Now living on the set of Desperate Housewives, all twitching curtains and lawn mowing. Seems a bit quiet and out of the way as well as cramped. Need to get to the farm before I go completely bonkers.
All planning permission now approved on the barns but with a list of conditions as long as your arm, some of which are so detailed. You wonder whether planners just want to keep making work for architects and professional advisers in one extended bureaucratic circle.
I can see why the owners of the Milton Keynes shopping centre resisted it being listed for 10 years.

Windows are in and looking fantastic. No more leaky draughty sashes like we've got now. We should be warm too with the amount of insulation going in - cracking on and builders now working flat out.
The woodburning stove turned up today....a month too soon. They had the wrong date in the diary and didn't even have the farm address!
In the meantime, we are moving to a rented house. Surrounded by boxes and packing which is soul destroying. Teenagers no help at all - just an excuse to make more of a mess.

Electricity cable connected today, but no power yet as the meter man came yesterday and wouldn't put the meter in until the cable was connected. I'm sure that EDF told me it was the other way round. Have now made another appointment for the meter man.
Still slow progress with the builders. Their previous client is proving very demanding and keeps changing things that have been finished and delaying most of them from coming to us. I don't have many demands - just that they get on with it!
The guy in the caravan is in a ridiculous squabble with the roofers over them scratching his chair. Trying to get me to intervene as if I'm their (or his) mother. He is spiritual (apparently) so needs special treatment.
More details to be changed on the drains. The latest price for connecting to the sewer is £26,000 and rising. Maybe we could do without a kitchen altogether.

More bizarre demands from the planners. They don't want the roof lights on the big barn to be symmetrical because farm buildings aren't symmetrical! They also want granite sets leading in to the field entrance - this goes straight onto farmland so seems a bit over the top. They say they don't want to make farms look suburban and then demand something like that. They seem to like spending other peoples' money and making changes for the sake of it.
Picked up more rubbish from the fields including a milk crate, frying pan and a pair of Ugg boots.
Maybe we really are bonkers. Was interviewed by a woman from the local paper who clearly seemed to think so.

Interesting debate about travellers:
http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/news/Gypsies-cause-chaos-towns/article-2287024-detail/article.html

Strawberry shortcake did the trick - foundations for the farmhouse extension now all dug and filled with concrete. Building inspector has signed it off which means we have officially started on the farmhouse. That's good because the planning permission runs out in July and it took long enough to get it so don't want to start again.
It also means we can leave the farmhouse for a bit while we get on with the barns. The small barn is a priority and after that, the big barn and stables which will be a 4-bed house. I would like to get that watertight before the winter.
The farmhouse is a longer project as it is more complicated but hopefully can be done in tandem with the big barn.
Phase 2 is the new-build eco house as we will have run out of money by then. We will have to sell something to fund that house where we will ultimately live and is what this project was all about in the first place!
When we can move into the barn later this year, it should be easier. Then we can start sorting out the fields. My role at the moment is making sure everyone knows what is going on and who has said what to whom. Each of the houses has their own particular concerns so budgeting is also crucial. Like George Osborne, there will be cuts to come.
The council looks set to approve our new field entrance which is in record time. It means we can get the field access sorted before the concrete blocks are removed.

Farm now all barricaded with concrete blocks, looks like an urban slum, but safer I hope. A bit of demolition and foundation digging for the farmhouse extension should be taking place in the next couple of days. The builder is touchingly keen to preserve the wisteria, so we'll dig it up and plant it somewhere else.
I've been getting worked up about executive pay, as well as drains. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/11/chief-executives-pay-bonuses