Lower barn (Bike Barn)

The bike barn is now in use as secure motorcycle parking for guests:

Drying room

We are using the boiler room as a drying room for guests to use if they get caught in a storm, we have dehumidifiers and I have now installed some wall to wall drying rails for people to hang their leathers on: A powerful hammer drill was not able to make a mark on the walls to install the rails so I had to buy an SDS drill. Its pretty cumbersome and unwieldy but goes through anything and can also be used to break through walls which may prove useful later on when we renovate the outbuilding.

More work in the loft

New area for sinks to sit against in the guest bathroom: Additional bedroom in the loft next to the bathroom and seperate from the main bedroom:

Guest rooms

We decided to create additional doorways into the guestrooms to create more sound proofing from the rest of the house: Metalwork going up: New walls up just need plastering and painting:

Flood pump drainage system

In the winter or during heavy rain periods the lower barn has been flooding as the land drains down through the barn from the hills above. To divert the water I have created a flood pump drainage system in the barn. Starting to dig a hole in the far corner of the barn:

Nearly deep enough for the bin:

Bin in situ:

Digging a channel all round the bin :

Filling the channel with plastic:

Then lining the channel with gravel to filter the mud from the water (so you dont block the flood pump)

A cheap drainage / ditch pump which has a float which activates the pump:

Installing the pump with PVC pipework:

Testing the pump activation with a hose:

We then ran pipework along the wall and out to the front of the barn where there is a drain in place.

Lower barn

I installed a series of hooks in the lower barn to facilitate easy bicycle storage:

Rendering the frontage

First I filled all the cracks in the current render with mastic crepi : Then we rendered over the top with trowels and off white crepi:

New signage

Some new Ridelimousin signs go up....

A couple of coats of wood stain..

Mix up some cement so the post doesnt rot...

Et voila.

And another on the postbox..

Games room gets a TV and pictures

New wall mounted flat screen TV with English SKY TV:

Snapped frame repaired.

I previously reported the snapped frame on Ro's SZR660. This has now been repaired by a local English welder for a very reasonable sum. Off to the welders 3 miles away.... THe bike leaning up against some cement bags for the surgery: Close up of the weld:

Sausage smuggler?

I think womble is happy that we have opened a B&B and that we offer fry ups as she is partial to leftovers....