Rejected... Not Dejected

The news I've been hesitating to post about is that, just before Christmas, our latest planning application was rejected. The grounds were simple - the new house would 'dominate' the barn, and will be 'detrimentally prominent' in the landscape. They're points that we dispute, particularly as the design has gone through a number of revisions to fit in with the constraints imposed by the Planning and Conservation departments and the Environment Agency. It's hard not to feel that they'd much rather we didn't live here at all. Certainly it's difficult to imagine any design that would fit all of the demands of the powers that be without being a messy compromise. Is that what informs architecture in the UK?

So now we'll go through our plans and decide if the reasons for our choice of design are sound and defensible. If they are, we'll appeal. Regardless, we'll do what we can to take on board the constraints we face and see if a useful alternative design can be reached.

Watch this space.

Foul Weather..

..and rather a lot of it at that.

The weather has been consistently horrible lately, with just regular enough downpours to turn the driveway to mud. Normally the free draining fen soil does a great job of shrugging off rainy days. Now though, as we try to drive in and out of the yard, spinning wheels only help to make the already slippery mush even worse. Despite heavy off-road tyres on the pickup, it's now stuck in four-wheel drive to make progress somewhat more confident. Yet all this is on a site that is almost completely flat. I can only assume that if we were on a hill, at least all the water would have somewhere to go.

This morning we woke to one flapping roof - a corrugated steel lash-up that was quietly rusting on one of the sheds. Armed with a bag of six inch nails and a hammer, I've done the best I can to stop things going too far astray. The repairs aren't pretty, but neither are the sheds.

Slightly more worrying was the wide open door on the chicken coup. Perched on the rail, Ginger was looking out and squawking noisily. None of the chickens had escaped - they just seemed rather annoyed at the sudden loss of privacy. The strong winds were managing to force the door open, so for now a screw is keeping it shut, but I'd better put a proper latch on it soon. I think I'll nominate the cheap rechargable screwdriver I got from Sainsburys as the most used tool on site at the moment - it'd always at hand for a quick fix and though the bits that came with it were rubbish, some new ones allow it to do the job it's needed for with no fuss.

Rather Busy

The reason for our silence in the last few weeks is quite simple. We're very proud to introduce Rebecca Grace, born on 8th December and weighing 6lbs 2oz. She's a lovely little girl even if she hasn't yet got the hang of going to sleep when everyone else has. Mother, brother and dad are all well if a little shell-shocked by a busy Christmas visiting family and friends with a new born in tow.