Day 62 - When Foxie put things up and when Foxie took them down.

The volunteers on site today more than made up for our office day yesterday with what they achieved and some of it was really exciting visible progress.

Paul and volunteers Ian and Pete repaired and refitted the porch roof to the rear (or side...depending on which way you're looking at the building...) of The Lodge.  They used our newly acquired scaffold tower (as yet unnamed but maybe "Scaffold Pike Mountain"....we'll work on it...) and removed and reshaped and replaced the buckled lead, they relaid and reinstalled the roofing panels and used lots of wonderful things from Foxie's Fairy Godparents generous donations from the Amazon Wishlist to properly seal and refix the job with the end result being a shelter fit to sit out undercover on a rainy day to stop and smell the rain in the great outdoors (or petrichor for those of you who love a fancy word or two!).

We had our Volunteer Plumber Pete (not the same Pete, but a different one) who worked really hard all day for us repairing a few bits in the shower and one of the leaking toilets in The Lodge so that they are in ful working order and we're so grateful to him because it was such a big job that he's coming back again tomorrow to finish it off - he's part of the  Lyndhurst Men's Shed and he's given us hours and hours of his time, for which we are SO grateful.

Meanwhile, we had Volunteers Helen and Joan working their way around assessing and inventorying in The Barn and The Lodge kitchens to see what we have in there and what we need and what might need to be sourced from elsewhere (three part kitchens make two whole ones...we hope) and that kept them busy counting and checking for most of the day.  Then Volunteer Chris, having applied protective film to the sparklingly clean carpet in The Lodge to save us from cleaning it again 200,000 times between now and our first guests, was then dispatched on a scavenger hunt of many things to stock The Lodge from elsewhere and did 100's of steps back and forth with a trolley for us. 

Volunteer Claire spent the day cleaning bedside cabinets for us in The Lodge and assessing finishing works needed, such as the filing of some sharp screws in a couple of places and she was so speedy that she had time to go on a dehumidifier emptying mission for us, including an introduction to Derek, who currently resides in The Coach House (please see previous blogs for an introduction to Derek if you are unfamiliar).

Volunteer Sue spent the day doing further, successful, battle with the surface of the court in front of The Barn (see photos) and she's definitely winning - she found lots more edges and it's much less green where it shouldn't be!

Volunteers Clare and Angela had possibly the best job of all, or at least the most satisfying, as after they spent the first part of the day clearing drains and gulleys for us (none of the leaves want to leave you see) they were then tasked with starting the deconstruction and removal of the much-debated wooden structure out the back of Foxlease House.  They donned hard hats and appropriate tools for the job and removed the whole top layer and most of the second.  We can't remove it completely as it's too expensive to resurface underneath at the moment, so the plan is to level it and repurpose it into less of an eyesore (sorry to anyone who loved it but we've not met you yet if you exist...) and to make it into a nice, flat, unobtrusive wooden platform which might be nice for a spot of tea in the Summer and which might serve as an accessible viewing platform for future events out the back of Foxlease House.  They did a splendid job and we can't wait to move on to phase 2 of making that area lovely and useable!

Volunteers Mary and Christine arrived and talked fabrics and projects and delivered some new donations for the Foxie's Shop, including these wonderful little foxie finger puppets (or paw puppets in Foxie's case) - coming to an online shop near you soon.

Probably less call for hard hats tomorrow but we'll see! Love Foxie x