Happy anniversary

As we celebrate the anniversary of the auction, the collapsed wall is being rebuilt and the existing stonework is being cleaned down, joints raked out, helifix bars fixed in across cracks and between the two skins of stonework, and all repointed outside and in with lime mortar.

There are 11 builders bags of reclaimed stone on site, ready for use in the new buttresses and raising the walls all round by 500mm.  The hand-made bricks are due to arrive soon, and the oak posts, beams and lintols are being sourced now ready for inclusion as the openings are formed.

We visited a company that does all the air source heating kit last Friday (on our way to our annual get-together in Exeter with our ex ex-pat friends who worked in Nigeria together 30 years ago) and got some great advice about what's good and what's not so good in the renewable energy market.

I also contacted the planners about putting up a garden shed - and was told we need planning permission!  So application no. 4 will go in soon, with plans and all four elevations of our proposed shed.  The good news is that there won't be any extra fee this time, but we will have to go through the usual 8 week consultation period before they can approve our shed ..... !

But we did get one wonderful anniversary present.  Our friend Andrew, now semi-retired and a budding artist in all his spare time, presented us with an original painting of the barn before any work had been done.  He visited the barn a few weeks ago, then worked from photos he'd taken that day plus some of ours from a year ago and came up with a beautiful picture of the derelict barn.  We hope he'll be available in 6 months time to do another one of the completed project, for a 'before and after' set.