The builders arrive (Wednesday 9 Jan). The first thing they do is put up their cabin. Heath and Safety requirement; they need to stay warm and dry (a challenge in the Cumbrian winter).

Just below the surface we find a layer of stones/boulders. In a way, this is a good thing as we need these to build a new dry stone wall (planning requirement). Thank goodness the building supplies delivery driver arrived and moved the biggest obstacle with his hydraulic lift.

Getting tools and materials to the barn is a challenge - the building is on a steep slope.

In December we spent a week digging out a path from the road, traversing the slope to reach the top part of the barn. 

The builders bring along lots of "boys toys". Andy is particularly impressed with the big yellow motorised wheel barrow.

We became aware that the house uses too much electricity (it had electric heating) and there wasn't enough to power the barn. To reduce the house usage, we are putting in oil fired central heating. Andy has dug out and is now filling the based for the oil tank.  

The mini digger putting in the trench for the electric supply from the house to barn. Bad news for Andy - you need a digger driver qualification to use it so he has to stick with the a shovel.

Andy and Dan (joiner) taking a break from knocking down the internal wall in the lower half of the barn. almost ready for the mini digger to excavate and start under pinning.

It is Saturday. Andy is digging out the external boiler base and the plumber is here too trying to get all the new radiators in place. The electricians took the electric radiators out on Wednesday.

The big digger has arrived and is excavating for the drainage and new water supply for the house and barn.

Digging the ground floor out so that we have enough height to stand up. Not sure yet how far the stone wall goes down and how much underpinning will be required.

Just when it seemed to be going so well... We were checking that the toilets in the house all went into our sewage chamber. Found that one was blocked and the pipe cracked. Poor Andy volunteered to clear it out and take out part of the wall to expose the broken pipe (which runs under the kitchen floor).

Hoping the plumber can fix it.

Digging a channel under the wall for the rain water drainage and it came tumbling down. Lucky only a spade was buried.

After a weekend in Whipsnade, we arrived back at High Brow to find the new oil fired boiler and central heating was working. Toasty!

Andy just tidying up around the external boiler and oil tank.

Not too much progress this week as snow prevented the builders from getting to us.

The weather has given us some fantastic sunrises though.

Due to the weather, we are doing inside jobs. One of these is to plug the gaps in the internal stone wall of the barn to strengthen it. Hoping this helps the stones stick together and not fall down!