Let's make a road #1

So we think we're allowed to build a road now. Never absolutely sure, but we did get notice that the red tape has been snipped, so here's what we have so far...

Ain't she a beauty? The road, not me.

Plan is to lay a membrane on the cleared section, then a special roll-out honeycomb thing that gets filled with gravel. More pics soon 

(unless we get told to stop, of course)

For the Geeks

A history of my attempts to create a timelapse movie of the build.

The idea: put a camera on the inner apex of the front wall, capture all the goings-on at 1 minute (later 20 second) intervals for the duration, make a movie out of it. Simples.

Camera #1 (Autumn 2020)

With the help of No.1 son Jack, we managed to put together a camera run by a Raspberry Pi Zero computer, in a nifty little box and bracket, all available from https://thepihut.com/ at a fraction of the price of a real timelapse rig, which was going to cost hundreds of poundlings. 

Plus points: cheap, easy

Minus points: had to offload the photos regularly via a USB interface. Given the position of the camera 8m off the ground, this required a laptop and a very long micro USB lead, which eventually degraded so badly that comms became more and more unreliable.

Camera #2 (April 2021)

Again with help from Jack, we went wireless with a Raspberry Pi Zero W in a near identical setup. Now the means of downloading was via wireless interface to my phone. I was really quite proud of this as I did the code mostly on my own like a grown-up.

Plus points: convenience. Saunter up, turn on wireless hotspot on phone, wait for the Pi to connect, download the files. Range about 15m so adequate.

Minus points: Battery life. The setup used motorcycle-type batteries that needed swapping about every 10 days. We eventually rigged up a phone charger to feed the Pi via the original 10m USB lead, which was ok for that purpose. Also speed of download, which was roughly 30 seconds per file. Since I upped the frames to one every 20 seconds (daylight hours only), the rig produced 33 frames per day, which is a lot of standing around. I eventually stopped downloading the files, having calculated the disk space on the Pi could hold enough data to give me time to develop camera #3. WRONNNNG

Camera #3 (Currently half-built)

Again with the Raspberry Pi Zero, again with the nifty box. This time we include a SIM card and program it to upload resulting images to my web storage. 

Plus points: completely independent.

Minus points: well.

My first attempt to do the soldering required to interface the SIM assembly to the Pi circuit board resulted in a damaged SIM (sorry Jack) so I had to order a replacement. 

While I await the new SIM assembly (I ordered two), I have discovered that Camera #2 has stopped taking new images. I presume the disk is full. This puts the pressure on somewhat, so I thought the best solution was to come on here and whinge about it.

Feel better now. More later.

More progress

Well, I thought I should do a more positive post after my rant. So here are some uplifting titbits:

Paul's made good progress on the South side of the main building, having converted the fifth window to a doorway. This will be our main way to the house, as opposed to the big old front door, which will be for the venue. 

Just inside this door on the left will be the main stairwell and lift up to the living space above. Progress has also been made on that section..

All in all a good couple of weeks, especially considering work done on preparing for the front wall reinforcement. That now has full footings in place, and the steel man will measure up in the next few days, for the structure to hold up that precious front wall during the build process.

We still await one detail of planning permission for our access road, and Lyn is emailing and phoning almost daily to get that sorted out. hopefully soon there will be good news.

All the work Paul is doing would have to be done at some point, it's just being done out of the normal order, but it's all good.

More soon, faithful Owlers.

First Concrete Pour

Historic day today - our first concrete pour. It's only for holding up the front wall so we don't lose a quarter of the building before we even start, but at least it's real actual progress.

Rant:

Who'd have thought, nearly two years after buying the place, 15 months after an (almost) unanimous decision by the council to grant us access over the co-op field, 6 months after a unanimous decision by the borough planning office to pass the planning permission, and two months after signing a lease on said field and beginning to pay (exorbitant) rent on it - who'd have thought we still wouldn't be allowed to build the access road? It beggars belief. To the gods of red tape, I say congratulations. Because of you, we've had to spend a huge amount on shoring up the front edifice. Because of you we have a builder doing his utmost to continue with roughly 40 tonnes of rubble still on site. Because of you we cannot build our footings and the steel structure that would preserve this increasingly fragile building into the future. Be proud. Puff out your chests. You have achieved great things these past two years.

Rant ends.

Some photographs of our hole:

And a video of it being filled:

..and more pictures

This massive footing has cost an arm and a leg, and would not have been necessary had it not been for the huge delay since clearing the trees. Thanks again guys.

More when I'm happier.

Aerial View

 Drone shot, as we stand. Doesn't look such a big job does it?

Access

The news we've been waiting for has arrived: we have been given a license to build our access road. We're very very very pleased.

We can now start the real work. Thanks to all who lobbied the Town Council, attended countless zoom meetings, encouraged us, supported us and cajoled us.

Onward

Falling Down

Builder Paul has been well busy making use of the recent dry weather. The arches on the front section were degrading very quickly, and likely to collapse completely over another winter. We really like the job he's made of fixing them up.

..but why all the props, you ask? Well, I'll tell you why. The whole edifice is falling down, that's why.

Our engineer is so concerned about movement of the lower section, and the unsupported upper section, that we're not allowed to approach it. We've also had to prop it up temporarily. Without an access road over which the necessary building waste could be removed, to allow proper setting out of the footings for steel work that would hold the whole thing up, we are faced with constant worry every time the wind blows from east or west. This all means that despite gaining verbal permission for the access road LAST AUGUST, the constant delays have meant that our project is likely to end up as a pile of rubble before we even get started. I really can't thank those concerned enough for the past year (and still counting) which none of us will ever get back. I sincerely hope it was worth your trouble.

In happier news, Paul has begun shoring up the walls of what will eventually become my shed.

Say what you like about our Paul, but he can certainly chuck bricks together.

Onward.

Graveyard whomp

 You see piles of dead brambles, wood, masonry and general rubbish...

..I see piles of dead brambles, wood, masonry and general rubbish AND A CLEARED GRAVEYARD.

I know this doesn't look like much, but I can testify it was a hard day. More to come, no doubt, but absolutely worth it.

Getting wet

 Progress in today's rain has been impressive, I hear. Not going there myself, someone has to man this desk :)

Main steps are now straight:

Some more graves have been un-brambled..

Builder Paul in his full rain-protection gear:

We'll be spending the coming weekend clearing brambles from the rest of the graves on the south side. And dodging showers of course.

Graveyard stomp

Builder is busy with the many lumps of stone left over from clearing and tidying the graveyard. Here's a sample of his work:

An excellent picnic spot in times to come, I'm sure you'll agree

Transformations

 Bit of wall repair has happened. Actually, a lot.

When this:

..becomes this:

You start to feel like this could all be really nice when it's finished.

Grand.

 Just leave this here...

Find of the day

 Found this:

Think it might find its way into the final build. But on which floor? Home or venue? Venue methinks.

Sprucing up the walls

 Bit of wall maintenance starting this week. Here's a pic of a wall with no vegetation for a change:

Soon we'll have scaffolding up and the top few courses of this wall will be made good and sealed. May the good weather last forever...

A new beginning

So the builder is now back on site after a long planning application finally got sorted. He is clearing the site with a small motorised digger, as currently that's the biggest thing we can get on site. When the access road is sorted, progress will be quicker (and more interesting).

Sunday school graduates: (I know there are many of you!) here are some clearance pics:

Got this lovely photo of the front of the church in 1975:

.our design does not actually use a front door like this one - we're building an entry area and leaving the doorway as is, so the actual door will be just inside. The required internal walls will go some way toward supporting the whole front edifice, which as lovely as it is, currently rests on two large beams just above the doorway. We get jitters every time strong winds blow :(

In fact, when completed this will be the venue door. Our own "front" door will be on the south side (left side here) towards the back, and will use one of the old arched windows knocked down to ground level. From there we'll have an entry hall, and access to the stairs and lift to the upper floor.

Stop press: just had a letter from the Town Hall's solicitor - things are looking very promising for the access road. We are unspeakably excited :)

More soon, Owlers