the daydream fund challenge thread

RAS

Davesnave wrote: »

The planning dept my BiL has to deal with has one of the poorest track records in the country, but that doesn't stop them putting obstacles in his way every few months. They have just excelled themselves, demanding he do something which he would really like to do, but which seems totally impossible.

I will not go into details but the listed Victorian farmhouse had a rather earlier date over the door?

One instruction would have required the householders to duck under a a structure four foot above the floor to access the extension being proposed.

And another owner decided that rather than argue about the fact that the roof style the Conservation Officer insisted on was wholly out of keeping with the vernacular architecture of the area, she would just do it to get permission. The rest of the village kept QT so she could get through (it is at the back of the house).

I have lived in just about everything from pre-Reformation to post-war at sometime and each has its quirks. If they had insisted on historical integrity there would have been no bedrooms in the hall house, although presumably they would have been OK in the early 19C extension?

choille

Just been watching a rescue on the Loch - phoned Coastguard after seeing a flare. Helicopter & inshore lifeboat came - others had seen the flares too. It's not too rough but it appeared to be on the rocks on the other side. Don't think anyone is injured - but really they should have a VHF radio. It's so dangerous out there - it's name means Loch of a thousand winds - it's the way the Mountains sorta channel the wind - I think. Goodness, glad no one's dead.

Davesnave

choille wrote: »

Just been watching a rescue on the Loch - phoned Coastguard after seeing a flare.

Exciting stuff!

All we get here is lost delivery drivers; two of them today.

A whole heap of properties here share the same post code, but the one that orders lots of stuff on-line is reached from a different road.

So, it usually takes new drivers 15 minutes or so to work this one out. Then, when they do get it right, they are met by a bl**dy great Alsatian! :rotfl:

lostinrates

Oh dear dave. My neighbours and i get each others delivery. Due to a bit of an oversight we both have the same addess.....even farm name (theybhave the other half of what was once the one farm yard, early last century. I am asked not to change house name....though i wouldn't mind, i am not keen on the name. But the other owners refuse to change name, and rightly. An established business is there and it would impose other LA costs too.

It is slightly annoying though. I cannot help wonder if their teenage daughter got the delivery for the lovely top that never arrived! But they are superb neighbours and i sincerely doubt it.



Ex batt gone, and notably room i thught she was secure in obviously lets in rodents.....yuck.


One of the ex batts lays every second day, and her egg is the largest i have seen froma chicken. Eye watering, considering they are such wee chickens. When i pick it up i am always reminded of the pictures of berries in seed and ant caralgues, where in order to emphasise the size of the berry the hand that holds it quite onviously belongs to a child justold enough to relaibly stand still and hold something without dropping it! These eggs do not fit in egg boxes, nor on the egg storing thing in my cupboard. They are also, frankly, a little daunting to consider eating for me. Dh loves them though, but i hope this weekend he learns that one is enough of these monsters at a time. Knowing dh i doubt he will.


I miss alfie, hope her connecton is fixed as planned tomorrow!

lostinrates

Oh, i forgot the thread weather report,

It is something nearing muggy here, the kind of morning you are not sure weather to where a coat and get justa
Ittle sticky, or not where a coat and get mist damp. In the end i wore a cardi and was fine. The mist is dense and damp, obliteratingly grey. Its still and damp and warm.....perhaps this is the right day to sow those outside annuals?

COOLTRIKERCHICK

choille..... wow sounded exciting, hope no one was injured, and everyone was ok....

Davesnave sorry forgot to say well done on the amount raised from the panto..... sounded like hard work, with all the time and effort put inot it, but it was truely worth it, not only for the charities, but for bringing the village/community together, as lets face it, this is getting rare these days....
It is also good for business, so if/when you open up your business, or just want to sell surplus plants, eggs etc;) the local community know who you are, and you will be the first one they will come too....

LIR..... I LOVE THOSE FLAG STONES:rotfl: please tell me they are staying.........


sorry forgot to say Hi betony:beer:,

Davesnave pm'd you:D

lostinrates

The flag stones pose a whole new dilema. The plan was certainly for them to stay, but to be lifted, have underfloor heating put under, be cleaned up and put back.

That is when we thought they were genuine flags. These, it turns out, are probably old facing stones from a grand building.....not sure what, the romantic in me points out that there was a lot of building material just down the road after the disolution of the monastries, but this is a victorian building....could have been a replace ment certainly...something was there in the eighteenth century....

These facing stones are incredibly deep, over half a foot, and incredibly well fixed in. The laborerers took three days to get up one and...um, a half, of them. They are too thick for underfloor heating it would appear.....we had hope the thickness would hold warmth, which it would, but on further investigation it wiuld be inefficsient nonethe less as so much heat would be directed down not up apparently. They have posed a real quandry and we have not yet decided. I itially we wanted to do anything to keep them, but we have to see i think.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

LIR... I would just make sure i wore my snug slippers when walking out there:rotfl:

I totally love flag stones in old kitchens....

I have allways had this dream of having an old style rustic, mix n match type kitchen, with a living room at one end, with a big open rawring fire, with a battered old settee/chairs by it, with crotchet type blankets thrown over them, flag stone floor, so you could just walk in with dirt wellies on and plonk yourself in front of the fire.....take wellies off, and warm your smellie feet infront of the fire:rotfl:

I call this 'Dingle Chic' ( like the dingles on emmerdale).


For me.... personally, sometimes i find ( with all these property/restoration programmes) that they restore/modernise old properties within an inch of their life, they leave one beam, or nook etc and say its an orginal feature, and people go bananas for it... when in reality the heart of the property has been totally ripped out and modernised, to look old IYSWIM

But thats me:rotfl: should have been born in a diff centuary:D

Lotus-eater

lostinrates wrote: »

These facing stones are incredibly deep, over half a foot, and incredibly well fixed in. The laborerers took three days to get up one and...um, a half, of them. They are too thick for underfloor heating it would appear.....we had hope the thickness would hold warmth, which it would, but on further investigation it wiuld be inefficsient nonethe less as so much heat would be directed down not up apparently. They have posed a real quandry and we have not yet decided. I itially we wanted to do anything to keep them, but we have to see i think.

I can imagine that it's a real dilemma.

I've been thinking what I would do in this case... If I was starting fresh like you, I wouldn't want to lose the chance of underfloor heating, so I'd go for a new floor surface, then use the giant facing stones somewhere else. Maybe a path outside, or a downstairs passageway.
But I imagine the laying costs wouldn't be small, be a devil to get level.

lostinrates

Lotus eater, that is exactly something we have considered. It would also make the patios/terrace look less raw!

Ctc, i don't neceaasrily disagree about wearing slippers, but underfloor heating was the only heating we had planned for the kitchen besides the fireplace! So we need to go back to the drawing board with heating plans and kitchen plans if we decide to do that. Mybfeeling was that ufh could get us to twelve degrees i would be comfy, and a fire would boost that when i wasn't. The kitchen will probab
Y be where i live in day times, i plan to have an armchair not a kitchen chair at the kitchen table for prolognued days in there. A nother mse-er sent me to the kitchen company i would love to be able to afford to use, but i am presenting their brochure to the builders innthe hope they can do something similar for less. It has the alfie seal of approval!

I really agree about over restoring. What i am finding is that it is very hard not to! You have things you want to change the look of...e.g. For me i want new window fittings, non of ours are original but a mix of oldish and sixties and modern brasseffect. So, you change the window fittings and jig door placement to make a new workable layout, then something like the floor happens and it looks a bit less authentic, then you insulate from the inside and the walls are straight .....which makes it looks a bit newer still.


Our brief includes the following: we strive for authentic, but accept it will not always be practical. Where it is not possible we do not want disney cartoon but rather tim burton. I think on our budget a bit of burton style artifice around intrinsically authentic approach is the best we can do!
Its all go today here, builders doing that wall, and a digger clearing a ditch the veg bed half we haven't got to doing by hand, and hopefully starting the trench for the front. 'hedge'. You will laugh when you see how i have under ordered plants!