Week One - Needles & Underpins

It’s really exciting to see the development beginning to take shape. We have just our builder and his son on site for the first week,  setting up the site, working with the scaffolders, working on the frame and digging out pits ready for the underpinning.

One of the first things we had to get was a digger. Got quite a buzz from ringing around plant hire companies, picking the cheapest and seeing it arrive on site on the back of a lowloader. At last, my own digger. We've been shown how the controls work but still haven't had a go ... digging close to foundations could be a bit dodgy. Maybe when we get on to trenches and soakaways ...

The process for the underpinning, and for renewing the plinth, consists of knocking out some bricks to make a hole through the wall under the bottom timber of the frame, the wall plate, and then inserting a railway sleeper through the hole and jacking up the frame using a couple of Acrow Props, one at each end of the sleeper - known as a needle. Serious knitting if you ask me. So, more phone calls looking for  acrows and a dozen railway sleepers. Have to get used to ordering up huge amounts of stuff.

The frame is generally in good condition but there are a few areas of rot especially under roof valleys. This has allowed the frame to shift a bit over the years, which in turn has pushed the southwest corner  of the plinth out of plumb – hence the buttresses.

The frame needs to be pulled back into shape and the southwest plinth has to be taken down and rebuilt. While working on the frame, the top wall plate began to fracture, so now it needs steel bracing.

We had our first visits from our building control inspector, warranty inspector, and archaeologist. The bat condition on the planning permission required us to provide a Bat Mitigation Report detailing how we are going to protect any bats found in the barn. We have to brief the guys stripping the roof as to what they must do if they find a bat under a roof tile. This briefing has to be given by a licensed bat worker, so I duly rang the guy (affectionately known as our bat man) who had written our mitigation report. I told him that we were about to start work on the roof and could he please now do the briefing – which he did. Box ticked we can proceed with taking the tiles off the roof.

Over the week we established our own pattern of involvement with the build. We go to site for the 8 o’clock start in morning, and if required have a discussion with the Builder about what’s the plan and what needs to be bought in. Back home an hour or 2 later to make phone calls to suppliers, visit showrooms, then get back to site in the afternoon in time to make the guys a cup of tea. We find ourselves spending ages on the internet looking for suppliers and on the phone haggling with them over prices. We’ve taken out a contract mobile phone because we’re going to be spending a lot of time on the phone, and often from site. At least that's my excuse for buying a Smartphone.

We also get involved with a bit of the labouring - not too strenuous  - just enough to feel we're making a contribution. The guys are very kind and tolerate our efforts.

Started taking daily pictures from the same spots so as to build up a kind of time lapse sequence of the build as it progresses.

31st January 2011 – Day One

On site at 8 o’clock to see the start and say hello. Religiously fill in the first page of the Site Diary as instructed by the Builder’s Bible, capturing weather conditions, who’s on site, names of visitors, what’s delivered and what work is done. The Book says to ask for ID from visitors but I don’t have the courage to do that. Just asking a guy for his name is daunting enough.

The loo and security fencing are delivered today and set up. The scaffolders are on site and begin setting up inside and out.

The engineer is on site and talks the builder through his sketches. I feel a bit of a fifth wheel at times with so much going on and me just standing around watching, taking pictures. I keep reassuring myself that I’m there to sign the cheques which is going to be hard enough work going forward.

Nevertheless I keep a little bit busy putting up the safety notices, putting the hard hats and first aid box in the Container, and nailing the bat boxes to trees near the barn.

During the morning a herd of a dozen or so deer cross the field behind the barn and I hear one of the guys up on the scaffold call out to his mate ‘Look at that’. I reflect that did want to live in the country ...

By the end of the day really have the feeling that work on the conversion has begun.

December 2010 – Baby Steps

We spent most of the month in Cambodia, coping with 35 C heat while back in poor old blighty it was so cold that Heathrow was closed for a few days. Wrong kind of snow on the runway or something. Looking at the BBC website we were wondering if our return flight just before New Year would happen.

So not a lot would have happened on the barn even if we had managed to make a start.

Before we went away we took our first tentative steps towards becoming property developers - bought a Container and had it delivered to site. We’ve also bought various bits n bobs in preparation for Day One – hard hats, first aid kit, safety notices, site diary, visitors book, accident book. Bat Boxes. Following the advice in the Self Builder’s Bible, we’ve also laid in temporary water and electricity supplies for the builder, and investigated suppliers of portable loos. Beginning to feel real. And a bit scary.

Nov 2010 – Ready Steady ... Wait for it

At Last! We’ve cleared the pre-conditions and permission to start the development has come through. There were several last minute spanners in the works - requests for further detail, and details about details. Very frustrating and at times it felt we’d never get there.

Our Builder has meanwhile taken on other work, and who can blame him. And we’re off to Cambodia for 3 weeks in December, and a daughter is due to have her baby in the middle of January. So all in all, we agreed with the Builder the conversion will start at end of January 2011.

Nearly a year since we started and still not a sod has been turned.



Actually, that's not entirely true - we did dig a few trial pits to assess the state of the subsoil - which turned out to be a gravel aggregate rather than clay. And as all self respecting lovers of subsoil will agree, that's good news.

October 2010 - Diggerland

Last week saw us at the Diggerland Theme Park in Kent to have a go on some real diggers, dumpers and JCBs. As the only couple there with no kids or grandchildren in tow, we did feel a bit of a fraud. (The thought of taking a token grandaughter along did occur, but she’s only 2...)

You spend the time digging holes and then filling them in again. Very creative. If you're really lucky you get to move one heap of dirt from one side to the other. Sad to admit, but it was great fun and has helped our confidence no end.

Those machines are not that difficult to operate so we feel more ready to have a go on our own site. Can't wait to hire a digger of my own ... might even buy one and go shopping in it. Trundling up and down the aisles in Asda, scooping up the groceries, ... I digress.

August 2010 – Ups and Downs

Two big steps forward this month which made us think we’d soon be able to start the build – till we noticed the 3 steps backwards lurking in the small print.

The first step forward is the sale of our house which released the cash to pay for the conversion of the barn.

 The other step forward was the granting of planning permission for our revised plans. The original planning permission had 15 conditions attached, the majority of which were pre-conditions worded along the lines of “thou shalt not start any works pertaining to this grant of permission until thou hast done the following to our satisfaction ...”. With our revised application we had supplied much of the information, reports, detail, commitments, you name it, relating to those pre-conditions in the hope of clearing most of them in advance. How naive.

The Permission that came through in August had even more conditions attached. So we then had to set about dealing with 18 Conditions, most of which require further approval before work can start.

 And since the Council are allowed 2 months to respond to whatever you send them it soon became obvious that work was not going to start any time soon. Talk about a roller coaster of emotions.

July 2010 - Of Rammed Chalk and Bat Droppings

Ah, the Chalk floor - love it or hate it? One of the Conditions on the original Planning Permission was that we must retain the small area of rammed chalk floor in the middle of the barn. And in discussion with the planners it was clear that that condition was there to stay.

I’d never heard of a rammed chalk before – and wish I never had. The problem is we can’t lower that part of the ground floor and have to construct the new floor surface over the top of the chalk, which makes things difficult when it comes to headroom under beams and all that. However I have to admit - it did put off some other potential buyers who were looking at the barn at the same time as us. So, on balance, we love it. Even if it is a bit of a pain.

The bats, the bats. There’s no evidence of bats actually roosting in the barn, but a bat survey did find some 6 pipistrelle droppings on the ground inside the barn and one long eared bat dropping. It’s thought that bats fly around the barn and maybe through it on their nocturnal foraging for insects. We have to provide an alternative to make up for the loss of habitat that the conversion entails.  Bat boxes, or Gites a Chauves-souris as the French say. Nice idea - that we have to provide holiday accommodation for bats. Guess we have think about a swimming pool too if we want attract the right class of bat. Wouldn’t want any old riff raff bats thank you very much.

Summer 2010 – Plan Crazy

The barn came with planning permission, subject to a set of pre-conditions (of which more anon) but we didn’t like the plans. We appointed an architect who submitted a revised planning application in May 2010. We imagined it would take a couple of months to sort out the revised planning application so we’d be ready to start the build some time in August - September or October at the latest.

Interviewed contractors and sub-contractors, intending to do much of the project management and purchasing ourselves. And spent a fair bit of time at the property pottering about and even had the odd picnic.

We had bought a field adjacent to the barn at the same time and leased it to a farmer to grow hay. That way we didn't have to worry about looking after it. Which makes us absentee landlords. Not sure how that sits with working class roots and leftie tendencies.

December 2009 - Love at First Sight

The books say it takes about 8 seconds to know whether you like a property or not. Viewed the site in Dec 2009 and instantly fell in love with it – the views, the location and the barn itself. Went through the motions of checking with the local authority, and asking for expert advice . Then put in a bid as soon as we could. Went for the asking price, which was accepted just before Christmas. Exchanged contracts in January 2010 and disappeared off to Cambodia for 3 weeks.

Completion took place while we were away . The Solicitor emailed to say that she hadn’t been given any keys on completion and we should contact the vendor on our return. We replied that we understood the barn doors are held together by bits of string ...