Chris and Bev – Heads in the Clouds

On Monday, it was Bats 1 – Coxes 0, but by Tuesday, it was Bats 1 – Coxes 2. We’ve heard in the last day or two that we’ll receive planning permission for our outbuildings. Some welcome progress, but only after a hiccup or two when the Council’s ecologist didn’t agree with our ecologist over how high our mitigation bat roost should be. We have a few hurdles before we can start building the garden store and greenhouse. We also heard today that our planning application for the house and landscaping which was submitted three weeks ago has been registered – meaning that the clock is now ticking and we have a planning officer assigned to deal with it. We’ve added some of the planning drawings to a new tab in ‘Background with Bev’.

With apologies to those of you whose interest in joinery and wood is starting to wane …, Dave and his apprentice, Curtis, have cracked on with repairs to the well-house roof. It was probably a year ago that we first looked around the walled garden, (it took that long to finalise the purchase), and we’ve seen a significant deterioration in the well-house during that time. Another year and the roof would probably have fallen in. With these repairs it should be sound for a generation or two. In view of the toing and froing that we’ve had with the planning authority on the bat issue so far, we’re going to incorporate a bat box or two into the well-house roof and are using bat-friendly felt rather than a textile membrane that bats can get caught in.

Dave has saved as much of the original structure as possible. On this original oak joist the tenon was still in near-perfect condition but the other end, that had been exposed for years and rotted away, was replaced and extended with spliced fresh oak held in place by dowels. We’ve told Dave he should initial one of his repairs.