Our new project House (and rock cave houses)

[CTO]

Afternoon all,

Decided today was the day to start emptying the garden cave. Not entirely sure what prompted it but it felt like a gentle way back into working at the house, a week after the eye incident

The plan was as follows.

• Have skip delivered to front of house.
• Use newly acquired landrover to access garden through the side gate and back it up to the cave.
• Fill truck bed with assorted detritus from cave.
• Drive landrover back out the garden and back it up to skip, my squinty eye measurements suggested tailgate of landy should match the rim of the skip.
• Boot stuff out of landy into skip.
• Repeat.

My OH suggested that we could simply walk across the garden to the skip at the front of the house with the stuff and put it in. Distance being about half that of the driving scenario and suggested that “you just want to play with the car”. I naturally rebuffed this by giving a Paddington stare and saying “not at all, simply using the tools at our disposal”…

Generally my plan worked well (ish). Pics below.

Very large wheelbarrow;


Emptying begins;


Accidental carnage caused by me trying to work out all the levers and doing the slope into the garden in high range, 2wd. (I was in 4wd but forgot to lock the freewheeling front hubs)

“Let’s off road! Gripped, Sorted!”


Hmmm


Landy in natural habitat



Line of sight/squinty eye measurements seem to have worked ok..


Found 4Low and decided to go for a spin over to the bonfire area to drop off some wood..




Decided to celebrate “doing a thing” by having the first ever cup of tea/coffee in our new house…..


Realised it was getting late and knocked it on the head for the day ;


Plan is to go back over the weekend and continue to clear the rockhouses. Today was mainly a cathartic return to the site and to mess about in the garden

Cheers all

[CTO]

Evening all,

Progress is a bit slow at the moment but by way of an update.

Had a chap round to quite for the groundworks on Saturday and awaiting the outcome of that.

The plan is to have either side of the house dug out and hardcore laid.

The left hand side of the house will be for garden machinery/ride on lawn mower and landrover garage. Ideally I would like to convert the two smaller caves to be ride in garages for the lawnmower and associated bits and bobs.

The right hand side of the house will be the entrance to and main driveway.. I will try to illustrate using my woeful skills…

Blue: Boys toys area
Red: entrance to and main drive for our cars and guests



Small caves are marked in the blue area by two squiggles. In real terms they look like this and should fit a lawnmower with some parallel parking…


Plans came back for the first revision last Wednesday and are back with the architect… inexperienced as we are we were expecting paper plans to pore over. Instead, the architect hooked his laptop up to our lounge TV and we got to work through the house/proposed layout/floors digitally. Really helpful and led to some fairly significant changes including the rear being extended outwards by a further three meters, a new gable end and a lantern roof (right term?) to go over the kitchen living area…

Once we have a version of the plan that is fit for sharing I will post and considerations/opinions would be welcome. There will no doubt be a few (many) things that could be altered to work smarter…

In other news, as the weather is st I have been using the upstairs of the house as a makeshift paint booth to tidy up the landy a bit.

Bedroom 1: sanding and prepping
Bedroom 2: degreasing and primer
Bedroom 3: colour and lacquer

This is the first time I have had a crack at painting stuff and it’s very much trial and error. But, I figured this is the only time ever that the OH will sanction the house being used to paint rusty old car bits so I might as well at least have a go and make the most of it…

Practicing on spare wheel
Sanding it back as rusty and flaky rim



Primer

^^
I had to sand this back and redo due to the obvious blemishes.

First coat of paint


Roof:
Being sanded back


First coat of primer being applied



That’s about it for now. Hoping to get the main caves emptied this weekend and the electricity restored…

In answer to the question from Saturday;

Stigproducts: The house was/is a state and yep mildew in places (lots of). It hadn’t been inhabited for five years though and we were expecting worse given that the frontage is covered in ivy…. There are no plans to move in for a good while although I reckon a week or two and our painter and decorator would easily be able to turn it into something clean and habitable… my student house at uni was worse

Oh, and in other news, the landy is off to an Indy specialist on Friday for a full service/fluids/oils/points and a full structural once over…

These guys, if anyone knows them: http://www.apbtrading.co.uk/servicing-repairs-kidd...

I is trepidatious

Cheers all,

[CTO]

Richtea1970 said:

You are literally living the dream
(My dream anyway!)

Wait til the bills start coming in and the unforeseen rectifications resulting in a gradual descent into economic despair

I learnt today that a clutch change on the series 2 will leave me with little change out of £1500….. if there was a smiley for a sharp intake of breath and a long slow exhale this would be a good time for it.

Thinking I might learn to change a clutch… how hard can it be……………

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normalbloke said:

If I remember correctly, engine hoist in through one of the door apertures to lift the box backwards and away from the clutch?

Yup, pretty much that tbh. £1500 was very very strong but I am thinking I may have misunderstood although I did clarify a number of times….

If it is £1500 it defo won’t be being done there. I would rather send it elsewhere or find someone who knows a bit about cars and do it on the driveway.

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DB4DM said:

I bought a 1974 Series 3 about 6 yrs ago and had almost the same scope of work as above before driving 200 miles home. Was about £600 including pressure washing the (galvanised) chassis. Subsequently, new springs, shocks, tyres and brakes all round plus a host of minor stuff improved reliability and usability. Also bought several padlocks and immobiliser stuff

Sounds about right. I’m going to clarify with the garage on Friday that I would like it to run, steer and stop (as well as a 54 year old Landy can)

All of the other bits can be done stage by stage. As long as it is safe to drive and tow crap to the tip.. (I didn’t know the towing categories on licences is in the process of changing and doing away with the trailer test up to a certain weight !?!?! That’s a result)

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I have an account at Paddocks now, and a wish list…

Danger!

[CTO]

That’s a great find

Tbf tho, ours currently has no roof, so that’s a bit of time saved and I don’t think he needs to do quite as much removal of peripherals as he did…

Outside of the heavy duty faffing though, it did seem relatively straightforward

[CTO]

Evoluzione said:

From a fellow new property owner it looks like you're making great progress
It's a shame in a way to cut the tree down as it looks like a decent specimen and adds a bit of useful character to the area..

The debate about to fell or not continues in our house. I say no, the OH she say yes.

I like it for the reason you mention, the OH says the tree isn’t native to our shores and shouldn’t be there..

I have Googled “Tall pointy dense UK trees” and decided it could be anything from a juniper to a fir to a conifer../

Anyone want to give me a steer and further the great Worcester tree debate/debacle.

Cheers all,

[CTO]

Evening all,

Some updates from todays endeavours, finally back at the house and making some meaningful progress again…

We made a bonfire to start disposing of some of the waste foliage and tree(s) that have come down.

Full disclosure: I tried lighting this three times in the last couple of weeks to no avail. My neighbour (Paul the Farmer) came round last week and laughed politely and then sent me a WhatsApp to say he had left me a gallon of red diesel….

So today we appeased the fire gods…
In the beginning;


And then fully underway;


The Landy absolutely earned its purchase today and ran like a dream. I have figured out all the knobs and levers and it served a variety of purposes during the day.

Picnic table;


Carrying stuff to the bottom rock houses for storage;


Use as a stepladder for another Paul to use while pulling off dead ivy;


Keeping one eye on our Ivy and using our recovery rope to try and pull it down… predictably the ivy snapped

Video clip of fail;[img]

/Thumbsnap doesn’t seem to support sound when uploading a video so apologies for the silence..

And a bit of general off roading round the garden…
Gripped/Sorted…
[url]

Then we decided to move onto the unidentified tree and cut that down. Paul number two undertook some rigorous checking of the height to check it wouldn’t wipe out the power to our lane on its way when falling. His verdict was “yeaaaahh, looks fine mate”



(That is his measuring face). Also, behold the smoke from fire giving everyone else in the valley a misty day

Then it was on to chopping bits off the tree.

Bit off the back;


And a bit off the side;


Paul (another Paul, this one is number 3) assisted valiantly as a direction enabler/human skittle;



And she is gone;


I was going to video the actual felling but would have felt a bit of a tool if it had gone wrong and someone got hurt whilst I haven’t helped and just stood there capturing their final moments..

Put the landy to more use as a tree cuttings receptacle;


And then we moved onto the main rock houses and clearing the previous owners items…
Finally looking emptier;


And


Had a look at the electrics to see if we could get power on, decided to wait for Craig the Sparky…

And

Found some statues in a wall

And tried to picture the view out from the occupants in the early part of the last century;

Think they may need a bit of a clean…

By this time it was nearly 5pm and Uber eats was calling my name. Paul (2) had left to watch the Bond Film and Paul (3) was looking every bit as done in as me..

Took some torch light pics of the caves;

And

And some final ones of the trusty beast… Goodcar #DC2

Peeking through the bushes;

And looking every bit at home in the garden;

And that’s the summary of todays efforts.
Finally home and smashed some food.

Our Architect is coming tomorrow avo to review and amend the house plans… They aren’t yet where we want them to be so I haven’t posted as kind of pointless until we are happy otherwise likely people will point out the same bits we have that need changing

Cheers all,

Edited by CTO on Saturday 23 October 22:58

[CTO]

McGee_22 said:

Great thread - loving the caves and the Landy.

Thanks

[CTO]

Mikebentley said:

What a thread. Great work OP. Hire it are a good bunch. Say hello to the manager Gavin next time you are in…..he’s my little brother.

Thanks Mike, they definitely are. Easily the most helpful bunch I have dealt with.

Say hi to Gavin from me. He likely won’t have a clue but if you mention the clueless bloke with the Rock Houses he might have a decent guess

[CTO]

I’ve joined Landyzone (I think it’s that one) which has been very helpful.

Also, you can download the maintenance and servicing booklet online which sets out how to do all the jobs from removing the engine to setting the timing, which is nice.

The service on Friday didn’t happen due to the garage having trucks stuck on their ramps.. it’s booked in again this Friday though for a check up

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Austin_Metro said:

At one point I thought the Land Rover was going to be an indulgence… but now I can see it’s absolutely essential. Looking forward to more. Great thread OP.

How’s the eye?

It was a bit of an indulgence tbh, but I’ve always wanted one and the OH learn to drive in pretty much exactly the same car so it just timed well with the house and the application of some man maths

It really is a great little thing though and we will be it’s long term owners far after the house is done. It’s just the perfect fun car for the area we live…

The eye is fully healed and thanks to you and others for asking. I did get a bit worried when things were still blurry on day five but a full recovery just took a bit longer.

Genuinely makes me shiver tho when I think it could have quite easily been a permanent loss… it really only takes a moment of laxness, a good lesson learnt early enough hopefully for me.

Cheers,

[CTO]

TimmyMallett said:

I think your landy might be burning a bit of oil there

No more than usual

[CTO]

rustyuk said:

I see one of 3 outcomes to this thread;

There is a serous accident
The house is burnt down
OP gets a big fine for breaking anyone of various listed building or planning laws.

Please carry on

PS I love that Landrover!

All three of those are likely, possibly simultaneously….

[CTO]

Evening all,

Not been much by the way of updates as we are at the stage of finalising plans and putting the application in.

We have changed the house name though which was surprisingly straight forward (at least the local council part was), now we need to update land registry and mortgage company etc…

Plans have come back from the architect and I have included them below. Feedback is welcome of course

So, here goes:

Existing structure and floor plans first
Frontage and left external aspect

Rear and right external aspect

Existing internal floor plan


And as proposed;
Front and left external aspect

Rear and right external aspect


And proposed floor plan;


Occupancy levels would I guess be helpful for reference. It will be me and the OH and our dog, Pixie.

Some elements of the plan are bound to change as we go and there will inevitably be amendments. The above should give us what we need to begin the building application process though.

Aaaaaaaand in other news, the landy went for its check over and full service on Friday

Verdict is that it needs new tyres, prop shafts have excess play and there is misting on rear shocks. A couple of minor holes here and there but she is structurally sound and won’t fold in the middle next time it rains…

Bearing in mind that our inspection at purchase included a pretend knowledgable look at the bits we though we were supposed to look at and a Clampits style spin up the road at 40mph I think we did well/were extremely lucky

To celebrate and give her a treat, the refurbished wheel is now back in the rear tub and a family member very kindly fabbed us up a bracket to hold the wheel in place. There is an existing bracket but with excess lateral movement which I wasn’t happy with….
Pics are below
A wheel;

A bracket;


A wheel secured in a landrover, with a bracket;




I also trimmed the excess bolt length before it inevitably took a chunk out of my shin.

Feeling warm inside for the truck, I also fitted a new quarter window in the cab, bought new wiper blades, new H and L knobs, new rear mud flaps and a speedo cable…

Not sure whether it will be house or car that is going to be the bigger financial undertaking

Cheers all,

[CTO]

Thanks both,

And yep, interested in comments and thanks for taking a look and the time to post

The idea with the two rear gable ends is that they will be clad in a composite wood fired effect to blend the rear aspect into the landscape/view behind.

I’m doing a terrible job of explaining so will add a picture to give context;


^^^
This is a not very good picture of the rear of the house from about 2/3 the way up the back garden and we didn’t want to look across the view with our house in the middle and too much brick expanse, hence the choice of some composite cladding for the two gable ends..

Re the windows: happy to take on board any comments on how members feel it could be improved upon..

Cheers all,

[CTO]

EDE 7N said:

As above, the rear elevation spoils it and I’d be surprised if the planners didn’t have something to say about it.

Don’t let your architect plan your kitchen!

I’d move the utility to where the fridge freezer and pantry are enabling more glass on that side and hide the pantry etc into the middle of the house.

It also frees up space there for some sort of plant room/cylinder cupboard which he’s (not) surprisingly forgotten!

Thanks,

I can see where you’re going with the movement of the two rooms and it’s food for thought. I agree that the rear elevation doesn’t feel resolved/cohesive.

The side door marked on the plans (L side) needs to stay where it is preferably but we are open to reconfiguring that space/moving the two rooms to enable more glazing to balance up the external aspect…

I know this is moving into the realms of the photoshop thread and (sex dungeon aside) I also expect that Lewis and the Wheely Girl might make an appearance but if anyone wants to amend the plan images with suggestions it would be helpful for further discussions with the architect….

Cheers all,

[CTO]

Thanks all,

Appreciate the time taken to review and make suggestions

The left hand side of the house (and entrance) will be where the lawnmower/tools/landy will live.

The utility is placed where it is as a “decontamination space for me to strip off and chuck dirty clothes in the laundry baskets as the WM and TD will both be situated there also.

I guess a question is whether the two rooms could be swapped and the utility moved to the corner and glazing provided to a) balance the rear aspect a bit and b) enable the OH to watch me injuring myself in the garden….

Re the other suggestions, I will chuck the plans up on the tv later and have a walk through with the OH

Thanks again,

Cheers all,

[CTO]

Evening all,

Some updates to the plans and to try and answer a few questions.

I have amended the plans with my high quality drawings to show the workings out…

So,


Hopefully this will make clearer the proposed layout of the kitchen.

The island is smaller than originally pictured and the counter tops (diagonally above at 1 o’clock are single height only, meaning that you can talk to people sat at the table whilst you are prepping dinner/making cocktails/pouring shots/officiating the beer pong tournament at the dining table…..

The double doors to the lounge will stay, the OH likes pottering in the kitchen and dependent on our moods we might want to be connected, or otherwise

The small bedroom adjacent to the dressing room is actually an office. Noted that others prefer it downstairs, that doesn’t work for me (we had that arrangement in our previous house). Every time I walked past the office door I ended up popping in or it reminds me of work stress and so I prefer to close the door and walk downstairs to a “non work contaminated floor”.

We have reconfigured the ensuite and the dressing room wrt the windows.

The side elevation window in the bathroom will now be a double rather than a triple to provide a larger shower enclosure and the dressing room has gained In width, meaning that the wall will move sideways and the triple window will again become a double.

Hopefully the above makes sense given my drawings look like a spannered bloke has got hold of an etchasketch….

In other news; the landy has new boots and Rimz.

Rimz is here;


And my successful effort at collecting four large tyres in a small car;


And put all together in one package and fitted;




Aesthetically I prefer the original wheels, practically I prefer these. The previous tyres were tubed 7.50x16 and made of what felt like iron.
The new tyres are 235/85R/16’s and therefore open the options to many more tyre choices. They also make the ride significantly more supple and all round a bit more comfortable and every bit of extra comfort helps in a series Landrover

Pleased with the above I tried to fit a new speedo cable and failed and after three hours the first drive ended up with this..



Back to the drawing board and a new one ordered. At £10 a go I can’t be cocking up too many more of these!

To cheer myself up I decided to take my old tyres to the rock houses in the garden for storage (and see if I could get the landrover to the top of the garden).

Great success!


And


This was followed by some rockery interface and general messing about in the garden


And that’s about it for now….
Apologies that it is less house and more fat bloke arsing about. Not too much we can do until we start to hear from planning and then the major work begins…

Cheers all and thanks for following,