Ready for the off!

Boxes are packed, a van load is going down to Bude tomorrow and the final van load is due to go down on Saturday.

It's exciting but sad to say goodbye to Cyril Street West and our friends in and around the Taunton area. You are all encouraged to come and visit, especially if you like hard labour, growing / gardening, chilly caravans, surfing and the odd glass of wine / beer / cider.

We look forward to seeing you all soon, thanks so much for your help, gifts and good times.  Here's to many more!

Andy & Sal xx

The book our wicked Taunton friends gave us!

Draft Plans

Click to enlarge

These are pretty much the final plans! We've managed to keep the original features of the barn and the main extension is timber clad so it can be clearly distinguished from the original building. It's modest in size but we think it will be big enough to meet our needs. It's certainly going to seem larger than our caravan! Fingers crossed the planners will look upon our project with good favour.

Snow Stops Play

Oops our application for planning permission has been delayed slightly due to... of all things, a skiing trip!! I'm sure it's not particularly good form to delay the project with such frivolity, you might say it demonstrates a lack of focus and a larger budget than the one i've disclosed but it was a free trip and it would have been rude to turn the opportunity down. The good news is that Sally is now a skier and has mastered blue and green runs... it's red and black runs next time she assures me.

Happy Days

With that said the final draft of our building plans are due to be sent to us on Friday 5th February. As soon as we can sign them off we can apply for planning permission.

Key timeline from here: -
- Planning Application 6-8 weeks
- Building Regs Drwgs 4 weeks
- Building Regs Approval 2 weeks

If all goes to plan we could be building by late May / June.

Planning Application

Early in December we agreed our ideal layout for the property. Our architects are working to set these ideas out on paper so that we can apply for planning permission by mid January.

We have focused on being sympathetic to the original building and attempted to create a practical country property while being aware of how any changes may affect our neighbours. We think we have made improvements in each of these areas over the original approved plans. Lets hope the planners see things the same way!

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!!