Playing catch up

Apologies for the recent lack of updates. We’ve been somewhat distracted by the launch of the web site, guests and simply getting on with it. There’s only 9 weeks to go until opening day and with both cottages booked for the first week it’s all systems go to finish in time. Yikes!

So here’s a highlights package to help you catch up on progress during the last month.

1. After 5 days on our hands and knees sanding and varnishing, we finished the floor of the barn. It’s come up a treat. Can’t say the same for my hands though – the fuzzy tingling feeling from the sander vibrations may have gone but the white spirit sapped the last moisture out of my skin. I could probably sand the next floor with just my bare hands.

2. Spring finally arrived and we took advantage of the unexpected sunshine to give the cottage a lick of paint. Dave is a pussy when it comes to ladders, so it fell to me to scale the heady heights and slap the paint on at the apex. But to his credit after I handed over the brush he slaved all day to complete the wall by tea time.

3.We’ve started on the hard landscaping. As there is no shortage of rocks on site, Dave decided to put them to good use and is now an expert at creative rock path edging. No particular plan or design, just rocks. It kind of works. If you like the quarry look. No seriously, it really does work. Maybe you have to see it in the flesh (so to speak), to appreciate the beauty of Welsh stone, lots of it.

4. Much as we love Welsh stone, planting must begin before spring passes us by. Planting needs soil, so Paul and his digger are called into service once again. Note the re-appearance of Squaddie Dad in a cameo role. It’s man against machine as he fights to protect the new patio from the encroaching pile of mud.

5. It’s time the three amigos were put to work and earned their keep. Stevie has learned to drive the truck and is now in charge of trips to the tip to dispose of all the scrap metal that we’ve dug out of he ground. Next week Nessa will be learning the art of bread baking and Charlie will be fitted up with a yoke to pull rakes across the new wildflower seedbeds.

6. Not every job on site is as enjoyable as piling up rocks or raking up soil. Sometimes there’s a really crappy job to be done. Like testing all the jigsaws that have been dug out of dusty cupboards of various family members and donated to the Banceithin cause. As you can see, it’s thirsty work. So just how many Pickworths does it take to do a 1000 piece jigsaw?