19th April 2025

Everyday lately is just clearing. Oh and surveys. Had the full asbestos survey completed on the Wednesday (16th) and so we’re waiting on the samples to confirm where and what types of asbestos there are. We know we have an asbestos roof, and ceiling panels but these can be removed by non-licensed people (we could do it ourseleves if we need to). There is suspected lagging in the property as well though; and this will need to be removed by professionals and tented off – at a cost of around £1800 per day. So it depends on how much of the pipework is covered (some is just fibreglass) and to what extent it has decayed and dusted the flooring. None of this is scary or new information to us – the price of the property reflected this; and should the lagging removal come in higher than we want; we can look at maybe removing the ceiling tiles ourselves and hiring an asbestos skip. 

Stage 1 of the Bat Survey took place on the Thurs. Stage 1 includes looking for evidence of Bats; mainly droppings. Nicholas couldn’t find any actual droppings anywhere, but plenty of ‘feeding’ evidence – butterfly wings. Apparently bats like to eat the bodies but discard the wings. However, surely as the butterflies die from being trapped inside the property (I see lots flapping at the windows), their wings will be trampled by ourselves across the building.  I’m not disputing that we need to move onto Stage 2, however, as the building has a tonne of places that bats could enter and roost. And the property attached on the end had to re-site their brown eared bats. In fact there’s a whole bat shed built nearby!  So we’re expecting to move onto stage 2 soon – where people will come and monitor the site in the evening, and take sound recordings to identify which bats are around. Some bats are more protected than others, so identifying which ones we have will help identify what licensing we need for the work we have done. 

We recently had a tree surgeon quote to remove the trees along the driveway, which we’re going to go ahead with – so we started to clear the driveway to help a little with this; as well as to just create a wider drive to make any work easier (like getting skips delivered!). 

We’ve managed to fully clear the office in the back of the building and have already filled one skip. Skips are definitely going to cost us thousands! We also broke into the ‘landlocked room’ and discovered  – well  nothing interesting really. Its good to have the extra room though!

Whilst we’re clearing the space my head is whirring with interior design ideas. The laundry was originally a tannery and the pits are still open (but covered over). I’ve decided I’m going to dedicate a length of the pits to a glassed-over museum of things. For example, there are a set of irons from across the ages -these would look fantastic cleaned up and displayed in the floor (and lit of course). We will also have a whisky and wine ‘cellar’ section in the floor also -John’s always wanted a fancy wine cellar! 

Lastly – I’m concerned about the original signage outside; for two reasons – weathering and theft. I would like to bring it inside and preserve; so I’ve sent a few queries out to signage places in the area to get quotes for creating a correx (plastic) replica (with ‘rust’ details and all). I wouldn’t want to remove the sign fully,  as I’m sure this would upset the neighbours  – and it just  wouldn’t be right would it?! But replacing it with an identical replica would be ok I’m sure. 

One more thing – I’ve started a Budget / Costings page!