Page 19 - The Farming Years proof
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CHAPTER 5 Making it habitable
not surprisingly, the rst construction activity after the purchase in May was for the horses as the farmhouse was waiting for plan- ning permission. The stables and loft were in poor shape and, for us, needed total refurbishment. The mangers inside needed some rebuilding and re-pointing and a new concrete oor to replace the broken up current oor which needed a prompt mixed concrete delivery – fortunately in an easy delivery position.
There were two ample-sized stables and a tack room with a set of dangerous stairs to the loft. We rst dealt with the stables which needed new stable doors, new tack room door and new stairs to the loft which also needed a rst oor entrance door for conve- nient loading from a tractor trailer or tractor bucket. Sylvia looked around and found the best deal was with Magnet Joinery, a mul- tiple that still exists. The new safe stairs were made on site which was the only way.
The oor in the loft was another danger with broken oor boards and the potential of other boards ready to join them. So, putting in new oorboards and getting the boards totally close together without a gap was necessary to accommodate our surplus furni-
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