Chimney and sewage

We actually did some work this weekend!

We've been talking about the top of the conical roof for a while and what we want to do. The old picture I posted a couple of posts back shows a cupola on top of the roof. We want to put another one back up with a weather vane on the top, as a homage to the original. Basically, something that looks like this:

But instead of the vent looking things, were going to have glass so it will let light into the roof from above. And, to add an addition twist, every other pane will be stained glass so we will have some nice reflections inside the conical roof too. 

We've heard there's a carpenter in the village, so Andy is going to seek him out and have a chat about our requirements. 

The stained glass will be made by moi and any of my friends who fancy a crack at a bit of stained glass making. Hint hint ;-)

We've been wanting to take the wood burner out for a while too so Andy said we'd do that which would involve opening up the top of the roof too.

This involved a ladder against the roof with me on the bottom for...er...weight...and Andy up the top pulling off bits of lead and wood.

After disturbing many giant moths, we finally got the burner flue out and opened up the top

The coal and wood burner came out pretty easily and now we have a nice space where it once was. 

We're not keeping the woodburner so have put it on gumtree for free

It'll do someone for a workshop or shed.

According to the iphone weather, it's not due to rain for at least a week. But, were going to out up a bit if wood across the top and some tarpaulin over it to give it a peak so if it rains, water will just run off. 

Unfortunately, Andy's tarpaulin is in his racing truck which is in storage. So until we can get it, we've made a botch job fix by duct taping bin bags together to make a giant bin bag tarpaulin look-a-like. 

Anyone who sees it will definitely think we're cowboys :-)

Edit: forgot to mention our waste pipe issues!

So, our bathroom has been smelling worse and worse so we decided to open the manhole and take a look on Saturday morning.

After some rodding, we removed the blockage which seemed to be roots. Obviously this is not good as this suggests there's a crack or something in the pipes. Now we need to dip into our diminishing budget to get a bloke out with a camera on a stick to tell us where the issue is. Then we need to decide if we dig up the garden and replace the pipe ourselves, or pay for one of those concrete "sock" things. 

Also, we have roots climbing into our 3rd chamber in the septic tank, which means the water isn't soaking away. Again, that's going to involve digging to replace the pipes and probably chopping that tree down. The thing is, the septic tank and tree in question aren't on our land. We knew there'd be issues along the way with the trees and roots, and there'll probably be a lot more to come. C'est la vie. Still love it here!

We're alive!

Well hello!

We have Internet! Huzzah! I can now resume updating the blog you'll all be pleased to know :-)

Where to start....

We had our survey done and have a nice set of measurements that mean bugger all to me but are obviously very interesting to an architect and planning officer. 

Unfortunately, our architect has now gone on holiday for 3 weeks so the wait for drawings continues.

With the lovely weather we've been having, we haven't really been doing much on the inside.

I wish I could say we've made significant progress on the outside...but we haven't! A bit of weeding and levelling really....

The tractor is in for a service and its only since we haven't had it we've realised how useful it's been. Digging up stumps by hand is back breaking!

We has planned to crack on with the main part, pending planning and insulate, re-plaster and install our eBay kitchen and hot water system. But, the more we've talked, the more we've decided to hang fire on installing the kitchen and hot water system as we want to see the architects ideas. He may come up with some genius plans that would mean the kitchen is somewhere else entirely and we would have wasted time, money and energy if we went steaming ahead. 

We aren't in a rush.

Even if we had plans ready to submit to planning today, they would take 3 months to approve and then winter is pretty much here and we'd be mental to try and build then! 

Realistically, we'd be looking to start demolition in the winter and start building in the spring and then hopefully be done around this time next year.

We thought we wanted to make the extensions out of brick, but we keep thinking about other methods. We are very indecisive, but we can afford to be right up until planning submission.

Caravan living is still ok. I've cooked some pretty good meals! Even with the rubbish oven. We have a shower connected and a box connected that gives us instant hot showers and we have out sky dish connected and working!

The epic thunderstorm we had the other day was a bit disconcerting...and rain on a caravan roof = no sleep!

But basically, we're good as we are and comfy as we are....which as you can see is dangerous because we're not doing much work!

Finally, here is a picture of what the place looked like when we came to view it in November:

  and now:

It's pretty scary to think that the house we bought 3 months ago is probably worth significantly less today....!