Day 22

So there we were, site cleared and ready to pour the foundations, when the building control inspector rejected our plan. OK, it lead to a bit of messing about and a rethink, but we're now back on course and should have the concrete down on Wednesday ready to start building, fingers crossed.


Meanwhile, the well is officially 53 feet deep and I'm trying to arrange with a proper climber to pop me down to have a look about. A brief video survey (i.e. a video camera on a piece of string) revealed some intriguing hints... Was that a hand print on the wall? A scrap of cloth on one of the beams? A curved, iron-age cutting blade?

Keep watching for next thrilling episode. (BTW, I haven't forgotten this is supposed to be about a studio build but right now the well is by far the most interesting thing going on).

Day 14

2 weeks already, and it's been a rather eventful second week.

The building inspector's initial visit was fine, he's happy with our plans, so it was full steam ahead until we uncovered this hole...

Yep, it's a well, and rather old by the look of it.

I'm measuring it properly today but reckon it's about 45 feet deep and 4 and a half feet wide (that's 15m deep and 1.5m across), and it appears to have a live spring in the bottom which, if nothing else, must be good feng shui!

After an initial panic of "oh my god, the house is going to fall into the hole" and a visit from the structural engineer, who sees no major problem with it being there, I am now rather pleased with the find and am working out how to incorporate it into the floor of the studio.

Either that or scrap the studio idea and go into the bottled water business...

Day 9

Yesterday the toys arrived...


Still clearing the site...


Today we have the first visit from the council Building Control Officer, fingers crossed he doesn't complicate things.