Start of Stage 2 ....

Well, since the end of Stage 1 we have had some visitors to stay and some time for a welcome rest too. We are now planning for Stage 2 and have had a few things to do prior to that  -  building materials ordering, but also some preparation for the work on constructing the doorway to the garden and the large window on the opposite wall. Along the wall into which the doorway is going (it is a double-size french door, enabling large-size wheelchairs to pass through) is a long animal feeding trough, stretching the whole length of the barn. We will preserve most of this, building it into the Phase 2 development, with the open-plan bedroom/sitting room and wet room. But for this bit, we need to knock it down to give us full access to the outside wall where we will create the doorway. It looked quite straightforward, but in fact was about a metre deep and two metres wide of reinforced concrete and stone:

Anyway, a day's work, with power-chisel  -  and this has had the benefit of providing us with a lot of stone, that we will use for building the large fireplace for the wood-burner we will have in the living/dining room:

Have been doing this work today very aware that this is the 100th anniversary of the start of World War 1  -  and during the morning there was a reading of Helen Thomas's account of her farewell to her husband, the poet Edward Thomas .... while I could listen to all the other bits of the various programmes covering the commemoration, this was too much  -  and I had to go and bash some stones to drown it out. If you would like to read the account, you'll find it here ....


The main work on Stage 2 starts on August 15th and we'll start the full blog entries for this Stage then.