"every women every man join the caravan............."

We are now living in the caravan! it is still a novelty and the weather has been on our side- so all good so far.......!!!!!!!!  The bungalow is still littered with odd socks, jigsaw bits and teaspoons etc but we should break the back of it tomorrow.  As we moved out right after boxing day we didnt put up a tree or decs but had some friends round to help with adding some festive cheer to the lounge!!!!!!



even the blue tits have had to move, hopefully they will find and like their new location



A Mark Grenville moment on moving day! - He wasn't here but his way of thinking must be catching!



Pete has finished making the front door for the house and we have chosen the paint,  (it has to be painted before the glass is fitted) and have gone for citrine from the little greene paint company.

By monday we should be ready to start stripping out the bungalow, then we will be putting the floor down in the garden room and installing the cooker and sink units!

And then finally its diggers and dumpers at the ready, and we have some eager little helpers!

DO NOT ADJUST YOUR SET!

Between now and christmas there will not be much to blog about as Pete is at work for the next month and the main job on site will be packing, packing and more packing, and noone needs to see photos of me surrounded bey stuff and boxes with a confused look on my face!

But from new year onwards it will be full steam ahead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot wait!

ROCKING CHAIRS AND SHOTGUNS

The  ' junk wood ' verhandah has been a great success and will be really useful when we are living in the caravan.

Pete is continuing producing the cast window sills, we have about 7, he did have to go back to the drawing board a couple of times but he seems to have perfected it now, which is good the site was turning into a cemetry for imperfect sills!

Pete has made the porch/ hall doors and primed them and hopefully we can collect the hard wood this week to make the front door which is based on the design below, apart from that we are finishing getting the site prepared and cleared and the stuff we dont need for 2 years packed up!



PIMP MY CARAVAN!

We have been busy getting the caravan ready to live in, removing some of the furniture and adding more useful storage, pete has been building a made to measure desk, shoe storage, and shelving in the wardrobes,  I have been making brighter curtains and blinds in between the school and playschool runs and feeding Reuben! This week, we hope to get the verhandah built, and when I've finished all my sewing projects I will have to clean it thoroughly, ( that's my thoroughly of course !!!!!!!!!!!!- I am never ill too clean is bad for your health!)

Pete spoke to the folks next door about the boundry hedge and as they have now sold their propertey they were happy to let us remove the hedge (horrid lime green privett) and replace with fence (horrid bright orange panels), it is so bad I cant bring myself to include a photo, until it fades or a certain garden designer from London comes and tells me what plant will cover it and quickly! so that is all sorted now before the new people move in.

Pete has been making the fixed windows for the house, and the porch doors, (between the porch and the hall) the doors are based on a design that we admired whilst in covent garden.

Today Pete has started to make the window sills for the entire house, he predicts it will take a month to complete the project as he will only be able to make 2 every 2 days as they will take 48 hours to set, he also had to make a vibrating table to ensure a perfect finish, after hours of research on you tube - which brought up all sorts of interesting clips!!!!!!, he made it out of a load of wood a couple of old car tyres and a lot of double sided sticky tape- I think!!!!!

A SINK FOR SINDY!

Despite the brief break from work when Baby Reuben arrived  things are still moving in the right direction! The drive has been dug up to take the services to the caravan, we now have working electrics and running water and drainage, so it looks like the caravan is here to stay!

 The garden room is as finished as it can be until we knock down the bungalow and use the floor boards from the bedrooms to create the flooring. The log burner has been installed and works a treat!

Pete has been installing a toilet and sink in the corner of the garage, he used an old sink we had in the garden shed, earlier in the week he found a bargain vintage/ retro sink unit on ebay, but he failed to read the "small " print, and I kindly told him it was for a sindy house!!!!!!, it seemed too mean to let him head off with a trailer only to bring it back in the glove box!

Planning wise we have had the timber frames sent for us to view 3D on the computer which was great, but we are still waiting to have everything ready to apply for building regs and time is ticking............

LUCKY HEATHER AND BAKED HEDGEHOGS

The Caravan which will be our home nearly 2 years arrived today and has been installed on the drive, the deliverey guys were great and they brought a tractor with them, which was probably the better option, origionally we thought we might be able to hook it up to the CORSA!!!!!!! to manouvre into position! the whole job took about an hour and a half and the traffic was stopped for about 10 minutes!  Of course the village has never been so busy.

IT EVEN HAS ITS VERY OWN BEACH HUT!

The "site Office " has also been put up today!! and the old garage cleared out- looks like another bonfire.

SCOOP, MUCK AND DIZZY!

After a good few days and the help of some big boys toys the turning circle and its vegetable beds have been removed. We now have a new veg patch in the orchard raised beds laid out to comfort the hardiest of  OCD sufferers, and a big space in the middle for future green house. The holly tree was burnt, as promised, spectacularly on the remains of the turning circle and anything else green has been pruned back to within an inch of it's life! The garden room has now been plastered and is ready for painting, and the tomatos and potatos growing on the roof ( from the home made compost) look like fine specimens, our alpine seedlings are coming up so we can't get up there at the moment to remove the unwanted guests!

GROUND WORKS BEGIN!

The holly tree has been felled to make way for the big fat gypsy caravan!, that is going to be delivered on the 19th of September (hopefully baby won't decide to arrive on the same day- that would be a little in-convenient!). We are planning on having a bonfire on the turning circle to get rid of the Holly tree, it will probably be quite big and the bungalow could be destroyed earlier than planned!

WOODLANDS THE BEGINNING!

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG ABOUT OUR SELF BUILD, THE SMALL BUT LOVELY BUNGALOW THAT WILL SOON MAKE WAY FOR THE BUILDING OF OUR FAMILY HOUSE. BOTH PETE AND I ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO FINISHING WORK IN THE BEGINNING OF SEPTEMBER AND STARTING TO PREPARE THE SITE FOR THE BUILD.

THE GARDEN ROOM, THAT WILL GIVE US SOME REST BITE FROM THE CARAVAN, IN THE WARMER MONTHS IS COMING ON NICELY NOW AND WE ARE GLAD OF THE RECENT RAIN ON THE NEW GREEN ROOF.