Year: 2009

  • My tiling has soul!

    I came across this quote from one of my favourite authors on architecture and design, Christopher Alexander, author of A Pattern Language in a book about software design – ‘Patterns of Software – Tales from the Software Community’ by Richard P. Gabriel (‘Patterns of Software’ is worth a read in its own right if you’ve…

  • Hot water system now commissioned

    We’ve got the heating and hot water system up and running! It took a couple of attempts. The first time at the start of the month, with the stoked up stove blazing away devouring my wood supply, there was a load cracking noise (sounded like the glazing in the stove doors cracking) and a fairly…

  • Building Progress ~ May 2009

    May has been about two things – painting and tiling. The main bedroom needs finishing and then the second bedroom and dressing area need painting – and that’ll be it, first coat done! Coverage upstairs doesn’t seem as good as down, not sure if that’s to do with the plaster or the off-white paint, but…

  • Attention to detail… May 2009 update

    You (still) can’t beat a good list (see the bottom of this post for the previous ones) – this is the current position: In Progress Flooring and tiling We’ve bought slate wall and floor tiles for both bathrooms and travertine for the ground floor. Finally, we’ve also selected oak flooring for the first floor. No…

  • Boxing Clever?

    I have a rather tricky carpentry challenge in that my hot water cylinder / accumulator and the all the paraphernalia associated with my solar panels, hot water & heating system has grown beyond any expectations and has now occupied a large corner of the second bedroom. The challenge of how to box this in (or…

  • Online – recommended #2

    A couple more useful sites that I’ve used recently and can recommend. So if you want something antique but don’t know where to start looking then get on to Scavengers and they may be able to find something to fit the bill for you. I bought a chandelier from Scavengers which despite having a bit…

  • Building Progress ~ April 2009

    Determined to beat my previous poor showings, here’s the April update, just a few days after April has ended … impressed? This post should really be titled Stairs Progress ~ April 2009 (but that’s already been done) as there’s not a great deal more than the installation of the stairs to report. In addition, I’ve…

  • Building Progress ~ March 2009

    (Oh no I’ve done it again; my March progress report is late just like February’s was – sorry) The two main developments this month are the completion of the flue that I’ve already mentioned and the water mains connection being brought into the barn – previously it only came as far and an external tap.…

  • Stairs

    Pleased to say that the stairs are now in, which changes the whole feel of the building – makes it start to feel like somewhere that may one day be habitable. Although I miss clambering up and down a ladder. they started off as a pile of bits of wood (this is just some of…

  • Selling Excess Renewable Electricity

    On the grounds of affordability and cost effectiveness, I’ve discounted any foray into the world of microgeneration of electricity from renewables to date. I don’t think I’m about to change that stance, but I think an interesting angle on this comes from the offer from ecotricity to buy surplus electricity from microgenerators. Now I guess…

  • Stove – Flue – Chimney

    Hey, in the words of the song, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad … I can do stove & flue, but chimney is outside … From MyBarnConversion 2009 I really like this photograph as is shows both floors in one picture and the progression of the flue, from the stove, up through the first floor…

  • MBC goes Twitter

    Seems everyone is doing it so why not MyBarnConversion…? I’ve created a Twitter account for mbc – barnconversion I’ll use it to post the latest thoughts, progress and decisions made regarding the development of the barn. As well as a chronological view of what’s happening and when, I hope it’ll act as a to-do list…