eating sand from the pile in front of the caravan!  Most mornings we are woken at about 5.30am by the bird olympics on the caravan roof - I think a crow or raven likes the sound of its feet running the length of the van.  This morning though I don't know what was on the roof - sounded like a grizzly bear bumbling around!  It sounded big enough for Bob to get up to have a look, but whatever it was had gone.  A mystery, but I hope it doesn't wake us in the same way tomorrow!

Everything's broken!

Not having much luck at the moment.  All week we have had real trouble connecting to the internet, the camera has given up the ghost (just too much dust and muck has finally got to it I think) and the bandsaw is broken!  Bob phoned Orange today who said that some maintenance work they had been doing just might have affected our connection, they talked him through a different way to connect which I think resets the modem or something.  This meant we could get in, but I'm not sure if that is it sorted or not - we'll see, but I thought I'd better grab this opportunity for a quick update while I can.  No more photos for a bit I'm afraid!  And then the bandsaw threw a wobbly - literally.  So, we have bearings and belts and stuff on order to see if we can sort it out.  Just when we need it for cutting window sills, oak lintels and so on.

On the positive side, the plumber came and got everything done in one afternoon.  So first fix is complete and the system has been pressure tested.  You cap off all the pipes then pump water through the system.  That can be done with some sort of hand pump or, if mains pressure is good enough you can use a hose pipe.  Our pressure is 6 bar which is quite good I think, so hose pipe it was.  Bob was on tap duty, switching on and off when instructed, the plumber did something with a manifold and I was in the house watching all the pipes.  Suddenly water started pouring out upstairs, really pouring out!  Once everything was off, the plumber realised he'd forgotten to cap one of the pipes . . . .that explains it then!  Easily fixed and then we tried again, no dramas this time, phew.  You then leave the system pressurised for a while and then check all the joints for hissing, dripping or spurting.  Reminds me of my childhood which was mostly spent in awkward positions checking copper pipe joints for leaks as Dad tested his latest addition to the plumbing system of our house - see this is all in my blood!  We are now ready to get on with a whole lot of plasterboarding and so ordered a delivery for Monday.  Then it will really start to look different.  It will be very strange and probably a bit annoying not to have loads of little shelves in the form of the studwork for putting tape measures, pencils, mugs, radio, etc on.  Not being able to see through walls will also be time-consuming - we'll have to walk INTO rooms to look for things!

Yesterday we did lots of bits and pieces, the last bits of studwork, last bits of insulation around the re-routed pipes, a mock-oak-post in the bedroom to hide some cables and wires.  When I say mock, it is real oak, but the post doesn't actually do anything structurally.  Then today we have been doing more domestic things - usual Sainsbury's/launderette trip and lunch out for a treat.  We are off visiting for the weekend - calling at Laura's, then to Mum and Dad's for  couple of nights and then to Bob's Dad's on Sunday and finally a cuppa with Ben and Lucy - so we have also had to do stuff to make ourselves presentable in the outside world.  Boots are now polished, car has been cleaned, jeans washed and so on. 

As I can't take any photos at the moment, here's a couple from last year.  We had so many babies to keep an eye on last year - it was quite a responsibility.  Blue tits nested in the wall in the chicken run and when they fledged two of them just sat on the path tweeting.  They were just soooo cute!  The parents eventually collected one, but the other was left by itself.  We kept an eye on it from a distance, but eventually had to get on so we put it in the chicken run and shut the door so the chickens (or any other predator) couldn't get it.  The blue tits can obviously get in and out through the wire, so the parents wouldn't have any trouble.  Later in the day, it was still there and not looking too perky.  We had to go out, so had to put the chickens in the run.  So I made a 'nest' from moss, put the baby in it and put it on the roof of the run where the parents could find it.  When we got back it had 'gone to sleep'!  Aaah, it was very sad.  We also had a wrens nest in the top of the wriggly barn and actually watched the babies fledge.  What a way to waste a whole afternoon!  They took ages deciding whether to come out or not, getting right out and scurrying back in.  Now, if you think baby blue tits are cute, you should see baby wrens - just little brown balls of fluff.  This one sat right next to me while I was hanging the washing out and then waited patiently while I got the camera.  We also had three robins nests - I think it was actually the same pair.  The first nest was really low down in the grass bank the other side of the lane - doomed from the start I think.  One baby had hatched and there were a couple of eggs when the nest got pulled out and destroyed by something.  The parents then got busy on a much more sensible site in the top of the wriggly barn (opposite end to the wrens) and they all fledged when we weren't looking.  Without a pause, the adults started on the next nest and we saw the newly fledged chicks in the hedge one evening.  The nuthatches used last year's woodpecker nest hole in the half dead beech tree behind the caravan and brought their babies to show us and Laura was treated to a real show with them hopping about on the fence in the wren picture and along the hedge behind the caravan.  The young greater spotted woodpeckers came to the peanuts a few times and the young buzzards drove us mad with their incessant seagull-like calling all day.  I have already told you about the baby tawny owl that entertained us one evening with its bobbing and funny calls.

The reason for all the talk of baby birds is that it is obviously on the minds of the birds around here.  They all have their very smartest outfits on, the robins and nuthatches are actually hanging around in pairs instead of chasing each other off and they've all started singing their little hearts out.  It's quite noisy sometimes!  Earlier in the year, the electrician was here helping us move the electric box before we built the extension and he said 'It's like being in a flippin' jungle round here!'.