Dey 22 in the Home Farm Hoose

Apologies for the Channel 5/Geordie rip off..... and I'm not even sure it is day 22, but you get the gist....

The men in boots are now on site en masse and the place is starting to take shape rather nicely. The lovely building inspector has been around, prodded a few exposed beams, tapped his pen against a couple of window frames and sucked his breath in on several occasions - but we have the green light to proceed.

Now its been a while since we have had any kind of renovation work done on a property, but I have to say that they don't make builders like they used to - or is it a North/South divide (could be opening a can of worms here...). Up t'North you can stand your spoon up in a mug of builders' tea, it's either supported by 5 sugars (at the very least) or so strong that it has the consistency of treacle; but down here in the Sarf, we have to have a note pad at the ready as the requests are varied:

Rooibos Tea
Lady Grey (with lemon of course)
Coffee in the morning, but tea at all other times
Tea weak with no sugar and just a splash of milk

Perlease - MAN UP!!! All joking apart, we do have a really good team on-site who are good humoured - except when the skylight won't fit in - had to get Mr HfH to explain some of the words I heard coming down the back passage (not a euphemism) - and tenacious; things will fit, even if they need to use the Brummie screwdriver to make sure..... We have bodies everywhere with builders, plasterers, electricians and plumbers and to cap it all the Estate are putting in a Biomass system right outside our drive so we are surrounded by plant machinery – it’s all getting very messy, but it will be worth it.

Today I am off to look at light fittings, and who would have thought there were so many variations of hand basins – it’s a whole new world. Daresay I will have to drop in at one my favourite antique emporiums on the way, I have just found a new one to patronise – really don’t know how this one slipped through the net but I am glad to have had the recommendation as it is a place of calm and loveliness.

We are now taking bookings for our first retreat – Writing Crime Fiction – we have some fantastic tutors joining us from West Midlands Police, who will be sharing their expertise, so if you don’t know your CSI from your SIO, then this would be a great opportunity to get some insider knowledge for your creative writing and we have a consultant editor on hand to assess any works in progress. Its promising to be a great course so make sure you take advantage of the Early Bird Offer.

TTFN gotta go – apparently I left the lemon in the tea a tad too long, so have to go and remake the Lady Grey – hey ho.

Here are some ongoing pics of the work so far....