Log Cabin Tales - Part One....

As you know I am very lucky to have my own sewing room. However, we only have a little 3 bed semi and so by having my own space it means the boys have to share a room.

Initially this wasn't an issue, they always shared and didn't want their own rooms. In fact up until they were about 10 & 12 they shared a double bed - it started when they were really little, we would go to check on them and they would be sharing the one bunk and so we had to buy a triple sleeper with a double bed on the bottom for them!! 

The spare room was a huge mess so when I started crafting I claimed it as my own which meant that when (typically!!) H and W decided they wanted their own space they had missed the window of opportunity.

We briefly considered moving but to make it worthwhile we would need a B-I-G mortgage and we always maintained we would rather have a smaller house and more money than stretch ourselves for a big/fancy home. Our neighbours raised four girls in their house and so we should be able to manage our two!!

A loft conversion is impossible as the pitch of our roof is so low and so I am super excited to tell you that we have decided to put a log cabin at the bottom of the garden. It'll be my sewing room and also somewhere Mr G can work when he needs a bit of peace (i.e to be able to do conference calls without the kids fighting, dogs barking and parrot squawking in the background!!) This means W will move into the third bedroom and everyone will have their own space.

Our budget is pretty small (about £4000 total) and out of that has to come the complete cabin and concrete base so I was delighted (after a LOT of research) to find the Parijs log cabin by Tuin:

Ignore the nasty orange woodstain - ours will be my favourite duck egg blue....

Our garden was what sold the house to us being approx 75ft long and having four beautiful mature trees at the bottom:

Unfortunately, 3 of the 4 trees are ash and sadly in the last couple of years they have died. 

We rarely use the area under them and have in fact moved the table and chairs (partly due to bird poo!!) onto the grass and so that area is going to be perfect for the cabin:

The trees need to be removed and so some of our budget has to go on tree surgery. I'm sad the trees have died, but they now need to come out cabin or not as they will become dangerous if the weather is stormy.

Our (builder) friend J from my stables is going to lay a concrete base once the trees are out.

To the right if the area was a shed that was full of C-R-A-P and barely has a floor anymore so yesterday Mr G and W set about clearing the area - they made a pile of scrap metal for J; a pile for the tip and last night had a fire with the wood - we ate our dinner by the light of it and toasted marshmallows so now the area is ready for the trees to go:

What a mess - still, it always looks worse before it looks better!!

Those areas of hardstanding have to be broken up, a retaining wall made and then infilled before the concrete is poured to create a perfect level base.

The cabin is 5m x 3.8m and will come to about 30cms before the railway sleeper, but we will still have plenty of garden left:

So, the cabin has been ordered, the tree surgeon booked and work on the retaining wall and concrete base begins on Monday!!

In the next few weeks I'll keep a record here of all the goings on....

Hugs,

S x

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