Building Progress

Digging out floors

Well, the guys have really cracked on with the work this week and we've been fortunate that the weather's been good.
The floor area was excavated, pipework has been reset, the brickwork and blockwork has been built to the damp proof course level, and then on Friday the concrete floors were laid. Worryingly, it started to rain a little in the afternoon on Friday, but by yesterday morning it had cleared up and the concrete's drying well.

New Dining room (not completed!)

While the floor was still being dug out the bricklayers started work in the stables, removing dividing walls and digging up the existing floor. You can see in this picture that it's turning into an impressively sized room. While we were designing it I was wondering whether to go quite so long or retain slightly more for the stables themselves (Meredith & I still hope to have our own equines at some point in the future), but with incorporating the bar area in the dining room this will probably turn out to be a good size.

Walls to dpc

Concrete floors in - End of week 2

For the week ahead: we should see the walls shoot up a pace if the weather holds. One of the really exciting bits! I'm taking plenty of shots, as from past experience we know that a couple of months from now we'll have forgotten that it was ever different.

Japanese TV visit

At the start of this week we were hosts to a crew from Japanese Satellite TV channel Fuji BS, and had a great time with them here.

With Yuko and Yumi as they were leaving

They were making a programme where two well-known lady presenters on Fuji TV, Yumi Masuda (益田由美) and Yuko Jogasaki (城ヶ崎祐子) had rented a car from Oxford and were using a SatNav to navigate their way to and around the Cotswolds.
Included in the filming was their arrival at the farm, collecting eggs and feeding the pigs in the morning, and having their breakfast. They were a really fun and friendly crew and it was interesting to see the work they put into the filming, including the close up shots of the cooked breakfast, detailed inside of our sausages, etc. and the kids really enjoyed seeing the crew at work.
We kept to English for the filming, as that was the theme of the programme and Yuko speaks very good English, and she translated for Yumi and the audience. Altogether great fun.
Aside from their time at Lowerfield Farm, they filmed going to Broadway Tower, at Moreton in Marsh market on the Tuesday, horseriding, The Slaughters, Bibury and the Cotswold Cheese Company. A busy schedule.

At work filming departure

The programme is due to air early next year, and the producers promised us a DVD copy which is something to look forward to . . . I think.

Footings in

Before and after - front of house

Before and after - site

Had a fraught couple of days to start the week, as we'd opted to do the ground clearance for the site, in order to save the plants we wanted and salvage firewood. It's also a good feeling to actually start the project off with some hard physical work on it ourselves (that old Protestant work ethic has a lot to answer for).
With just 3 scheduled days on site this last week a lot has been achieved very quickly. After the initial surveying and planning to avoid existing pipework, etc., the foundations were dug on Thursday / Friday and concrete foundations went in on Friday afternoon. It's been dry, bright and relatively warm, which allowed the schedule to proceed as planned for this weather-dependent phase.
The only real issue has been that during Friday afternoon, just before the first concrete truck arrived, the digger broke through the main pipe taking water out to the barn and animal troughs. For some reason the pipe had been laid with a dog leg from the house to the barn, so there was no way to know it was under there. Anyway, the builders very professionally worked around it, and aside from a slight change to the depth of concrete for that one corner, the only issue's been having to cart water to top up drinkers for the weekend. All should be fixed tomorrow.

Concrete foundations in - End of week 1

For the week ahead, weather permitting:
Monday the ground will be prepared for putting down the concrete floor, the bricklayers should start on Tuesday, firstly building up to the damp proof course level; the hardcore and concrete floor should then be laid; and hopefully we'll be starting the proper brickwork at the end of the week.

Improvements to the B&B

Since October 2010 we have been planning some redevelopment of the B&B and this is finally going to get underway in the coming week. In short, we will be adding a large extension to the northeast side of the building, converting half of the stable block, and connecting the stable block to the main house (or rather re-connecting the stable block - there are marks on the farmhouse Cotswold stone walls showing that it was attached at some point in the past).


The work will be staged in order to minimise any potential disturbance to guests. We will be closing The Lynches to all but exceptional bookings from November 14, due to the fact that it would overlook the building work. Dark Coppice and The Dingle will be closed after New Year. Rooms on the south side of the house will remain open throughout, as they should be unaffected.


What will this add to the guesthouse? Well, this gives us a great opportunity to make a major upgrade to our facilities.
a) Dark Coppice and The Dingle will be enlarged by incorporating the current bathroom areas into the rooms themselves, and larger, newly equipped ensuite bathrooms with large shower cubicles will be constructed in the new build.
b) The Lynches will disappear as a guest room as a new, much larger room with dual aspect, the main one of which will be a fabulous view towards the Cotswold escarpment, will be constructed in the new build.
c) Our current dining room will be converted to a new ground floor guest room, with a new ensuite bathroom constructed between the house and stable block. This room will be equipped for ease of use by guests who are less mobile.
d) Half of our existing stable block will be converted to a new feature dining room retaining many of the original roof characteristics as exposed beams. This dining room will be much larger, able to seat all guests at one sitting, and will also incorporate a new bar area.
We will also be greatly improving our private accommodation.


These developments will take Lowerfield Farm up to 8 letting rooms, all ensuite, and 7 of which will be larger 'superior' standard rooms. With two guest rooms on the ground floor, it will also help us cater better for the many guests who prefer to have rooms avoiding stairs.
All work on the guesthouse is scheduled for completion prior to the Cheltenham Festival in early March 2012.

Boar arrival

After trying with artificial insemination for our sow for some time, we have finally decided to go with having a boar on site. Talking about the issue with Sarah from Old Farm near Moreton in Marsh recently, she asked me if I had been lying on the lass' back and tickling her belly while trying it, and those could be some of the reasons I've not been successful. As she's now about 20 months old & 'getting on', we decided to purchase a boar from Sarah & Simon and let nature take its course.

He arrived with us on Wednesday, so we'll now keep him for a couple of months and see if he can work his magic. He's a fine looking fellow - a Duroc / Hampshire cross - and black save for his white socks. I often can't get out to feed the pigs until after dark now the nights have drawn in, and though I can't miss the others with their colouring and noise, he does just seem to appear out of nowhere, being the strong silent type.
Knowing he was about 120 kilos we were rather naively expecting something a bit larger, but our old girl dwarfs him. We can now guess that she's more like 250 kilos; no wonder I have trouble shoving her around these days.

FarmStay video

At the start of October we had a team from Podcats come to film at the B&B, as we were kindly selected by FarmStay UK for the promotion as one of their advertising properties.
The resulting video was released last Friday - November 4th - and I have now added it to the homepage of our website.
We're thrilled with it, though neither of us much likes the sound of our own voices (contrary to what some might think!).

I'm posting a copy here . . .