Almost at the finishing line

November 5^th 2012 – May 30^th 2014

19 months from start to finish (basically)

Well it’s been a long time since I last wrote a blog entry.  Apologies to all you fans who tell me that you have been disappointed by the silence.  You are a very nice lot to be so appreciative of what I managed to do for the first few months, and so understanding that the blog had to take second place for this last, and quite lengthy stage of ‘finishing off’.

The truth is, I don’t like taking photos of something that isn’t really showing things at their best – and during all this work, neither the interior nor the exterior has looked anything but serious work in progress, and as such more ‘mess’ than ‘finished article’. On some occasions I wondered if it would ever get beyond 'mess' but amazingly it is now really feeling like the home we had imagined.  We are both verry happy with how it has turned out, but neither of us would EVER do it again.  The fortunate thing is we won't have to - it's what we want, and we are here to stay.

So the silence hasn’t been due to us having been slacking, far from it, the detailing and consideration of how all the interior fit out should be has continued with a similar intensity. 

I think it would be fair to say that most of the choices, in terms of material and colour, and how things should look was my domain, whilst how things were actually built to achieve the desired effect and the construction has been done by Max, with our carpenters coming in to help on occasional days when special tools have been required.  Most of it the interior was complete by the end of March.   Since then, when the weather has allowed us to, we have been finalising the exterior : -  the finishing touches to the external skin of the house, laying the terrace, and doing a fair amount of planting of ground cover on the terraced banks of the field.  Photos of the exterior will all come later in the summer when everything is looking more ‘mature’.  Unfortunately the wild flower meadow is slightly struggling after all the rain we had through the winter, though a local expert says it's still a bit early to know, so I've still got my fingers crossed.  I think we are finding that a lot of the seed was washed to the bottom of the field.  Not very encouraging, but we will see.  The wild flowers on Max's studio roof which we broadcast in the spring are looking more positive, so we hope for a bit of colour there shortly.  Poppies and cornflowers in the areas in the field which were just turned over due to machinery doing work in that area are of course blooming wonderful(ly)!!  Somebody's law.  It just shows nature is much better left to its own devices.  We'll learn. perhaps.

We've received all the final certificates and warranties for such things as the electrics, HETAS certificate for the wood burning stove, commissioning certificate and warranty for the heating system, and most important Building Regs approval.   

So we are 'home and dry', and very 'comfortable and happy', and here are some photos that I hope you will feel were worth waiting for.

Dining area looking towards the kitchen.
The corridor leads to Max's studio, and a lazy bucket that didn't get out of the way.

The kitchen

Looking from kitchen towards the living room

Looking from the dining table towards the entrance hall

Looking from Max's studio towards my study

Looking over the top of the dining cupboard unit that divides the dining area and corridor

Looking over my study area into the living room

Looking into the living room

Sitting at my desk, looking over the living room

The Snug.  Our inward looking room for the evenings.



The parquet flooring was bought second hand and cleaned of copious amounts of bitumen before having it laid and sanded.  The wood is Panga Panga whose nickname is partridge wood because of the patterning of the grain.
We have left it unpolished as it has a very nice natural finish, and would become much to talk of sealed, we thought!



We also bought this fireplace from a local reclamation yard in Wells which we have installed in the snug.
So the snug has a more traditional, cosy feeling.  Difficult to photograph.  But I'll try next time around.

The wall on the left contains a pull down double bed

The double doors from the corridor that open to the entrance hall and to the staircase.
(Signs of work still to be done - a bag of render leaning there waiting to be used on the external walls.)
I should have removed it!
The laburnum tree outside is particular effective through this tall window.  What a bonus.

The stair window

The stairwell showing off our lime green floor.

Entering the guest bedroom

The guest bedroom

The guest bathroom

Our bedroom with an elm floor
We actually have a bathroom (shower room) too, but too difficult to photograph with any meaning.
You'll have to trust us on that one.

So for now that is what we have to show you.  We are working hard to complete the exterior, and I will endeavour to get a series of photos out as soon as it becomes possible to show it how it should be.  Still looking like work in progress.