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Experience Nature Like Never Before You can see the location of Oak Lodge in the beautiful Welsh countryside. It’s a stunning spot. The rolling hills and lush greenery create a peaceful atmosphere. Here, you can truly escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life. We should have built some steps earlier instead of a step ladder to get everything inside. It would have been so much easier! But, as they say, every challenge is an opportunity. We learned a lot during the setup. N

With a couple of weeks to finish everything, we're in a position to start listing our availability and taking the first guest bookings. It's a minefield out there and there's so much to do and so many costs associated with it. Everything has been tested, any faults rectified and we're pretty much ready to welcome the first people to Oak Hill Escape.

Digging back, adding weed supressent, and then stone for the walking path up the hill. After re-claiming the original old track, we've added additional local stone so we can get service vehicles up there easier

With Oak Lodge taking shape, it's time to start building the deck for the hot tub. As everything here is on multiple levels, we had to get the deck level in all directions. Typically we probably chose the wettest week and we were soon a foot deep in mud. The base was then built, levelled and the deck cut and fitted. Using pallets, the hot tub was slid across slowly avoiding the ever growing mud. Steps added before the railings. Railings added, painted and the deck stained. J

Time to cover some of the wood over and actually install the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. There are so many shapes in the main area that everything has to be cut to size and is made more awkward. It looks good though but takes more time. We had to find suitable kitchen units that would fit, but also allow us to have everything needed for an enjoyable stay, without compromising.

A Unique Retreat in Mid Wales After climbing ladders for the entire build, stairs were built at last. Why we didn't do this in the first place is anyone's guess! At last we could access Oak Lodge easily to fit and kit out the inside. Every step forward seemed to create additional problems and work, but bit by bit each were overcome. A glamping lodge (with soon to have hot tub) near Welshpool was taking shape.

Internal walls complete and lodge ceiling had a first coat of paint. All first fix electrics and plumbing also finished After changing our minds from Rockwool, we added 100mm Cellotex board insulation on all ceilings Lots of dust and days later the floor was fully insulated in the main lodge, bathroom and bedroom. The hardest part was remembering not to stand on any of it.

The lodge roof had to be protected with a heavy tarps and only removed for the felt shingles to be added Almost watertight! Oak Lodge watertight and ready for internal fitting

Glamping Lodge painted and ready to work out how to et the roof panels on Help came from an additional 4 strong lads from Ziggu Marquees to get the very heavy roof panels into place Inside the lodge with a scaffolding platform secured to planks and plywood sheet!

After the first parts were identified, the pre-insulated wall panels went together onto the base. We had to setup gazebos (they blew away quickly in a storm!), marquee and an inflatable pub to protect the wood. The inflatable pub and marquee where all of the wood was stored to protect it during the lodge build These parts went up fairly quickly and although they needed protecting from the rain, were fine. The lodge looked a lot smaller at this stage too. Lower Lodge walls ad

After much measuring and postponements, the ground screw team arrived from GBGS. A few trips up the hill later with the quad and trailer and we had groundscrews and equipment ready to go to start the base for the lodge. The base was built, ready to work out what exactly went where? None of the plans matched any components and nothing was labelled on the 10 pallets. Apart from the base, every single individual piece of wood needed to be treated by spraying both sides and then

We had to decide what to offer at Oak Hill Escape and wanted something different. Not just different in terms of the structure, but also...

Spring arrived and everywhere was a mass of colour and wild flowers. We must have disturbed some seed as both tracks were packed will...

In order to walk easily up the hill, we needed a new track. Going straight up would have been too steep so we had to find a way sideways....

The old track was the worst and was cut back sympathetically, had fresh stone laid and wild flower seeds sewn. It's now possible to walk...

Many people will assume that starting a holiday place to escape and stay is straightforward and easy. You find somewhere that's suitable,...