Page 17 - The Farming Years proof

CHAPTER 4
Plans for the farm house
Here we are, on the 24th March 1975, having given ourselves a double challenge. First the conversion of an old farm house and buildings into a desirable and attractive family residence while working on support buildings to meet our needs. At the same time we needed to create a satisfactory farming policy that worked.
The two challenges are separate action plans with the building having ultimate nishing dates, although it seemed a long way off at the time, and the farming having potential continuity.
So let’s talk about buildings. We knew a self-employed architect, Rex Baker, who was artistic and came at our price having no sup- port staff and we liked him. Thinking back he came through poor old Don Knight, like many useful contacts in my life.
It was clear that we had to enlarge the main farm house to meet our needs to compare with the comfort factor we had enjoyed at Billing. So we decided to build out from the previous kitchen area giving a new kitchen, new utility room and boiler room with an entrance from the side. This was all possible because John had
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