Spring in Somerset

The evidence of Spring - the tiniest little snowdrops appearing after all the cold weather at Sidbrook....

and the daffs are making an appearance at Pengotton......

When it comes to house-renovations we have also come to the end of a long autumn and winter waiting for work to start. Steve and Lee are back on site and my goodness it is AMAZING how much has been done in the last 3 weeks. Here is the house as it is now......basically less than it was. (Ian keeps wishing we knocked it all down and started again but i still like what's left of the old bits).

That big opening at the end on the left will be patio doors in the kitchen diner and the big gap above will be our bedroom. It's a bit drafty at the moment.

We feel better all round now that things are on the move - but can we keep up? I have to keep up a constant supply of detailed plans and decisions about this and that, and Ian (when he isn't working in Wales or speaking somewhere) and Roger are racing against time to get the shed finished in the field so we can move into it temporarily when we leave Wales.

At the moment it has a roof, 3 walls and a floor. Who cares about electrics and plumbing? There's always the composting loo, and the camping stove in the garden shed, not to mention my parents shower just a mile away. Having watched multiple episodes of Grand Designs it could be considered almost a 'rite of passage' (or maybe some sort of penance....) to live in a mobile home or similar while the building goes on ...and on....

At least someone's home is finished.... we might be sharing with a family of sparrows or blue tits if we're really lucky....

Back to the house, for those interested - this is the window and doorway looking towards the garden. The hole above the steel lintel will have a beam inserted into it to carry the upstairs floor....

This is the same bit of wall from the outside. You can see the old ground floor windows above the new one as we've lowered the internal floors by about a metre. The bricks will be taken out and filled with stonework.

One of the beams being delivered last Friday. Steve the builder constructed a sloping ramp out of scaffolding poles and boards, and then rolled the beams down the ramp on metal rollers. He's quite ingenious. The beams came from Whitney on Wye - a little bit of Wales in our house.

It took a lot of grunting and heaving (and a few builders bums) to get the beams off the ramp and onto the floor ready for cutting notches for the floor joists and then erecting next week. We still have no idea how they are going to get them put into position and we'll be up here in Wales when it happens so could be none the wiser. It'll be like magic.