Charlotte Church researches the possibility of building a natural lake and gets more of an eye full than she bargained for when her builder decides to try skinny dipping to test the water during the latest episode of her TV series. The singer has been busy renovating Rhydoldog House, the country mansion she bought in 2018 to transform into a wellness retreat called The Dreaming.
And during the latest episode of Charlotte Church's Dream Build on Wednesday, October 12 there's only 13 weeks to the proposed opening date and the project is nowhere near finished, so things are getting stressful. But at least she and builder Kai manage to have a day off visiting a farm near Builth Wells to try out their cold water pool before Charlotte decides to invest £90k building one at Rhydoldog House.
The singer and founder of the Awen Project - a community-focused education programme - bought the Powys property for £1.5m and has been driving the project forward ever since, documented all the way by the discovery+ and Really Channel programme, which is back for a second series.
And in the second episode of the new series it's time to get down to business basics. The budget has doubled and planning is still to be sorted, and Charlotte is only now looking to nail down a concrete business plan.
Charlotte wisely calls on the experience and guidance of Gaynor Coley, who was a key figure in getting Cornwall's Eden Project completed in just 18 months. Then there's the pricing structure to try and sort out; or at least discuss.
There's a meeting between Charlotte, her dad, and her accountant to discuss the room prices at The Dreaming when it opens, with Charlotte keen to make it as affordable as possible, but the rest of the team also keen to remind her that the retreat is a business and needs to secure an income at the right level to be viable. Find out more about that here.
As well as the stress on the business and financial side of the project, there are some practical problems arising too that include a glass shower panel for the Mushroom Room on the first floor that is too big to go up the temporary staircase.
The stairs have to be removed and scaffolding is erected instead - it's going to be stressful to get the heavy sheet of glass to where it needs to be without it cracking; welcome to another day at the renovation of Rhydoldog.
But amidst the chaos and stress, Charlotte seems to remain impressively calm, never wavering from her vision for the more ethereal elements for the property and land, and now her attention turns to the possibility of a natural pool.
A refreshing dip in a cold water, natural pool is definitely going to clear out the cobwebs and refocus the mind. Charlotte is a big advocate of cold water swimming which she says has a multitude of health benefits and something she regularly practices herself.
It's an element of the healing options at The Dreaming Charlotte is keen to offer guests, so she sets out to do some research and take a break from the site.
With all the stress building up, including finding out the pool is likely to cost £90k to build, it's no wonder Charlotte is very happy to go and try out a similar cold water pool at The Lavender Farm near Builth Wells, run by Nancy Durham.
But Charlotte was not prepared for builder Kai, who accompanied her on the trip to find out more about the practicalities of the pool, to take the word natural and totally buy into it.
He runs along the boardwalk and dives into the water completely naked, but thankfully the cameras don't zoom in as skinny dipping in cold water can be very unforgiving.
Charlotte, more sensibly, opts for a wet suit and after the exhilarating experience is seriously contemplating a version of this pool at Rhydoldog.
Back at the house, there is more progress. Kai, now fully clothed, helps the team fit the Mushroom Room's shower panel, which has made its journey being winched up the gap in the scaffolding in one piece, and another bedroom is about to be completed.
The Forest Spirits room is a homage to Japanese culture that Charlotte has decorated to be 'classy and mellow and stylish and evoking the sort of Japanese forest reverence'.
But it might be what has been constructed in the woods that is the biggest triumph at this time, and the focus of Charlotte's adoration at such a level she even fancies having a nap at the site.
Welcome to The Court of the Holly King, the 'ceremonial heartland of Rhydoldog', a huge firepit, stone circle and benches surrounding it, and four thrones made from an oak tree that was blown over during Storm Arwen.
Charlotte says: "It's the first ceremonial space that we'll have and this one is supposed to represent earth. I want to plant more hollies all around this space. In the old ways, Holly is about protection, used as a protection, so I feel like people will be doing some quite big emotional work here.
"I can totally see some ecstatic dancing happening around here and all sorts of little ceremonies and rituals and stuff, it's really grand, it's befitting The Court of the Holly King!"
Charlotte Church's Dream Build is streaming on Discovery+ and on the Really Channel every Wednesday at 9pm. And never miss the best property, renovation and interiors stories – sign up for the Amazing Welsh Homes Property Newsletter here and sent to your inbox twice a week.
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