Sheds and demolition

How do! 

Goodness, it's probably been the longest hiatus of them all!

Much to say so let's crack on!

Last episode, we saw the household finally receive their planning permission! 'Twas glad tidings indeed as our heroes also moved into the house and out of the caravan.

Life is compact yet cozy in the house albeit difficult sleeping on a sofa bed! Not only is there a natural dip in the middle, but it's also very squeaky so as soon as one of us turns over the other one wakes up.

Still, it's at least 3 stars higher than the caravan, which we managed to sell.......for a profit!!!!

The rainy days have made progress slow - the trouble with living with clay soil means water has a habit of sitting in trenches, which is what has happened. The extension we took down last summer has needed part of the old foundations to be dug up which has been slow as it all keeps filling with water. 

The second extension couldn't come down until we managed to sort out a lavatory situation. The initial plan was to keep the caravan with the shower and bung a portaloo in there. But Andy didn't want to do that. He wanted a nicer shower and a proper plumbed toilet so we looked at renting or buying porta shower and toilet blocks, which were way out of our budget. 

But that gave him a nice idea.

All these portable things were just boxes on a caravan chassis. Andy had purchased a caravan chassis many years ago that he was waiting to use - and it seemed it's moment had arrived.

He wanted to build his own porta loo and shower block using....my dads shed! 

This shed you may remember had been used as our utility room when we first moved into the caravan and from there is went on to actually become a shed for a few months. Now, it was to be turned into its grandest formation yet. A bog.

Now readers; if you're anything like me, at hearing this you're probably thinking of a shed with a loo in it. And a shower head with a hole in the bottom. And that is exactly what I visualised too.

But this is Andy. Bonkers Andy who has some crazy ideas and manages to pull them off.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, our out house:

Yeah...he doesn't do things by halves!

So essentially, we have a shed on wheels, with an overground poo pipe going straight into our septic tank with running water and electric giving us  a proper power shower and flushing loo!

The inside is tastefully decorated with a nautical theme in mind, having been decked out with plasterboard and waterproofing materials, complete with a cupboard.

Nuts. Innit?

This did leave us with the issue of now not having a shed for all the tools and materials.

Enter Gumtree where after searching for weeks, Andy managed to find a shed the right size!

Unfortunately, he had to pick it up from Guildford. After work. And had to dismantle it himself. During a storm.

Although the owner lent a hand, this unfortunately resulted in the whole thing collapsing in on them both, leaving Andy with an egg on his head and calling an ambulance for the owner who now had a nasty gash on his head.

I was completely oblivious to this drama unfolding as I sat at home, drinking tea thinking "Andy's late back from work...!"

He returned with the shed and a story to tell!

That's our poo shed in the background and our shed shed in the foreground, complete with recycled front door from the house so the post man can still deliver us post!

Having the house toilet clear and not in use now meant this extension could be dismantled, which brings us up to this weekend.

The house is pretty much back to its original shape!

Our lovely neighbour, David, dropped us a photo of the house when it was under construction, back when it had a thatch roof. 

We've been comparing and dreaming of how cute it would look thatched again. But that's a dream that is too impractical to become a reality.

Finally, Andy has come round to the idea of paying someone to complete our ground works. We are already behind where we wanted to be and they can dig the trenches in a few days which would take Andy a few weeks if not months on his own. On top of that, concrete is expensive and we don't want to get it wrong so it would be better for a professional to do it.

It's going to cost us, but the cost of getting it wrong could be greater.

Hopefully by the next update, we will have foundations!

To end, some more random pictures I took today. Everyone loves pictures!