Boxing in the Hopper, Bricking up the Pumphouse, Sorting out the Water

Mike has been in the cider barn making good of the housing around the new hopper:

And also been blocking in the old doorway on the pumphouse:

It's fully insulated on the inside now:

And after a tough few days fitting it out with 18mm plyboard:

Hendy's have been in to attach all of the inner workings: 

So it's looking like it won't be too much longer now until we have 

clean, filtered, spring fed water - yay!

Fitting out the Plant Room (+ some more piping)

It been a busy few weeks for the heating engineers. The boiler arrived and it was a good job the whole team was on site - it weighed a tonne - literally!

A fantastic bit of kit though - Austrian engineering at its best:

It took six men + a series of straps, ropes and ties to get it down a makeshift ramp to the plant room:

Got it in though and it's looking great!

The hot water cylinder had a huge big jacket that was a bit of feat to get zipped up:

And the complexity of pipework coming off it is quite something:

There's also been a lot of progress in the house with the piping:

The beginnings of an en-suite: 

with diagrams to help:

The flue for the boiler has gone through a series of configurations:

And commissioning should be happening later this week too!

Operation Remodel (+ starting on the bathroom)

After living in the house a few weeks, it has become obvious what needs to move and change. With the previous owners not using half the house for so many years, there's a lot of it that doesn't make sense. It's time to get the house back into a state of connection, so Mike has been at the drawing board remodelling the house layout:

The major decision to come from this is to reconfigure the bathroom. Currently, it sits as a 6 bedroom house with only one awkward bathroom that's accessed by two doors - one to the toilet and the second to the bath and sink - this doesn't make sense for a house of this size! So, we have decided to eliminate one of the bedrooms and knock this through to the existing bathroom, creating one large and luxurious bathroom which will house an airing cupboard; allow space for a free standing bath, separate walk in shower, toilet and a sink. 

There is a lovely large window from one side and two smaller ones opposite letting in plenty of light to the room. 

We were amazed to discover this fireplace: 

Which was hidden behind all this when we came to view it:

So it will be great to make a feature of that, once we get the room in order....

First job then - carpets up! 

Then it's down with the ceiling:

which exposed fantastic beam:

Up with the new ceiling joists:

And batton up the walls ready for insulation:

We have since discovered however that this is the wrong type of insulation for the house :( As it is built of stone, rather than brick, it needs a more breathable form of insulation. So, after some research, we have decided to go with UdiRECO wood fiber insulation which is both eco friendly and more effective for stone buildings with uneven surfaces - perfect!

Sadly though, we have now had to halt the work on this room. We are wanting to install a biomass boiler, PV panels and Solar Thermal panels to the property. Because of this, we need to have an EPC taken of the house as it currently stands, before all of our planned insulation works. So it's watch this space for updates on this room....