Monday, November 24, 2014

Creating Spaces. The Felt Studio. Part 1

We love our place!

The stunning view is inspirational.  The remnants of this once great farm have given us much scope for renovation.

So far we've turned some of the buildings into room for the knitting and felting. and the Gallery  & Tea room where hold events, exhibitions and serve our food and refreshments.

This works well, and we are lucky to have it.

There was a need for more space, particularly when Elaine was felting large pieces, or hosting larger groups. The Gallery works fine, but it can be a pinch at times, and the floor is not waterproof!

This month we've solved that by finishing another place - Elaine's Felting Studio.

It all came about as a result of a wonderful gift: some windows! 

Our great friends Tracy & Jimmy renewed the windows in their house, and offered us the old ones. 

One of our policies is wherever possible 'always say "Yes"' so we took them gladly, with no idea where they were going to go!

The two bay windows gave us the idea to opening up one of the smaller outhouses, not something we'd considered before.


back in 2010 - lovely, but a bit unassuming We had no plans for this

fist there was a lot of clearing to be done! Thanks to Niall
This year 2014:

The windows, when put together, were nearly 9 foot wide, and would make a lovely sunny garden window on the south side of the outbuildings.

These were currently employed as washroom, and store. The store would be more aptly called glory hole or dumping ground! A total waste of space and resources.


there was a wall between the 2 doors

just a dumping ground!

First of all some structural work: make the opening, and build a low wall:


widening the opening

my assistants on the new wall

which opens right on to the garden


ready for the lintel and removal of the doors and wall
Next we put in place the windows and added roof joists to support them (and the roof!)
windows and roof joists in place


it's going to be lovely and light


and looks out over this


a hint of things to come

so bright in the sunshine
 Next step involved moving inside and digging up the sloping concrete floor - a task that soon took on a whole new dimension, when we found some enormous stones lurking just below the surface!.

More on that in our next post.....