Highdays and Hideaways

10/05/2024

We did it! Managed to get all three cottages habitable before the weekend, ready to host so many of our gorgeous mates for the lovely Sobia’s 50th Birthday celebration. And it all went without a hitch (or none that we were aware of anyway 🤪).
Now to do all those ‘little’ jobs to make them ready for paying guests, like making curtains and skirting boards!

02/05/2024

The (almost complete) articles - will stay like this for now, pipes to be boxed in and a drawer to be added later.

02/05/2024

The journey to finished bathroom vanities (post 1 of 2), finished article in the next post

02/05/2024

The electricians finally left late last night 🎉Cottage 2 is now ‘party ready’; quite a bit to do in there still (particularly where kitchen doors and skirting boards are concerned) but it’s ‘done’ for the Bank Holiday. Just need the plumber to finish in cottage 3 today 🤞

30/04/2024

One cottage is party ready (aside from the addition of a bit more furniture). The other two need a little more work (mainly by the plumbers and electricians) but we do have four days…plenty of time!!! 🤔😂🫣

06/04/2024

Progress!!! Cottage one is painted 🤩, has some carpet and has most of a kitchen. We are getting there! Now to tackle the painting in no. two…..

21/03/2024

It’s been a long time coming but today……….paint has finally started going on the walls!! Still so much to do but this feels like significant progress nonetheless 🤪

12/03/2024

Sorry for the lack of updates, James is back at work so thats taken a bit of our focus. However we have been making progress: one hole filled with concreate, bathroom vanities under construction and bathroom floors going back down.
We also have had plumbers, electricians & plasterers on site so everything moving forward. 😀

21/02/2024

Exciting parcel turned up - sample batch of High Days and Hideaways labels! We’re very happy with them & will order a batch to put on any furniture or fabric creations.

20/02/2024

Evening chorus of birds song last night (volume up), we even had a couple of bats fly by 🦇

19/02/2024

We had some friends to visit this weekend so took some time out & headed down to the coast at Beer. The scenery is spectacular & it was great to see a bit of sun ☀️😀

12/02/2024

Another task ticked off, we’ve been meaning to get rid of this Ivy on the front of the Sett for ages, as it was a sunny day, today was the day! Glad to have it done although we’ll have to keep on top of it.

05/02/2024

Having to get a bit creative with some of our fixes. The diffuser for the light well in the Holt was cracked and a bit worse for wear but we couldn’t find a replacement anywhere. Instead James found a similar diffuser and created a wooden ring to replace the plastic. The photos show the original and the steps to create the replacement. Final shot is it all nicely fixed in place 😀

29/01/2024

Starting to think about room layouts (furniture wise) and checking that what we’ve got earmarked will fit. We think this sofa will work well in the Den (flooring to be upgraded too!)

25/01/2024

Our first 100% in house furniture creation, frame and legs by James and Tash did the upholstery. Currently earmarked to go into the Holt.

16/01/2024

Back to the classroom to learn about lime pointing, lots of thanks to Phil at Cornish Lime who was fantastic and took us through everything we need to know.

05/01/2024

Sauna ordered for our middle holiday cottage (the Den), unfortunately there's a 20 week lead time! At least that gives us plenty of time to get everything ready so we'll just need to put it in place.

05/01/2024

Exciting start to 2024! With both of us now working full time on the renovations our spring opening deadline is finally looking more realistic….And our kitchen will probably look like this for the next two months. Full steam ahead!!

23/11/2023

Site now live 😀

Located in the heart of the Blackdown Hills (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) High Days and Hideaways comprises a trio of cosy, sumptuously furnished, self-catering cottages set in the grounds of Pipistrelle House, a former dairy farm.

15/04/2023

Making the most of the sunny morning….coffee in the garden whilst listening to the lambs calling to their mums 😊