2025 Plans

Attempting to keep the renovation goals realistic!

Well, it’s almost the end of January! It’s about time I shared our plans for our renovation this year. I just looked back at a similar post I wrote at the start of 2024. Wow, that was way too optimistic! You could go back and reread that post, and the goals are all the same! Not completely, but I’m definitely going to have to be more realistic this year.

So, what have we achieved from last year’s list?

• We finally finished the work on the scaffolding. It took way longer than anticipated, and I still have some finishing up to do at ground level, but the scaffolding is down.

• The Estate office kitchen is done.

• Planning permission on the barn finally came through.

• The pool patio is done.

Everything else is still ongoing. Many things are almost done but not quite.

So this year what will we be up to?

• We’ll be finishing the Estate Office cottage. The hard parts are all done, but there is plenty of painting and decoration to do. I’m currently finishing the bedroom, followed by the stairs, living room, and hallway.

  

  Paintwork is between coats

• Once the weather warms up, I have some work to do on the outside of the Estate Office. This includes some repointing, painting, and guttering, mostly at ground level. However, we will also need a section of scaffolding at the front of the house.

  

  The Estate Office is this gable end of the house.

• James is finishing the new workshop, which we added to the plan. It was always going to happen, but I had it much lower on the list of priorities. However, we really need the workshop up and running to build what we need. Hopefully, it will make us more productive.

  

  The workshop before it was filled with tools!

• The gym, boiler room and pool area are almost completely finished. So close! We really just need a little bit of warm weather to be able to get out there and do the last few jobs.

• Then, towards the summer, it’s all about the top floor. We’ll start by stripping out and then insulating the large attics, including the two sections we can’t access at the moment.

• We will also be finishing the major works on the plumbing and central heating system. We’ve been doing this in phases and the next phase is to get the pumps fitted and the main runs done up through the house. That has to be done before we can fit bathrooms on the top floor as the pressure isn’t good enough at the moment.

• Lastly, I have a new plan for the garden this year. I’m spending just half an hour a day as well as one day a week with my gardener in the garden. We still have some paths to put in the vegetable garden which will make life easier but other than that I’m just doing it bit by bit and enjoying myself. So, no huge changes there but more just a gentle progression.

  

  The garden and its 26 areas!

  I think that will take us towards the end of the summer and hopefully, we can spend the autumn and winter putting the third floor back together. We have plans in place now for the ground floor and the barn conversion. James is itching to get started on these but I’m determined to keep us focused on finishing our current projects before we start something new.

We’re also being much more organised with the budget this year. We’ve started having a weekly budget meeting which is super useful and makes us both feel better. I really feel like this is a huge part of the renovation process. If you can keep an eye on the numbers and you know what’s going on it’s all a lot less scary. I’m currently getting to grips with Xero and once I have all that figured out it should be a lot easier to keep track of everything.

So, time to get back to work and I’ll keep you updated on my weekly progress.