Chapter 1 – Carpe Diem
In 2016 Caleb, a landscape gardener in the New Forest, was unlucky enough to contract Lyme Disease. Both turning 50, soon to be empty-nesters, coming out of a dark place and a life-changing illness, we decided life was short! We were too young to settle for the slow, downhill deterioration into old age. Renovation was in order!
We’d had a taste of hospital waiting rooms and being consumed by discussions of health. It wasn’t for us! We had always dreamed of undertaking a Grand Design renovation project when the kids had left home, somewhere in France maybe…..
When Caleb felt a little better, we came on a weekend break to Cornwall and stumbled across this dilapidated group of Grade II Listed Granite barns 2 miles from Land’s End. Derelict and on the brink of collapse crying out for renovation, they captured our hearts from the moment we saw them. And the adventure began!
Nothing different will happen in your life unless you say yes to an opportunity and go for it! So, crazily, 3 months later, with life going on as usual at home, we found we’d actually bought two barns around a courtyard and a bit of extra land for a garden!
Chapter 2 – Gypsy
Right from the start I said that this decision was to be a positive adventure and I vowed to myself that I must never let it stress us out. That was before I had dealings BT, obviously!! On the way back we chatted about practical things like where we’d live. Passing the “stinky caravans” (that’s what the kids used to call out, sorry) sales centre at Wimborne, I made us stop and view some caravans…..
Thus began our trips to showman travellers’ sites, gypsy and showman sites and that’s how we bought Fendty! The photo is of me in my closet gypsy look (like I said, fun is the key word!). I wish becomes I will – it’s as straightforward as that! Just do it!….. We also hired a portaloo – like I said……. fun!!!???!!!
PS. Can you imagine towing that down the A30/A35 – it was the size of an articulated lorry!!!!!!!
Chapter 3 – Demolition
We undertook the massive renovation project clearing out all the old, concrete structures, stripping them down to their bare walls and underpinning them. I wanted to be Tom & Barbara from The Good Life, but our stonemason insisted on calling us Margot & Jerry instead!
We removed over 700 tonnes of concrete, knocking down an old piggery, over 200 tyres, an asbestos roof and any amount of twine and farm plastic! The inside of the barn was a mixture of dirty straw, manure, concrete troughs, mould, old granite floor cobbles with broken glass underneath, which all needed removing by hand!
Chapter 3 – A Love Affair with Lime
There was a lot of hacking out to do as the 3 foot thick, granite walls were originally in-filled with whatever was to hand such as earth, rab and rubble. It was also home to rather too many rats, spiders and snails as well!
We replaced all the roofs with reclaimed delabole slate tiles and sourced reclaimed timbers to construct the flooring and internal doors.
Finally, we used an Ukrainian product, Bauwer, an insulating lime plaster, on the internal walls. No local plasterer would touch it! So Caleb did it all himself, along with laying the slate and wooden floors and, of course all the landscaping. I was the admin and procurement manager and general labourer.
The renovation has been a labour of love with many challenges along the way!Â
Soon after we started the project, tucked up in our cozy caravan, at the end of a copper wire with 2mb of download capability, I started a facebook blog of the renovation.
If you are interested in the whole story, all 30 chapters, please feel free to have a look at the facebook page @Trengothal Barn by clicking on the link below: