The Architects Plan's take shape

After much discussion we've agreed the plans with our architect that we will use to request planning permission. And here they are showing the intended external appearence and the internal floor layout. Its starting to feel like it really will happen now. It will take about 8 weeks to get planning permission providing there are now hitches. Then we just need to choose a builder to do the work. Then the fun really begins!!

The Yoga Studio - or the Shanti Shack

Starting to build up

Building the windows

Taking Shape

Taking a break

Roof on!!

A while back - well Easter weekend - we built a log cabin in the garden which was to become Deborah's yoga studio.

With a couple of willing (paid) helpers we set about turning a huge pile of wood into a 6.5m x 3.6m insulated log cabin. It was hard work at times and not without a few problems. The directions were confusing - a jumble of different sets of instructions that had to be pieced together - so it is not too surprising that a few mistakes we made. We even put the roof insulation under the floor! Not to mention a few errors on the part of the suppliers - the roof joists had champhered edges sloping the wrong way!

We had to contend with lots of rain on the first two days and a downpour to beat all downpours on Saturday night - before we had the roof on. But in the end and by end I mean 8pm on Easter Monday we'd finished the building.

It looks great.

One month on the walls have been treated and Deborah's yoga classes have taken up residence.

The students like it and so do we!!

Nearly There!!

The Finished Studio

And here's a picture of Digby

This weekend I've been mainly rotovating the garden

This weekend's big project was to turn a large area of uneven, stony, root filled ground into perfect bowling green. Okay so it will take more than a weekend to do this but you've got to start somewhere. And maybe not a bowling green but certainly somewhere we can play badminton, table tennis and football over the next few years.

The rotovator arrived Saturday lunchtime. Quite a beast it was - powered by a Honda petrol engine producing 8 horse power of raw power. A simple design it's just an engine with a drive shaft and some rotating blades but it is very effective. It's hard work pressing down and forward on the machine up and down over and over again.

The area to be rotovated is about 15 x 10 metres which basically means I must have pushed the machine about a quarter of mile each time I covered the whole area. Its very satisfying though and with Deborah raking and forking over the ground the lows and highs started to flow together and the ground quickly started to even out.

Saturday evening marked our first dinner party in our new house. A few guests, some wine and food went down a treat. I'd certainly worked up an appetite. But losing an hour with the clock change meant I didn't get much sleep that night. I woke early to go for a run and for once I laboured round.

Back in time for the architect's visit with some drawings of our house to be... well maybe. It's probably over budget but certainly grand in design.

The afternoon was spent doing more rotovating and leveling. Two more times I pushed the rotovator around the entire garden. A perfect lawn never comes easy - and, as you can see from the pictures, is still a little way off.

Next weekend we're building a yoga studio... Roll on 2011...

Welcome to our New House

The view from the garden toward the North Downs - just visable between the trees
the patio!

the patio with sun setting behind house

Views across the garden

The front garden

After 17 years in the same house, 2010 marked the start of a new era when we moved about 3/4 of a mile to our new house. In fact the house is not that new and not strictly a house. Built in the 1920s the house is a bungalow that is ripe for re-development. A project as the estate agent called it.

This blog will follow the trials and tribulations as we attempt to change this rather modest detached bungalow into a fabulous family house.

So what have we done so far? Well the first task was to clean, clean clean. Unfortuntaly the previous occupant left the house rather dirty so the first two weeks were spent scrubbing and cleaning every surface. At first I asked myself "what have we done" but with this behind us we've settled in quite well and are now busy planning what we are going to do. We've appointed an architect and as we speak he is drawing up plans for us to view before submitting to the planing process. We are hoping to add a new first floor with three bedrooms and family bathroom and hopefully an en-suite for us. We want to open up the downstairs and have a large family living space which will open out onto the garden - which I know will be fab (the advantage of being married to a gardener). Hopefully the budget will give us what we want.

The planning process takes time but doing work in the garden started immediately. First off we needed to fence the garden to keep our small terrier from escaping. We've enlarged the driveway so we can park both our cars and get in and out without shuffling the cars around. We've demolished the old shed, dug up trees and laid a large base for a log cabin that will be amoungst other things, a yoga studio.

The lawns are uneven and in bad condition so next weekend we plan to hire a rotavator to turn over the top surface, re-level the ground and then re-seed.

Until the next time here are some pictures to give you an idea about what we've taken on - and what we've done.