Garden Room - our work begins day 2 - more paint

Another cold day, but the second coat only took us 4.5 hours! Can you spot all the window beading strips, and thats just a few of them. Peter has painted the french door end of the barn. I'm pictured here painting the little door that fits over the new window above the french doors. Once the new guttering - cast iron style, arrives we will paint the side walls then put up the new guttering all in one go.  Peter found some hinges in his store of 'junk' which match the hinges on the right hand side for the old doors, why the hinges were odd in the first place we'll never know, but he's pretty pleased with himself.  I suppose I shouldn't nag him to clear his junk out now its proved useful.

We have also ordered the interior and exterior lighting today, so we are moving along.  We are planning to have oak cask water barrels so have had a search of the internet to try and source some in our area.   So all in all another successful day.

Neil and co are back tomorrow to carry on with their bit

Garden Room - our work begins day 1

Today Peter and I have spent all day staining the window/door frames in preparation for the glass next week.  Its amazing how much wood there is once you get started.  We decided to do it all black so that it blends in with the rest of the barn.  It great stuff to work with as its water based and dries to a matt black finish, hardly any smell and your brushes wash out in water.  Only draw back was working in a building with no glass, the wind was blowing through and we are both frozen.  Second coat tomorrow, hopefully it will be warmer and also the second coat won't take so long, then its on to all the new wood.  In total there is approximately 160sq metres of wood, but luckily we don't have to paint it all as Peter and his band of merry helpers are going to insulate the walls between the uprights and beams, so basically just all the uprights and beams to paint inside, along with the ceiling, so not much if you say it quickly......

Garden Room - Day 13

Cat flap, handles and lock fitted to the stable door.  New rails fitted to window over old doors - they turned out to be rotten when they went to add the frame. Little surprises keep popping up.  We discussed what we wanted doing to the old doors to tidy them up, they will become shutters, and also add some extra security and privacy when not in use. The glass for the windows won't arrive until Wednesday or Thursday, so not too much more they can do until then apart from clearing up and repairing the old doors.  Our work starts......

Garden Room - Day 12

Slowly slowly, I am so impatient. We are now at the stage where there is not much to see at the end of the day, unlike when the project was first started. Yesterday the doors were fitted into the french window frames and the door furniture added.  I didn't actually spot anything else, but only had a cursory glance as I was trying to sort out the non functioning laptop.

You will be pleased to know (or not) that we are up and running again, not sure what was wrong with it, but taking the battery pack out of the bottom and re-inserting it seemed to do the trick, there then followed a long and laborious wait whilst it went into recovery mode, me dashing upstairs to see if I had any writeable DVD's for the backup, luckily we did, then popping back and forth to follow its commands inbetween trying to make a Cottage Pie for dinner.

On the knitting front I have given myself a break from the Ten Stitch blanket and have knitted another Bunny Blanket Buddy and am half way through a little jumper for a friend's baby

Garden Room - Day 11

All the window frames and doors are in place, it really is starting to look like I imagined the room would look.  They won't get glazed until next week, so we are planning to stain all the frames for Neil over the weekend.  There is still lots of making good on the old doors to do and all the door furniture and cat flap to fit.  Neil is on his own for the next couple of days so progress will be slower. 

I took lots of photographs yesterday afternoon but unfortunately our laptop died last night so I am unable to get them off the camera - it was a wierd evening with no access to the internet - how sad we are!  Luckily I can do this at work, but have no access to Facebook (that's blocked).  Not sure when we will be online at home next, so if you email I may not respond as quickly as usual

Added 27th Feb - mixture of photos for days 10 and 11

Garden Room - Day 10

Roof boarding now complete.  The joiner made frames are onsite.

On my needles - A second Ten Stitch Blanket

A large amount of stash - 600grams so far - has being used on this project - 800grams still to go. It really is an addictive knit, as you are only working on ten stitches at a time you can just pick it up at anytime. I have been reasonably good this month only adding 250grams to my stash.  I even turned my back on loads of yarn in the charity shop today.  In truth I didn't fancy any of it, but at any other time I would have been tempted.

Garden Room - Day 9

Work continues - I'm hoping that the windows will go in this week. 
We spent yesterday cutting up all to discarded timbers, some too rotten to burn, but we ended up with 13 bags of wood, so nothing is going to waste


Before

During

Something different

When it comes to food I'll try most things within reason, though I do draw the line at some inner parts!  Last night we went out for dinner with our friends Colin & Myra, we'd not seen one another for a while so we had a good catch up.  We went for dinner to the Geldart in Cambridge, they specialise in Hot Rocks cooking, basicially you cook your meal yourself at the table on a hot rock, not so different I hear you say, but its the ingredients where the difference lies.  Me - Bison, Peter and Colin - Zebra, Myra - Croc & Roo - yes thats crocodile and kangaroo.  They also do Antelope and Ostrich, along with the usuals pork, chicken, steak.  We all really enjoyed our food and the only criticism of the evening was the fact that it was so busy and noisy we had a job to hear our conversation.  So I ask recession what recession, definately not in Cambridge last night.

BTW they do a really good Chocolate Brownie too....... diet what diet?

Rufus - 8 months

Our little man is 8 months already, he's sitting up and crawling. Learning new skills all the time. More little boy than baby. That cute face gets smiles wherever he goes, who could resist. Not me thats for sure.

Garden Room Days 7 & 8

Large sheets of celotex, boarding and scaffolding have completely taken over the room. This morning they were bemoaning the fact that its a messy job, sorry, but it will make the room much more cosy. The stable and french doors have arrived onsite too. I handed over the cat-flap which I think he was rather hoping I'd forget!!   Peter ordered 40 litres of Barn Black Paint last night, so we need to get a supply of brushes in.  Nothing happening now till Monday, so you will have to wait for photographs.

I'm hoping that I can maybe get out in the garden this weekend, clear up some of the rotten timbers and try and work out where everything needs to go. We still need to decide on steps or deck, grass or patio - decisions, decisions.

Garden Room - Day 6

All the external woodwork has now been completed - the lead facing on the bricks, cladding and corner edging replaced. French/stable doors and door furniture chosen. Scaffolding in place to start insulating and boarding the inside of the roof. Its all coming along nicely. Soon it will be down to us to start the mammoth task of painting both inside and out, approximately 160 square metres of wood!! So if you fancy getting dirty I'll get you a brush.

Did you notice ..........

I have changed the name of my blog to Granny's World.  Suggestion was that the other was too long and I guess this reflects my blog better.  If you read my blog on a regular basis, why not become a follower, its very easy and then I'd know who was reading it; comments would be appreciated too.  I have a visitor counter so I know I get a fair few readers but up till now only 5 followers.  So come on, don't be shy, expose yourselves - in the nicest possible way that is!

Garden Room update - Day 5

The lead flashing has gone on along the new base plate and the old window area is being reclad, they are still out there working so I will take some pictures when they've gone.

First birthday as a Granny

Garden Room (or should we call it the Love Shack) - Day 4

Lots of new timbers today. The joiner has been and we discussed the window for the old door position. Its taking shape, I'm still very excited. The room looks so much bigger now we have more light. I'm wondering what to do with the floor, wood, carpet, vinyl?

In other news, Rachel had a request played for me on Simon Mayo's Drivetime (32 minutes into the pgramme) in advance of my birthday on Monday, it was a real surprise. She requested Love Shack, guaranteed to get me dancing round the kitchen. Its going to be a busy weekend, we have the Jones' staying - babysitting Rufus while they have a night out. We have family coming also, so it will be a full house.

Whatever you are up to have a brilliant weekend

Garden Room - Day 3

Today, replacing the base plates has been finished and the french door opening framed and the door frames onsite, its coming along. Its so nice to stand in the doorway and look down the garden even if it is dark

What’s on your needles today?

Mine? I’m now knitting up some samples for Abravo Alpacas. This is the yarn I’m using

Grade 2 – superfine British alpaca yarn blended with 10% superfine merino wool to give a beautiful soft warm yarn. Undyed, unbleached yarn, soft off white colour which will complement all skin tones. Treat your alpaca with care, handwash in cool water and dry flat. Do not iron. Knits as DK (thick) 13 wpi. 50 gram ball £6.50

I’m knitting a headband which was designed and written by Pauline Hornsby, so far, so good, after a false start getting the tension correct, who knew that needle composition can alter your tension, I certainly didn’t. Other designs are planned, though I'm not sure I'm too comfortable with the fingerless cable gloves knitted in the round, a bit outside my comfort zone I think!  The yarn is lovely and soft though so a real treat to knit with.

Garden Room - Day 2

Work continues, the base plates are mostly rotten so its a case of props in, chop out and replace

Nothing happening tomorrow as they are finishing off another job, but back on course on Thursday.  Lets hope the rain holds off as we have lots of open space!!

Day 1 in pictures and completed 10 stitch

Garden Room - Day 1

Work commenced 8am sharp. 

It was dark when I got home today, but I could just about see that the end window has been removed, the hole for the french doors cut out, also the hole for the stable door.  I'll have a better idea what else has been achieved in the morning when its light. Its all very exciting ........ I'll remember to take my camera out with me

Garden Room commences

Tomorrow work starts to turn this old barn into a garden room, somewhere to sit and look over the garden when the weather is rough.  The one thing we dislike about our house is that we cannot see our back garden from the house, due to the barn blocking the view. So rather than pulling it down (we wouldn't be allowed too anyway as we live in a conservation area) we decided to spend a bit of money and have it repaired and made into a usable space - its been a repository for junk and other peoples stuff for too long.  I have visions of long afternoons curled up with a book and my knitting, trying to ignore the work that so obviously needs doing in the garden. 

The one draw back to this work is that we have had to removed all the plants around the barn. Some were ready to go others not so.  If we manage to save some then its a bonus.  If not, then I'll be paying a visit to the garden centre.  This does however allow us to re-design areas of the garden that we inherited from the previous owners and that until now we have not changed, its a big job and I can see it taking us most of the summer to complete

The entrance will be via a stable door in the rear of the barn - view not shown here

 

These doors will become shutters and the whole space glazed

The window here will be removed and french doors will be added to bring in extra light and provide the 'view'.  The little door above will also be glazed and the door will also act as a shutter. I'm hoping for a deck area here, which involves re-routing some steps and removing a low brick wall

Rotten timbers - there are lots of these

 

The old wood burner from the house which will be installed to provide winter warmth.

I will post more pictures as we go along.  Not too sure how long the work will take, but once Neil has finished his bit there will be lots for us to be getting on with, both inside and out so watch this space.

Is this fair?

Today we popped into Cambridge. I normally hate going shopping but needs must sometimes.  We were browsing around Marks & Spencer and I saw some trousers I liked. Flicking through the sizes I saw they had no long lengths in any size, just short and regular, which I thought was a bit odd.  Checked a few other styles, same thing, so I went and enquired at the desk to see if they had changed their leg lengths, to be told that they hardly ever get any long lengths for the stores as they are mainly reserved for buying online!!?  What rubbish, do they want everyone to buy on-line thus killing the High Street? Is this discrimination against people with long legs?  Should I send a letter of complaint, or am I wasting my time? I was so cross I was nearly beside myself, took a coffee and a muffin in Cafe Nero before I calmed down.

The upside of the morning was that I did get some really nice short boots in the Clarks shop with 50% off, and some new underwear with some gift vouchers I had for christmas, so all was not lost, but I'm still feeling pretty cross!

I'm forever blowing bubbles

Jolly good reading

In the last week I have read and finished two novels, first being Barbara Erskine's Time's Legacy.  I love Barbara's books, Lady of Hay being my all time favourite.  For a while some of her books seemed a bit samey (I have them all) but this one was much better and I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you like historical novels then give her books a try.

The second was Room, the first Emma Donoghue book I have read, I couldn't put it down, usually I only manage a few pages at night before falling asleep, this book had me reading till 11:30, and then I had to force myself to turn out the light. Very thought provoking.

My biggest problem is I wish I could read and knit at the same time