So what a change over the last few weeks! We were issued our Bat Licence by Natural England, which finally meant we were allowed to start work on the actual stone buildings - hurrah!
The first job was to get the rest of the concrete floors dug up which thankfully weren't as deep as we had suspected. Then lots of digging and shifting to get the levels calculated and internal wall foundation trenches dug. Today was a concrete pouring day!
Andrew and I arrived on site to find the cement mixer stuck in the mud - awkward moment. Always ready to solve a problem, the guys hitched up the digger and pulled out the 20 odd tons of mixer truck and it's full concrete load.
As the mixer couldn't then get close enough to pour straight into the trenches, the guys decided to use the dumper and some wheelbarrows to ferry the concrete from mixer to trench across the mud. We love their can-do attitude!
Last week the old and mainly rotting timbers were brought down in the 'tower' section of the barn so we can now really see the beautiful vaulted space we will have for a master bedroom. This spot has already been adopted as a desirable place to kip apparently. While pulling down a beam, two little creatures plummeted into the water below. "BATS...!!" shouted Steve, and promptly rang our ecologist who blue-lighted over to the rescue. She confirmed they were 'only' pipistrelles so, thankfully, covered by our licence. The little furry critters spent last weekend on a luxury B&B mini break at her house, before being ready to return to our waiting shiny new bat-box home. We breathed a sigh of relief that a) they were pipistrelles and b) the Bat B&B rate was covered within our existing ecology bat charges - Phew! Just now hoping there are none hiding under any of the roof tiles...
Two weeks ago the men in white suits visited and all the asbestos was removed, which feels pretty good. We had expected that the milking parlour would be where bats were most likely to be hiding, but no - all clear. They obviously got the memo about the dangers of asbestos!
The next few week's schedule is time critical with lots to do. The floors need to be levelled with a layer of hardcore, then sand, then the damp proof membrane, followed by a very thick layer of insulation. This will all be topped off with a nice level layer of poured screed to fix the base of our floor levels, ready for the underfloor heating system and then final flooring. We have to get all this done by 12th April as we have the ecologist booked that week to supervise the removal of the roof tiles. We can't do it without her and she's very busy, so that date can't change. We're keeping everything crossed that nothing interrupts the programme! Can't wait to see a solid floor. It will be a major mile stone and enable us to really see the space take shape.
We've had loads going on and loads more supplies arriving. It's great to see things progressing at pace. I can't wait to show you the next stage!
Finally, I did promise you lambs for March... Matt's sheep are in the throws of lambing right now, so not in our fields at the moment, but these are the sheep with their little ones next door to our cottage. Cute huh?!
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