Saving The Manor EP08 - Final Key In The Lock

The final episode of the show! I cant believe we finally got to it… we definitely saved the best until last, and by this point, we hadn’t shown our friends and family much at all so to show them all the entire hay loft was amazing!

Also none of them had watched the episode so we all watched it together as soon as it was released. I was lucky to get my family involved as they are not as camera confident like Belen (Borjas mum is), I mean she could do her own spin off show and love every second of it ha!

The hay loft open plan interestingly was another last second thought. The kitchen and living room was meant to go in the hayloft library area as we really weren’t confident that we were going to be able to create the access through between the two hay lofts. When we worked out we could it just opened up the space more and created this huge accommodation!

The original plan was just to leave it empty, a project for another time. I am so glad we did it though as it just works so well. The duct that once served the stables below was to allow the smells to vent up and out through the roof. We just had to keep it as a feature and after cleaning it all up it works so good as a book end to the kitchen and a division with the sitting area.

I don’t know if it was noticeable on the show but the last episode we were a lot more relaxed as we weren’t planning and thinking what we had to do next as this was our last room.

reroofing the stables

The biggest roof that we had to do was the stables one, and whilst it looked daunting is was mainly just a laborious task rather than technically challenging.

We were actually incredibly lucky that next door to the stables, what used to be the Grooms Cottage (which we do not own), was in very bad shape, so once the last tenant vacated the cottage the place was empty for over a year, so we were able to do all that intrusive work without bothering anyone.

We always think when we are doing all of these jobs, that by doing them all we understand the buildings better literally from top to bottom, as we know every material used, where every pipe runs through, and the quality of work done to it.

Glass blowing

It might be because over the years we are gaining more skills that we find it fascinating watching others working. We were so excited to be able to go to the Factory of Original BTC, it was one of those visits that we felt lucky, as we think they allowed us access only because we were filming.

We have been using their lights for several years across the estate and we are so impressed with the quality of them. We love the idea of being able to add handmade, British materials back into the Estate as would have been there centuries ago.

When we saw the precision of how they are made them, it really made us appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into each piece! And yes, we were rubbish when we tried to have a go!

Wrapping things up

We decided to make a big party, (of course with mountains of cakes!) on the last day of filming not only with our friends and family but with the whole production crew which were our second family for many months, they were constantly running around the Estate, organising, planing and moving things…

They are the magicians behind the cameras that made the show happened.

We feel very humble and fortunate being able to film parts of our life journey to save these old crumbling pieces of history bringing them back to life, what an experience to have, intense but rewarding.

If you have made it to this point, thank you so much for sticking with us on our journey and for supporting us. We can’t express with words what it means to us, but just so you know, the words of encouragement and the lovely messages that we have been receiving over the last few years have made us to not give up and given us all the support we need on a project this tough!.. and there have been times where we have questioned what we are doing and if we can do it, so thank you!

We do not know if we will have any more seasons with the TV show, but from Borja and me, it has been a pleasure to share our journey with you.

For Saving the Manor. a thousand times thank you x.

PS; The never seen DiY project

Borja had one of his ideas to make a big bowl out of paper mache.. it was an absolute disaster! I was totally on board because knowing him, he was just going to run with his idea… We put layers and layers of paper over several days allowing it to dry between layers and when we got it out of the mould it was so flimsy…so was completely scrapped, we had a good laugh though! He made the decision to take it as a learning experience and research a little more on how to make it better for next time! because he will certainly try to have another go at it… maybe with plaster next time! We are always learning.