Back on the Blog

Well it's been some time since my last blog but now it's the New Year (resolutions and all that) I thought it was about time I started up again. Since the worst thing you should do in these situations is to start with excuses I thought I'd do just that and explain away my long blogging silence..

BlogPress, the App I use to draft my Blog on the iPad while I'm out and about has had a bug which has stopped it working for the last few months. Finally an update has now been released so I can get back to the writing.. More importantly, since October things have been really busy - which is of course generally a good thing. We've been involved in quite a number of exciting projects, with many of them already on site and one actually completed:

Ooyala, an internet based digital media company based in California, engaged Mark's (my business partner) friend's practice, Blitz in San Francisco, to produce the concept design for their new European head office off Carnaby Street in Soho, London. We were engaged to complete the detail design, specification and to see the project through on site. The programme was extremely tight, from Blitz's start on the design to construction completion and Ooyala moving into their new offices it was only ten weeks!

Ooyala Breakout & Kitchen

Ooyala Breakout & Kitchen

Ooyala workspace & medium meeting room

Ooyala workspace & large meeting room

Another three jobs have started on site, two of which are already close to completion - a refurbishment of a bungalow on the south coast for a vineyard manager; an extension to another bungalow in Dorking; and a small crash pad in Paddington, London.

We've also been working on planning applications for a winery, a scheme to add three stories of executive apartments to a 60's block in Kensington, and the remodelling of a large private house on the south coast near Brighton..

But my biggest excuse has been the house I'm building. Unfortunately the builder I was using got into financial difficulty and left site at short notice. The result was that overnight I became a true self-builder and in order to keep things moving and to stay within budget I've had to manage the rest of the build myself, employing trades and purchasing materials directly. In the beginning it was certainly stressful and time consuming but it's provided me an experience of construction from a different angle. Now that the house is really taking shape it's turned out to be a real distraction and drain on my time as I really just want to spend all my time on site admiring it and watching it grow!

So it's been a busy but very productive few months.. Long may it continue (along with some more blogging)!!