My Barn Conversion

I’m not in the habit of giving advice (well at least not until recently), but the one regret that I have (well in addition to forgetting to put solar panels on the original plans) was that we didn’t go ahead and install rainwater harvesting. I had a quote for a large tank and a varietyContinue reading Rainwater Harvesting ~ ‘If Only…’

If it wasn’t for the fact that we’ll be completely broke by the time we complete this project, I’d love to explore the ruralZED potentially zero carbon home. I say potentially as the eco housing system that is ruralZED can be specified to achieve different levels of the Code For Sustainable Homes right up toContinue reading ruralZED ~ Zero Carbon Home

When I started out writing this blog (now over two years ago) I intended to both share my experiences and to provide advice to other people considering following a similar path. The advice has been a bit slow coming, but now as things are progressing I thought I’d start to share. Not so much hardContinue reading Clean Lines

In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet’s energy needs for one year. One of the major challenges in micro-electricity generation, especially off-grid, is the need for a storage medium to provide electricity when demand is greater than supply or when supply of the generating medium (sunlight, wind, water etc.)Continue reading No Batteries Required…

softwood / hardwood Sorry about the title of this post I couldn’t resist it… I thought this picture of an off-cut from one of our new windows with a piece of softwood attached was quite interesting… Whilst the differences in strength, hardness and cost between soft and hard woods are commonly known, I like theContinue reading Got Wood!

There’s a mountain out there somewhere… Last Saturday, I was sitting sheltering from the torrential rain that didn’t stop all day with a sense of unease. Not only was I troubled by the fact that I wouldn’t be so wet if I hadn’t wisely taken down the guttering a couple of weeks ago, guttering thatContinue reading British Summer Time

With a set of plans and my ruler I set out to check the figures I’d put together earlier in the Summer when working out how much repointing work I have to do. All my original figures were based on a total of around 70m2 of repointing which would take around 150 hours of work.Continue reading Lime Pointing ~ Summer 2008 … part 2

July has been a good month with much progress. new window External All the windows, except for the one in the kitchen, are in. As I’ve previously commented, I’m really pleased with the windows, great quality, well made and sit in harmony with the building. I’ve also removed the gutters and downpipes and repainted theContinue reading Building Progress ~ July 2008

The producers of ‘Build a New Life’ have asked me ever so nicely (well they said ‘mybarnconversion.com looks like a a great website’ I don’t think they were sure) if I’d post a press release asking for volunteers for a new series. Despite being upset about not be asked to volunteer myself, I didn’t seeContinue reading Fancy appearing on ‘Build a New Life’?