The first step

So I’ve left work, had a holiday, enjoyed a few dinners and lunches with friends and now it’s time to get blogging! Learning how to manage my own blog site will be a journey in itself alongside managing ‘the project’ which, after all, is the main reason I left work.

The first step in ‘the project’ is to build a new extension at the back of the property to house the kitchen, utility room and downstairs toilet. This will join on to the 2002 extension which includes our bedroom upstairs and dining room downstairs. We’ll also be getting an ensuite ending the journey through the house to the bathroom at the other end of the building! The aim is to have this done by Christmas. Then we will move onto restoring the old house in stages during the course of next year.

It’s taken a few years just to get to this point and I’ll cover the story so far in blogs over the next few weeks as the real work won’t be starting until July. The priority over the last week has been to get the right builder. We have gone local with people we know have done good work and received two quotes. One was more expensive and busy, a good sign but we felt he was too busy to fit us. We had to chase him several times for the quote and he still hasn’t come back with details of earlier work we can look at. The other builder, Ken, proactively provided us with previous clients to talk to and sent us pictures of his existing project which is very similar to ours. We spoke to one of his clients who praised his work and has used him three times. On Friday we visited him on site to see the quality of his work and it looked excellent. We also like that he only does one project at a time so he will really focus on us and what we need until he’s done.

So, after our visit, on Friday we pushed the button and hired our builder. Very exciting and it makes it all seem very real after many years of planning. It also means we’re going to have to get a move on with clearing the garage which is going to be knocked down to make way for the new extension. Other tips I picked up to help find a good builder included asking your designer/architect or the local building inspector, checking out boards, trade associations, recommendations and avoiding going for the low price. A really good piece of advice is not to pay up front, they don’t pay their suppliers or workers up front so if you have to it might mean they are in trouble. We focused on taking references and looking at the work they have done for others. We’re comfortable we’ve made the right choice.

In the meantime, have I been missing work? Surprisingly not given how much time I spent at work. I enjoyed what I did and really liked the people I worked with. Now I have more time to spend on the other things that I was squeezing into the odd spare moment late at night, on the train or when we had a rare free weekend.

The most immediate project taking up most of my time is organising open gardens in our village next Sunday, 17 June. Alongside finalising the gardens that are going to open, sorting the publicity, setting up road signs at key points and pulling together the volunteers to help on the day I’ve have had a massive blitz on the weeds in our own garden. They been left blissfully undisturbed for months and as we’ll be opening our garden they have to go. With all the kneeling, squatting and digging I should certainly be getting fitter. Spending more time in the garden is part of the dream and the picture shows the satisfying results of a weed free bed.

We do have one unwelcome visitor I fear will still be around for open gardens. For the first time this year a squirrel has decided to use our lawn as his larder. The beautifully mown strips have little brown holes where he has dug up his hidden walnuts. He doesn’t even bother taking the shells with him. From the fresh holes each morning it looks like the cupboard is not yet bare.