It's
been a year since my last report although regular visitors will have been
able to keep track of progress via the status reports that appear at the
bottom of the main page and on the cottage details pages. Progress has
not been quite as rapid as I had originally hoped but towards the end
of 2004 with the budget starting to be of a slight concern we decided
to reduce manpower in order to economize. This has obviously delayed completion
but has also saved some vital pennies and kept the project viable.
Work recommenced on the two storey range in December. It's been a hard slog as the vast majority of the floors have had to be dug out and reinstated by hand. The two lean too buildings at each end were also a bit of a problem as they were in such a poor state that it was decided to completely rebuild them.
March 2005 saw the completion of the Chaff House and Copper House. They had both been substantially complete for some time but we decided to leave the final completion until we actually had someone wanting to stay in them. It was all a bit of a rush at the end, we only finished the final touches to the Chaff House ten minutes before our first guests arrived!!
We are now in the final construction stages of the two storey range and, although there will always be jobs to do, the end of the project is now only a few weeks away. It will be a strange sensation for all of us, but especially for yours truly who has lived and breathed this project for the last two years. There are a great many people to thank at every stage along the way and I intend to do this via these pages within the next few weeks.
I often get asked, what were the highs and lows? Well there are a great many of both. The best highs are when you get each stage complete and somebody actually books to stay. Even better than that is some of the fantastic feedback we have had even though building work has still been going on during their stay! The lows, well for me losing Lucy the labrador was my worst point during the project but from a construction point of view I suppose that bloody tank rising back out of the ground took some beating!!
I promise you a final report once everything is complete but now I need to go and get a trench dug for an oil supply!!
Call back soon for the Final Report.