So I've been a bit quiet on here for a few months, mostly because Rich and I have been tied up with planning and organising our next big house project. We had up until last week an old 1950s garage at the bottom of our garden nearest our access lane, it been slowly falling apart since we bought the house over 6 years ago, the plan has always been to knock it down and try to replace it with something. End of last summer we submitted planning and after an agonising wait finally got it! So heres the render we submitted...
Its a simple long building pretty much like our neighbour has, is going to contain a large workshop for Rich and an art studio in the back for us to use, meaning we can move our office out of the house but still be able to work from home.
So last week was spent 3 days taking the old garage down, which meant fun with a kango hammer!
So last week was spent 3 days taking the old garage down, which meant fun with a kango hammer!
Our builders are due to start tomorrow and hoping to get the base finished by next week. We are really excited to finally get this project started, it feels like it been a really long time coming, Rich in particular has put in a huge number of hours so far, he did all the plans himself which saved us a lot but was quite a big learning curve!
So most of this year will revolve around getting this building up and fitted out, as ever we are on a tight budget so will be look at how we can fit both spaces out for as little as possible but still keeping them looking good. We will also be trying to make as much use as possible of any waste, we saved three quarters of the concrete blocks from the old garage to reuse as a retaining wall which Rich will build. We saved all the old wood that came from the old garage, the door frame, lintel and roof timbers, these have all been cut up for our log burner, we'll also be saving any waste wood including pallets from landfill once the build starts. In the long term we have some ideas about fitting this building out with solar panels but that might have to wait a few years!
As part of hooking the garage up to the house electrics we also have the pleasure of having to dig a deep trench for the cable all the way from the house down to the garage, all 50 meters of it! Part of the prep for this has meant removing part of our box hedge up by the house something I've been considering for a while anyway as it will gives us more room on our little patio.
So most of this year will revolve around getting this building up and fitted out, as ever we are on a tight budget so will be look at how we can fit both spaces out for as little as possible but still keeping them looking good. We will also be trying to make as much use as possible of any waste, we saved three quarters of the concrete blocks from the old garage to reuse as a retaining wall which Rich will build. We saved all the old wood that came from the old garage, the door frame, lintel and roof timbers, these have all been cut up for our log burner, we'll also be saving any waste wood including pallets from landfill once the build starts. In the long term we have some ideas about fitting this building out with solar panels but that might have to wait a few years!
As part of hooking the garage up to the house electrics we also have the pleasure of having to dig a deep trench for the cable all the way from the house down to the garage, all 50 meters of it! Part of the prep for this has meant removing part of our box hedge up by the house something I've been considering for a while anyway as it will gives us more room on our little patio.
Once the plants are moved we can open up the trench, although our local badger has already made a start by digging some pretty big holes in this since this pic was taken!
So some more back breaking days ahead but hopefully it will all be worth it in the end! Exciting times!
So some more back breaking days ahead but hopefully it will all be worth it in the end! Exciting times!
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