Welcome

Cowieswells is a derelict farm south of Stonehaven in NE Scotland. We were lucky enough to acquire the place in August 2010 when we were moving back to the UK from Norway and looking for something to match or even better our previous, fjord-side home. The farm house and steading (barns) command an impressive and exposed cliff top location with fantastic views across the North Sea. The buildings were constructed from sandstone in a traditional style and our goal in rebuilding it is to be sympathetic to the original design whilst creating a much larger house which is modern, efficient and maximizes the unique views.

Since we bought the place we have spent over a year working with architects, planners and generally doing stuff that doesn't make for interesting reading. This blog picks up the renovation process in late 2011 when work outside got started. Over the coming months it will be updated every week or so with pictures, movies and the odd bit of text. Like Grand Designs but without the suave sarcasm of Kevin McCloud.

Wednesday, 17 April 2013

One project complete - one to go!

When we bought Cowieswells, Katharine was pregnant with Sophie and we had a very optimistic view that we might be completed by Christmas 2011, before she was born. That was quickly dismissed when we realised that magnitude of the task at hand. Once we actually finished planning and started building the main house (March 2012) we still had high hopes of being finished by Christmas 2012.
We had originally hoped to be in before the one of the left was born! Blind optimism! 
Then in the summer of 2012 we found out that Katharine was pregnant again but we never even considered that we would not be in the house before our second child arrived.When we missed the Christmas move-in this started to become an increasingly possible outcome. It started as a joke and then as time marched on, the race became more earnest.

Last Thursday at 1.45pm Abigail Laura made her entry to the World at a fairly average 3.5kg and 50cm. She was blissfully unaware that she had just won the child vs house race!

The winner! 
The latest estimates are that the house will be ready for us to move into next week. Lots of last minute tidying up and small bits to finish off, but we are very very close. The movers are booked for a week Friday, so I predict that we will be in before the end of April.

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1 comment:

  1. Ola24 April 2013 at 09:58

    Congratulations to you and to Abigail for winning her first race :-)
    And good luck with the movers!

    ReplyDelete

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