Some days there are up to nine men in the house!

Duane is in charge – he is the younger Elliott brother. He brings whoever is necessary for each day. The kitchen/dining floor is now down on top of the under floor heating and the kitchen fitting  will start by the end of this week. Also the bathrooms have their items in them but not yet plumbed/fixed. The one month  time delay early on for the piling has now been cut down to two weeks. I keep them going with chocolate digestives and we have site meetings over lunch at The Lookout.

Woody our lovely Cawsand painter and decorator is on standby to get in when he can ( I booked him in last October as he is in such demand)

Early next week the boarded up look will be transformed by the arrival of the big windows – this will definitely be worth watching.

Onwards and Upwards

The finished yard

 Measuring for the kitchen island unit

Plastering the living room ceiling

Basement stairs going in

There is progress!

The basement extension is built and roofed. The big windows got measured yesterday and should be fitted in 2/3 weeks time. Kitchen and bathrooms all ordered. Those great lads work in all weathers and are cheerful with it!

Such  difficult working conditions with the narrow streets and small footprint – they have shifted 22 tonnes of rubble through the front door in bags onto small vans. But they love being there  – watching the Navy games and the bird life. Fabulous sunrises too!

We have just had two weeks in our rented flat in the village  – Kingsand/Cawsand has building going on everywhere and the builders are keeping the cafe and pubs busy. We’re in the flat above the cafe and the smell of fried breakfast is so……….. tempting  in ‘trying to be good’ January.

Some big seas and windy days  – we had some good walks in between spending large sums of money ! Kitchen and bathrooms all ordered.

Sheila

It’s all happening at Tarkwa Cottage. They decided we were originally built in a cove!

The footings for the extension had to be piled with the ones furthest from the house going down 9.5 metres with the last two metres in rock.

The concrete for the base of the extension was delivered in a very novel way – the lorry parked on the top road just under the Fort and then the liquid concrete was piped down the 96 Duck Steps ,across Garrett Street , through the front door , across the living room and out down to the base

The piling has caused a one month delay but hopefully now everything will press on for completion by Easter. I will be down there for a lot of January and February to keep a check on things and help make things happen without more delays.

Super builders – well done lads!

Well it has all happened

We moved everything out last week and the builders started on Monday!

The removal firm took all the major items – very clever shuttle system in the narrow streets of Cawsand village. They used a small van and left the large removal van with containers ready near Millbrook. The superking mattress which was originally delivered through the bedroom window from the roof of a van was gently rolled and tied to come down the stairs  – much better idea! We kept the best buckets and spades, deck chairs , body boards and blow up dinghies.

The cleaning team came in the next day and between us we carried all the paintings, bedding, the contents of the kitchen and dresser , crockery etc. to the top floor for storage .

Finally we had another  man and van team who took everything left or not needed any more to the local tip

We’ll be open for business again from 2 April 2016 and bookings are already coming in.

Tarkwa Cottage Empty

Regulars will have noted that the cottage is not available from 30 September 2015 to 2nd April 2016 . This is because we are going to be doing a very exciting building project.

The basement ( engine room ) is being extended and the kitchen and dining will move down to that floor . A  new kitchen with range cooker with gas hob is to be installed and a utility room / shower room created. The access to the yard will be sliding glass doors.

The ground floor will then be just one very spacious sitting room again with huge floor to ceiling glass opening out onto a new and larger balcony. So the views out to sea will be even better!

On the first floor two double  bedrooms and a new bathroom will be created .

So Tarkwa Cottage will still sleep 8 people with three bathrooms  and will be THE place to stay in Cawsand.