Our journey

Making the house habitable

The first challenge was to install services to the house, without which, no serious building work could take place.

“We couldn’t believe that the house had no services - no water, electricity, gas or drainage – the only source of water was a spring about 200m down the hill.”

It took months to arrange for the authorities to install electricity and water. The electricity and water came from about 200m away and had to be buried underground.

“We first had to build a shed to accommodate the electricity meter as there was so much water inside the house. Until the house was dry, this was the best place to camp out, better at least than a tent!”

Whilst they waited to the new supplies, Peter and Libby set about clearing the house.

“Although the roof looked OK when we first looked at it, the water had been seeking through the house at the ‘pine ends’ as they call ‘gables’ in Wales. We had to be very careful as whole sections of the floors were rotten.”

The whole house was still full of the previous owner’s possessions.

“We were determined to learn as much as we could about the previous owners of the house and carefully went through everything, though much of the furniture was too far gone to save. It was totally fascinating – the owners had never thrown anything away. We found blackout blinds and newspapers from the second world war and copies of school exercise books from before the war. We did get a bit excited at one point when we found a ring in an old wardrobe. We soon found out though that the ‘gold ring’ was actually from a fair in Carmarthen!”

Clearing out the house though, unearthed some unpleasant surprises.

“The end of the house had been clad in corrugated iron to help weatherproof the wall from the rain and wind. Obviously this hadn’t been successful so the owners had the internal walls lined with asbestos which had to have professionally removed.”

The original iron bedsteads had straw mattresses with some unwelcome occupants.

“I remember picking up what I thought was a child’s toy to discover it was in fact a mummified rodent! That flew out the window straightaway, much to Libby’s surprise, who was working below! ”

Work soon started on the fabric of the house. David Newman Construction were chosen for their experience working on old buildings using traditional construction materials and techniques.

The first priority was to make the building watertight and work commenced on stripping the roof, replacing rotten timbers and re-slating the roof using as many of the original slates as possible. The original windows were repaired and chimneys repointed.

A key improvement was to remove the hard cement render that had been applied to the stone walls.

“We sandblasted the cement but the render was so hard, it took nearly a week to remove and we ended up with a small beach around the house!”

Internally, rotten timber floors were repaired, retaining as much of the original construction and layout as possible. On the ground floor, new limecrete slabs were laid and flagstones re-laid. The first floor ceiling was removed to expose the original timber trusses and roof beams, and new wool insulation installed.

One of the smaller bedrooms was converted to a shower room and a new cloakroom and utility was formed on the ground floor.

A new ground source heat pump and radiators was installed.

“We went for ground source as the most efficient system available at the time. Two 150m vertical boreholes provide a reliable source of heat throughout the year”.

Wall and ceiling finishes were repaired using lime plaster and painted with breathable paints. A kitchen was installed (for the first time) with modern appliances replacing the original cast iron range. The original cast iron Victorian fireplaces were sandblasted and the timber surrounds were repaired.

At last the house was habitable, a combination of old world charm and modern comforts, time to sit back and enjoy – at least for a short while!

Saving the barns….

The building was in a perilous state, with the weather continuing to take its toll on the crumbling stonework.

“We decided that we had to go ahead and try to weather proof the barn before the structure deteriorated any further. Even if we weren’t able to convert the barns at this time, no one wants to live next to a ruin and time was of the essence.”

The first step was to clear out the barn to expose the structure. The roof had largely caved in, bringing tonnes of stone with it, falling on top of the original contents.

Huge quantities of rotten timber and stone were removed, along with about a metre of animal dung. We salvaged as many slates as we could for reuse in the future. There also were some exciting finds:

“We unearthed a large quantity of Victorian belt driven farm machinery, ploughs, ridgers and all sorts of other tools. We also found a little rusty grey Fergie – still waiting to be restored!”

With the barn cleared out and the yard cleared of vegetation (and the remains of a car with a tree growing through it), we made the decision to proceed with the first stage of the build.

The aim was to repair the walls, reroof the barn and replace the timber first floor.

The timing wasn’t perfect with COVID striking in 2019. However, the work was all outdoors and with appropriate procedures in place, work progressed.

By the end of the summer, the work was complete, even if the work went no further, we knew that at least we had saved the barns from collapse.

The build

We decided to take the opportunity to move permanently to Wales and in December 2022, work started in earnest.

“We set ourselves an ambitious target to complete the work in 12 months. We also decided to add a modest extension to the house to create two larger spaces”.

The original team was supplemented by additional local trades people with necessary skills and experience to complete the work.

Both ground works to install drainage and floor slabs and the interior fitout works to the upper floor, we organised to run in parallel. New partition walls were fitted and insulation and finishes were installed.

To be continued.........!

Preparing to convert

Our vision was to convert the barns to self catering accommodation, giving the former agricultural building a new purpose as farm stays south wales.

Peter prepared the plans and engaged specialists to provide structural, ecology and tree surveys to help support the application. The response from the planners was positive and the application was submitted in September 2011.

The process identified that an addition bat survey was needed and also, the transport authority has concerns about the suitability of the road access; this was a real worry as potentially, this had the possibility of killing the project

Fortunately, a transport specialist was able to demonstrate that the road was suitable for the development and the bat survey allowed us to obtain a bat licence for the works.

The planning consent finally came through in September 2022. At last, we could go ahead!