Jane and Jamie looked round the place and both agreed that it would make a great living area with some basic improvements. They would have to get used to having a lot less space than they had at the bungalow, but that was to be expected. They discussed it for a while and decided on a few things: maybe a new partition wall upstairs to make a bedroom, some better insulation and basic décor, and lots of shelving or racking for storage in the kitchen and living areas, and the wood-burner, of course.
‘If you wanted to,’ said Bill, ‘you could even make a porch area, or a sort of conservatory, over the entrance. It faces east so gets the morning sun, which might be nice: just a thought.’
Having made some decisions, the women then went back to the house for a chat, leaving Bill and Jamie to draw up a list of materials they would need for the job. They looked at each other and grinned; both men loved a project to get stuck into and they were looking forward to it. It would be the first step towards their future life together at the farm and they had a busy couple of months ahead of them.
Twenty-four
During the next week Jamie drove to the farm each morning to work with Bill on converting the old chicken shed into their new home, while Jane and Megan stayed at home to work in the gardens. He used his car to save the fuel in the trucks, and took all his cordless power tools and tool kit to leave at the farm. Bill met him at one of the builders’ merchants in Beeching Road in his van on the Sunday and they loaded up with timber, sheets of plywood and various other materials and fixings. The weather had turned during the night and became overcast and drizzly for two days, which made it awkward as they couldn’t cut the materials outside. Having to cut things inside slowed them down a little due to the space, but they made do.
Back at the house, Jane and Megan were getting wet and muddy while working in the gardens. Megan didn’t seem to mind the weather and was happy stomping about in her new wellies and waterproof coat, while Max watched them from the shelter of the porch. Jane did some exploratory digging to see how the carrots and potatoes were doing in her garden and was dismayed to find that the ones she looked at were rotten. She did some more digging to find that a large number had suffered the same fate. This was a real blow to her as they were relying on this crop to see them through the next two months, and she didn’t know whether it was through disease or some sort of pest. She went further down the garden and checked the parsnips, but they were unaffected, thankfully.
She went next door to the bungalow’s garden and checked the vegetables there: all the potatoes, carrots and parsnips that she checked were okay and she breathed a sigh of relief. It meant they would be a bit short on vegetables, but most of the salads were still okay, though they had lost a fair number to slugs. They had brought some of the salad pots into the conservatory to protect them from slugs in previous weeks, but it was too hot in there and they found the plants were bolting too quickly, so they’d moved them back outside into some shade and covered them with netting, which helped.
Jane was pleased at her decision to double-up on the planting of everything in both gardens. Jamie had wanted to use the space to plant a bigger variety of vegetables between the two gardens, but Jane had been insistent that they shouldn’t do that. She’d thought it was better to have the same things spread over two different areas for just such an occurrence, and had been proved right. She gave Jamie the news that evening and he was as disappointed as she had been, but said well done for her decision and kissed her. He told them that the work was going well despite the weather, and they had nearly finished building the partition wall in the loft area for their bedroom.
On the Tuesday Bill came to the bungalow in his van with Phil to help Jamie take out the stove from his lounge and the range from Jane’s kitchen. Jamie had told Bill about Jane’s idea to take the range so they would have a proper oven and cooker in the new place, which they both thought was a good idea – if only they could get it out and transport it! Bill had a hydraulic lift that he used for shifting logs, which he said would do the job as it was rated for over a ton, but it would still be difficult. He also brought some sturdy steel ramps that might be useful.
It proved to be a rather long and cumbersome job as it was so heavy. After disconnecting the flue they managed to get the hydraulic lift’s platform underneath the range and raise it, but negotiating the doorways and getting it out to the front garden was a bit of a nightmare. Once outside the three men stood there scratching their heads, thinking of ways to get it into the back of the van. The problem was that the lift’s platform didn’t go up quite high enough to be able to slide it into the van and none of them wanted to risk injury lifting it in. They stood there for a while, each coming up with ideas that were debated and dismissed. Jane stood silently next to them, listening to what they said and thinking, before chiming in with a suggestion.
‘Why don’t you use the Toyota instead of the van? If you park the Land Rover in front of it you could run the winch cable over the cab’s roof, wrap it around the range and drag it up the ramps into the back.’
The three men all looked at each other for a few seconds and then Jamie, grinning, said ‘I’ll tell you what, guys, why don’t we use the Toyota instead of the van, then we can use the winch…’ He ducked just in time as Jane’s right hand came up to clout him. They all laughed and then congratulated her on the idea.
Jane grinned. ‘What would you lot do without us women? Sometimes it just takes a bit of lateral thinking!’ Megan clapped and cheered, giving Jane a high five with a big grin on her face.
They moved the vehicles around accordingly and set to work, and in a short while the range was sitting securely tied down in the back of the Toyota. Jane asked what they would do at the other end to unload it, but Bill said that was no problem as he had a big hoist with block-and-tackle to drop it down onto the hydraulic lift again. After that, the stove from the lounge was a piece of cake, relatively speaking. There were some extra pieces of flue and various fittings left over from the installation in the garage, so Jamie took these along with the flues they had removed. As an afterthought he put the welding gear into the truck as well, in case they had any problems.
They said goodbye to Jane and Megan then headed off in the two vehicles, stopping off in Beeching Road to visit Screwfix and the two builders’ merchants to pick up extra fittings that might be needed. Back at the farm they unloaded the range using the block-and-tackle and managed, with a lot of sweating, to get it into place in the kitchen area. They then did the same with the stove in what would be the main living area, on the same wall as the door.
Bill and Jamie thanked Phil for his help and he went back to his work on the farm, saying ‘No problem, guys; give me a shout if you need me again.’
They knocked a couple of holes in the wall near the top to take the flues outside for the range in the kitchen and the stove in the lounge, but had problems with the angles and the fittings they had. Jamie had to use the welding gear to cut some of the tubing to fit and weld it in place. It was the first time he’d done any welding in nearly twenty years and the results were a bit rough-and-ready, but functional. He looked at Bill and shrugged.
Bill grinned at him. ‘Well, I suppose a blind man on a galloping horse would like to see it!’ and they both laughed. Emma brought them some big slices of pheasant pie with a couple of beers and Jamie said it was just what the doctor ordered and kissed her. They sealed up the holes in the wall around the flues with fire cement and by late afternoon both jobs were finished. They stood back to admire their work and clinked their beer bottles together.