2* Church conversion. Lacking confidence

[Ferdinand]

You must have a bell tower bedroom.

 

And a sign saying "Up the stairs to Bedfordshire" over the tower door to embarrass your teenage children in front of their friends to the max.

Edited July 30, 2020 by Ferdinand

[ProDave]

Are there still bells in that tower?  does the clock still work?

[Roundtuit]

It's not going to be easy - achieving something great never is - but it doesn't sound crazy.

Think of your budget over a longer timescale if it helps; you don't need enough cash to finish it, just enough to be able to live in it!  Take it steady, keep the cash flow under control (it makes sleeping at night much easier...) and complete sections as you can afford to at your own pace.

I'd hire a container and leave the garage until later in the project to give yourself a bit more cash to play with perhaps, and leave the landscaping for now as  @PeterWsuggested

[Ferdinand]

1 hour ago, ProDave said:

Are there still bells in that tower?  does the clock still work?

 

IIRC there is a retained bell and oak bellframe, and a bat was observed flying out from behind the clock in 2015.

 

Whether it is rigged for full circle ringing would be interesting. If it is one it would just go Dong, like Big Ben in the Not the Nine O Clock sketch.

 

Though hopefully the bat was behind the clock not in the belfry.

 

The 2015 garage design included bat facilities.

[ToughButterCup]

16 hours ago, Roundtuit said:

[...]

I'd hire a container and

[...]

 

Hire?

I'd be tempted to consider buying two cheap ones and, if space allows, put them where it's easy to access them with a vehicle / 3 tonner, and maximises the likelihood that thieves will be seen.

[Roundtuit]

2 hours ago, ToughButterCup said:

 

Hire?

Yes.  I wouldn't be tying up capital if budget was tight, and if I had a fighting chance of building a garage towards the end of the job.

[Ferdinand]

Do you mind if I go a touch lyrical on you?

 

Quite often on here we talk about the "self build journey".

 

I think your potential journey is one of the most interesting we have seen, and you will find all kinds of interesting people on the way - new skills, new experiences, and new friends. You will find yourself being late for meetings because you stopped to talk a dry stone waller on the way as a wall looks nearly but not quite like one of yours and you just have to know about the difference. If you are not already eccentric in quite that way.

 

If you want an analogy, for a church conversion of that age The Pilgrim's Progress (pub. 1678) seems quite apt. Especially as John Bunyan came from Elstow in the immediate areas and started writing it in Bedfordshire County Prison. You will go through the Hill of Difficulty, and the House Beautiful, and perhaps the Slough of Despond, and Gaius' Inn and Vanity Fair, and on your journey - with good fortune - to the Celestial City you will meet a host of short or long term fellow travellers who will be alongside you for a time. Some will stay friends. Some will not. But it will be interesting.

 

Given that you are on the edge of Cromwell Country, there may even be a contemporary musket ball or two in your beams.

 

Or read the thumbnail sketches of Bilbo Baggins at the beginning and end of "The Hobbit". It is perfectly possible you transform from a building version of the former to the latter.

And get to have lots of fun as well :-).

 

F

Edited August 1, 2020 by Ferdinand

[Jason f]

Looks like you’re getting all the right advice here. What an amazing project! It will be worth it in the end.