Tumbledown Restoration
Work Started 2022
Tumbledown Barn was a falling-down old cow shed and barn! We were faced with the prospect of knocking it down or rebuilding and converting it into an amazing space for guests to stay in, and we chose the latter. One New Year’s Day 2022, Sarah, myself (David), Dottie, Freddie (the black pointer) and Wayne (taking the photo) started clearing the barn interior. This included removing trees and bushes, dismantling fallen bits of wall, taking off the old collapsed roof and dealing with a rat problem. The finished property still felt a long way off.
In February and March 2022 the scaffolding went up and our wonderful building team of Rob and Russ started securing the walls. We also managed to finally secure the funding for the barn conversion, which was a huge relief as work had already begun. Progress was quick for the first three to four months: the outer stone walls were capped, inner walls were built, windows received new lintels and preparations for the roof timbers were underway.
Sadly, in June 2022 we lost Russ. He died from a heart attack while on a weekend away. Russ had become a dear friend; he’d worked on Enfield House and Keepers Lodge with us and we’d got to know him really well. He was, and is, greatly missed. Work understandably stopped for a few weeks and we were hugely relieved when Rob returned. I took an extra day off work each week to help Rob and the project, and Rob managed to recruit some very capable builders to support him and keep the conversion moving forward.
Good Progress 2022 -2023
In October 2022 the roof was finished and in November/December of the same year the doors and windows were installed. The property was finally watertight, always a major milestone in a building project.
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