We've been here a year now!

... and still not broken ground! Yeah yeah, whatever.

Well actually we moved on site in February this year but I bought the barn in July 2009.

There has been some progress though; we have submitted our building regulations application and we have requested quotes from Builders.

Thinking about it one might expect that many of the good builders would be busy, especially at this time of year. So now we're waiting to receive quotes and next we'll be waiting for whoever is our chosen builder to become available to start work. More on this later, I think its in our best interest not to blog anything for the time being.

The other change is that we now have convenient vehicular access to our land and thanks to Sally we've managed to cut the weeds in our garden. We're hoping to see some sheep in the field at some point but we've decided to leave that in the hands of Sprogsy a local sheep farmer who sorted out the access for us.

In an effort to keep busy I've resorted to building chairs and longboarding, I'm slightly better at the chairs but prefer the longboarding. Sally on the other hand has taken up full time employment which seems to be a real shock to her system.

Batman II

Batman has cometh and goneth, we're relieved to say that nothing too serious is going to arise from his survey. There are some signs that the barn is being used as a roost but it may only be one bat. If the barn was being used as a nursery roost then we'd have been in a very different situation.

We've learnt that bats have different roosts for different activities day roosts for chilling out in, night roosts for dining and hanging out in (literally, boom boom tsh), nursery roosts for rearing the young and also hibernation roosts. I seem to remember Tim our architect telling us they even have a 'getting jiggy roost', but i may question his authority on this point, bats suffer enough bad press without slandering their character further.

The ecology consultant is going to report the following: -
- Barn owl box condition is satisfied as there is a vacant box nearby.
- Day bat roost to be provided within part of the roof of our small lean-to extension.
- Night time roost to be provided within garage (basically make sure they can get in and out of the building).
- Ridge tiles must not be removed until September
- Nest box for House Sparrow to be provided on site.

We're really happy with this result and hopefully the bats and the birds will be too.

This is where I saw the bat!!

Settled in

Firstly I guess I should apologise for such tardy blogging skills. We don't have internet access in our caravan hence the delay between posts.

Sunny Caravan

There's good news and kind of bad news since i last wrote back in February.

The good news is we have full planning permission, everything we have asked for has been approved by Cornwall Council so our yellow planning notice can be removed from the site access. Our architects 'Atelier 3' are very pleased with this result and naturally so are we.

Planning Notice

The kind of bad news is that we have noticed a bat in the barn and informed natural England. The obvious answer would be to forcefully evict the little critter but we want to make sure he's ok and perhaps encourage some of his buddies to come dine on our land. Apparently one bat can eat thousands of insects in one night. Cool huh?.. and it's a myth that they get tangled in one's hair, i'm not sure if that applies to everyone or just me?!

Milking equipment gone

Progress on site has been slow but we have made a few changes worth mentioning. Most of the milking equipment has been removed from inside the barn but we had to suddenly stop all work to avoid upsetting the bats, they are a protected species and i'm far too attractive to risk spending time in jail (IMHO) and too mean to pay a £5,000 fine.

We have also built a structure to house our compost loo. We call it the pyramid stage for obvious reasons.

Compost Loo

Growing Beds

The other change is the garden, we have a few herbs growing, cleared some nettles and have some wild flowers growing - its like well natural. Wayne and Amy helped us dig some veggie beds the other day. We've just added half a ton of compost which is settling before we plant out. I think Sal is pleased to be getting her hands dirty again!

The next step is deciding exactly how we want the building to work so that we can submit plans for building regs approval. This will involve decisions around how efficient we want the bulding to be in terms of water usage, heating and cooling. Doors, windows, flooring, insulation and heat sources will all need to be detailed in the plans.

The other item to deal with is obviously the bats. We have instructed an ecology consultant who seems costly but lets hope they are efficient too. The solution is likely to provide an alternative roost, our concern is over how costly this may be. An obvious option to consider is to re-house the bats in our garage, hopefully this can work. We can kinda see why they like it here...

That lovely view again

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!