Waiting again

So with phase 1 of the build completed in a couple of weeks there isn't much happening at the cottage at the moment. Having finished the opening up exercise we are now waiting for the structural report to be completed and added to the rest of the technical documents to be sent to the planners. Once this is done we then have to wait on their decision before moving onto phase 2.. If waiting was a sport we'd be turning out for England.. and the sponsorship deals and massive weekly wage could pay for the building work.. and I could drive round in a Ferrari.. why the hell isn't waiting a sport!

One (sort of) interesting thing that has happened is that we appear to have a snake infestation* in the garden as Pete discovered when moving a pile of rubbish. An Adder had made the pile of old prams and bedpans it's home and when disturbed, legged it (slithered slowly) up the nearest tree and hasn't been seen since. Like Indiana Jones, Laura has a slight phobia of snakes so having one knocking round the garden is pretty fun for me.. "look out.. snaaaaaake!!"

Anyway, here's a few pics from last Sunday of not very much.

*can you have an infestation of one?

Indiana Rowley and Hels Bells check for snakes in the kitchen.

Me, the wife and Nige (the day before he set off to solve the middle east peace crisis by riding his motorbike through the middle of it)

Ehhhh Rat Fans!

We haven't had much time to get up to the cottage lately (me swanning about pretending to work really hard and Laura actually working really hard) but I managed a quick run up there this afternoon to see how the guys were getting on. The transformation from very run down cottage to very run down building bomb site has been pretty dramatic but it's great to see things progressing. The fact that there were two vans outside I'm counting as progress!

The main focus has been on opening up ceilings, walls, footings and beams to allow the structural engineer to properly assess the scale of the nightmares.. I mean.. slight issues that the house has. It's been a pretty nasty job for Pete and his team having to remove an unbelievable amount of detritus that has built up over the years. The worst job for them has been opening up the ceilings upstairs which brought down a massive amount of rubbish thatch which had been dumped in the loft when the roof was last worked on. In amongst the thatch that fell on their heads were a healthy number of rotting rat carcasses that had found there way up there after eating some of the tasty poison left out around the house... Pretty glad we weren't there for that (actually very glad we weren't there for that).

This opening up phase should be finished tomorrow and the structural report carried out early next week. Hopefully we can soon move on to the more interesting building and demolition stage where I'm sure there will be lots more dead rat fun.

Our bedroom before. The arched beam arrangement in the centre of the room is the very, very rare cruck truss which, due to Death Watch beetle, has the same structural integrity as an Aero bar: 

 After:

 Bathroom before:

After:

 The remains of the ceiling (r) and the huge pile of dead rats with a bit of straw covering them (l):

The garden is looking lovely, I'm surprised Gardeners World haven't been in touch to find out how we've created such a master piece:

A few from the year off

Let me take you back through the mists of time, back to a time when temperatures averaged some 10C higher than today, the country was covered in verdant vegetation and man had no need for Justin Beiber. Let me take you back to.... May 2010!!

As I wasn't keeping the blog up at the time these pics of me and the Doris/Dozza/Dozzoire (mum) sorting out the front garden and stripping the ivy off the front of the house in awesome weather last year, got lost on my hard drive.

Anyway, here they are in all their slightly self indulgent glory. Come on summer, hurry up!

 

"This is as high as I'm going without a risk assessment"

  

"Mungo love gloves, Mungo love gardening"

 Back to work Dozza

 

 Doris attempts to stem the blood having cut off her right ear with the shears

  

Doris attempts the Buttercup trick with purple flowers, discovers she likes Prince

All systems go go go!!

Firstly an apology for not posting anything on here for over a year. The long and boring reason for this is that it's taken nearly the whole year to get planning permission and we didn't want to prejudice the councils decision by spouting a load of (probably libelous) nonsense on here. The short (also boring) reason is that I'm very very lazy when it comes to this sort of thing.

The big news is that we now have planning permission (with a load of pre-commencement conditions) for the renovations we want to do to Coombe Cottage and have started work opening up beams and clearing the interior to allow our architect and engineer to complete the necessary work to satisfy the planners that we are going to do this properly. It would be nice to just get cracking on the proper building work but slowly, slowly and all that.

After 15 months of owning the cottage it got to the stage where we doubted we'd ever see any work starting, so it was slightly surreal to turn up there yesterday morning to see builders vans outside and Pete and his guys already starting on the opening up. The nasty 60's kitchen was in a pile in the garden as was most of the bathroom and all of the downstairs lino... Brilliant.

Not the best pic I know but seeing white vans (and my crappy Volvo) out front is weirdly exciting.

Here's what was the kitchen and bathroom on the ground floor. This second staircase will be swapped around so it starts by the far window and the partition is being taken out to make it one room. For the time being the toilet will stay for the guys to use during the work, nice and private eh!

 

Even at this early stage some really nice features of the house lost over the years are starting to be uncovered. This is the stone flag floor of the front room that until this morning was covered in a rotting concrete screed. Presumably it was covered over because the flags were cold or uneven, either way they are an amazing feature of the house and it really is mind blowing to think they could have been laid 600 years ago.

     

and for one last pic check out just how steep and tight the stairs from our bedroom are, can't wait to tackle these after a few ales.

Completion

So we've had a rather unexpected Christmas present in the form of a tumble down house, yep we've completed on Coombe Cottage and she is officially ours!

Took some Quality Street into the estate agents to say thanks (last of the big spenders eh) and pick up the keys, or should I say key. What Coombe Cottage lacks in quantity of keys it more than makes up for in the size of the key itself. I think we may have to visit a blacksmith rather than a key cutter to get a copy, the thing is the size of a banana.. "is that your house key in your pocket or are you just incredibly pleased to see me?".

In all seriousness it is great to get things tied up before Christmas but it does mean we can't get the relevant people in (gas safety etc) to make sure it doesn't explode or float away now that it is our responsibility. The house has been there for 600 years so I reckon it might well last another week or so without our help.

After I'd picked up the KEY (I think it deserves to be written in capitals) I popped over to the cottage, checked for leaky pipes (don't think there were any - shoes were dry) and took a couple of pics of the front in the minuscule amount of snow that the West Country has ground to a halt over.

Happy Xmas all.

Survey

So I spent a really good couple of hours in the cottage today poking around in the roof and out buildings with Nick Braine, surveyor to the stars. Nick is carrying out a major survey which will then be used as the basis for the restoration plan with our architects and the planners. The survey is being done over today and monday but much to our relief Nick is already being very positive re his findings in the main house, the outbuildings are another story though and converting them really is going to be the biggest drag to the budget.

While Nick did surveyory things around the house I took the opportunity to start my photo documentation project and got some quick snapshots. The house was shrouded in mist so there was very little contrast outside, not ideal photo conditions but hey ho...

The mother-in law's bedroom (Doris in the bath, Jennie on the floor by the copper wash?)

The beer cellar/guest suite/air raid shelter

Ye Olde Public Bar?

Capability brown trousers!

Just needs a bit of plastering and it'll be foine!

We've only gone and bought it

So the first post of this infinitely dull blog about the restoration of our infinitely broke... err.. I mean.. lovely new home. Bought at auction on December the 3rd 2009 we give you... Coombe Cottage

(photo by Andrew Snaden)

Coombe Cottage is a medieval thatched stone built house thought to date from c1400. As the deeds for the property have been lost we can't be sure but various sources point to this being it's rough birthday. Once an Inn called the White Hart on what was the main route out of Bristol to the West (it's a tiny little lane that barely fits the obligatory Chelsea tractor down) it's thought to be the oldest private residence in the area.

The house was occupied by the same family for four generations before we bought it, but it's fallen into a bit of disrepair (i.e a lot) since the last member of the family to live there unfortunately passed away. At the auction we were lucky to meet quite a few of the surviving family who all seemed happy that the house had sold to people who wanted to make a home of it. There were many fond memories shared and hopefully we can keep in touch as time goes on and find out more about the house from them.

Our plan is to fully repair, renovate and make it our family home so I thought I'd try and document the carnage along the way and share it with anyone who has the spare time to read this.