Onwards and ever forwards.....

A few weeks ago my blog spoke of the trials and tribulations of the Spotted Flycatchers that chose to grace our garden for some 6 weeks or so.You may remember that tragedy befell the family when one of their parents was taken by a bird of prey. The remaining parent struggling to find enough flies in the atrocious weather struggled to keep up with the chicks feeds and they left the nest prematurely trying to find food themselves. Eventually the last parent gave up on two of the chicks and after discussing with a bird rescue centre we took them to the centre to be hand reared.

Well the update is alas a sad one as eventually both chicks died. The Haven specialise in saving birds that have fallen from their nests and been abandoned by the parents. Indeed last year their survival success rate was 73% but it is not a science and they did their best with the Flycatchers (the Havens first ever) but after 2 weeks the birds died. It was a learning curve for the staff and I could tell that they were gutted but they were quite candid with me in that they could see, with hindsight, where they may have, perhaps, tried a different technique. They could only do their best and without them the chicks would not have stood a chance and would have been dead that evening. So thanks for trying.

Now back to our day to day business and the latest challenges at The Old Bakery......

When we moved into this place it was just beginning to show signs of its old age and we needed to get up and running as a business asap so we had to prioritise the work load. We did this by breaking the project into smaller phases:-

 Phase ONE consisted of preparing the building for the B&B operation. It seemed the quickest route to bringing in an income. So all our efforts went into ensuring that all the guest facing areas were fully 'ated' that is... renovated, decorated and generally updated. This had to include the complete overhaul of the kitchen so we could meet the food hygiene standards too. Also the Garden required some work as this was to be an important selling point.

Phase TWO was a big  job as we needed to convert a fairly derelict annex into a holiday cottage. It had crumbling plaster , walls falling apart, walls that needed to be removed and a major re-design of the bathroom and kitchen areas. Then the place had to have a full make over decoration wise and be set up as a fully equipped holiday cottage.

Phase THREE now looms ahead of us.... This involves turning a 2nd bedroom into another B&B room which is in itself another big task as an en-suite needs to be put into the room and the waste pipes connections will involve digging up a concrete floor and the Building Reg officers to inspect. Furthermore a whole extra tier of hot and cold water supplies need to be installed and several stud walls taken down to make the room bigger. The existing stud walls are made from chipboard and the Stud wall dividing the new B&B bedroom and the stairwell is only 2 inches thick so this will have to be made thicker, filled with foam soundproofing and the chipboard replaced with plasterboard then plastered.

Also to allow the door to be closer to the stairwell the landing at the top of the stairs needs to be raised.

Phase FOUR involves our area of the house and the creation of an extra room off the landing which will be our bathroom, because at present our facilities are pretty basic. This job involves further removal of existing chipboard stud work and the creation of a new stud wall and installation of a shower and bathroom furniture. We will also have a loft hatch and ladder fitted because at present it is impossible to gain access to our substantial loft and some cold water feeder tanks will have to be installed there. We are also hoping (depending on the budget) to replace the existing living room carpet which has to be 20 plus years old and has a lot of burn marks from the open fires. My perfect floor covering would be large flagstones with substantial chunky rugs dotted about but we may to have a new carpet fitted in the end. Whatever we do will be expensive as the room is at least 28 foot long, some 330 sqft of flooring. THEN the bedroom, the en-suite, the new bathroom, a small bedroom, the landing and the stairwell will all need decorating (including a lot of tiling). Clearly this too is a chunky size job.

As these two phases would really impact on our business we have decided to carry them both out in October and close down the B and B completely for that month. This is not that drastic as we are unlikely to get many guests in this twilight month. So I am waiting on the quotes at present, then IF we can afford it we shall start the work aiming to have it all done by November 1st.   Ha, Ha!!


THEN....... When all of that is done I will have to start thinking about rubbing down and painting the wooden frames of all the windows..... We have 203 panes of glass and every frame around every pane, inside and out requires a coat of paint at the very least!!




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