It's Mothers Day

Aaaaah.

RAIL Again

Look out for the next issue of RAIL magazine - on bookstalls on 10th April.   It carries a FIFTEEN page feature article about the S&C, 30 years on from its reprieve from closure.

The words may be rubbish but the layout is spectacularly good.

First Tentative Steps to New Extension

Sorry it has been a bit quiet Blog-wise of late.   I've just finished work on what turns out to be a 15 page feature in the next issue of RAIL magazine - on sale 10th April.   That being out of the way I have made a very gentle start on clearing the decks to enable work to start on building the new extension,   First job is to remove much of the external cladding from those bits of the existing annex which will be covered by the new extension.   That very cladding will be re-used to clad the new bits so that you will hardly notice the join.

Here is the south end of the annex with the first two bits of cladding painlessly removed:

'Rainscreen' cladding has had a bad press since the Grenfell Tower tragedy.   Ours is not plastic but heavy aluminium.   The rain is kept out as the name implies and there is an air gap to keep the block-work wall absolutely dry.   Only snag is that spiders love it and their webs discolour the panels if not cleared away.   Sorry to be a spider-spoil-sport and all that.

and today, Monday 8th April, Alan, James and I removed all but one of the top row.  The remainder can be safely removed from ground level.

God's Own County

Not sure just where in G.o.C. this is but you get the idea:

Click to enlarge

That Bloody Woman

Proud as Punch of this picture of our darling daughter Lorna as she gives her 22nd pint of much needed blood.

A+ (what else?) matches about 1/3rd of the population but Lorna has some special factor which is uncommon and is particularly valuable for new-born babies.   Apparently it's because she didn't catch something as a child.   Proud parents even prouder.

Planning Permission Granted

I've kept quiet about this on this Blog but we have today received planning and listed building consent for our revised submission following refusal of our earlier scheme last year.   Now, we just need to know if it is affordable, then we can get building.

In summary we hope to be building a two bedroom/ kitchen / bathroom / lounge extension to our existing annex at first floor level, supported partly on stilts where the rear embankment drops away.

For those who lack the will to live the whole application can be seen at
https://publicaccess.cravendc.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=dates&keyVal=PKV2WJFKK3700

and here are the pictures - click on any one to enlarge:

Special thanks at this stage to architect Stuart Green - and to Restoration Man / Amazing Spaces guru George Clarke who scrutinised the plans mid-way and pointed out how we might save some space.