Moving in date

We are planning to move into our caravan in Bude on 20th February. This will give us a chance to settle into the area, see what the worst of the winter has in store for us and wait to hear news of our planning application. Exciting but cold times ahead. Our living costs will be reduced but plenty of energy will be spent trying to keep warm.

Services

Electricity is installed, we have a temporary distribution board in the garage with two double sockets and a supply running through an old foul water drain down to the caravan. The caravan is connected and tested.

Water is also installed on site, the meter is fitted, pipes are live, caravan is connected so we just need to flush through the pipes and finish some plumbing for waste water drainage at the caravan.

Telecoms are close to being installed. BT have run a cable through our neighbours ducting so we have to extract the cable and run it to the barn for connection.

Pecker to break concrete

Electricity Cables

Digger, digging

Temporary services in an old soil pipe

Our brand new 'leccy' meter

Caravan

  After getting the caravan on site we've been working on making it a comfotable place to live. Modifications include ripping out a sideboard and replacing it with a wood burner (made on the Blackdown Hills by the Windy Smithy). We've also ripped out the dividing wall to the second room so that we have a larger kitchen area and easy access to storage.

Removing the electric fire and surround

Henry the stove from WindySmithy

Awesome Views!!

We are now proud owners of a barn and a field. Yay!

Applications have gone to South West Water and Western Power Distribution to install water and electricity.

Architects Atelier 3 have been instructed, measured up and we're due to meet them at their offices on September 25th, 2009. This is obviously the exciting bit! Need to get a mood board sorted so they can see what kind of thing we like. 

Budget planning and digging holes next to allow us to install electricity and water.

An old cesspit, convenient for the caravan

Sally cutting back the undergrowth

Park Farm

Delays

I don't think we're going to sign off today (Friday). It's a shame as we have some Champagne ready to open, the weekend would have been an ideal time to head down and celebrate.

Both Sally and I are feeling much more excited about moving to a new area and getting to work on building a new home. We are going to plan our immediate course of action over the weekend. Everything has been on hold since February waiting for the purchase to go through but now, fingers crossed, it looks like we're about to start making rapid progress.

About Park Farm

Our barn was a small part of what was formerly known as Park Farm. The farm has been divided into 4 segments, so our immediate neighbours include the farm house, the stable barn and the touring park.

The barn was most recently used as a milking parlour and still has milking equipment within it. We are not sure what it was used for before this although it has been suggested that it may have been a saw mill?

During the course of the purchase we negotiated a change to the transfer document to ensure our rights to access, install and maintain all vital services including general access and to push for changes to the restrictive covenants so that we could use the land as a small-holding.

Show Me The Money

Sent the money to my solicitor's client account today. I expect to sign the transfer document this week.

If I was to offer one piece of advice relating to solicitors I would say find a good one. Don't just go for the cheap option. You need to make sure that the transfer document gives clear rights of access to your property and the right to install and maintain essential services such as water and electricity. If you have restrictive covenants set by the seller (like we do) then the whole purchase process gets more complicated.