Year: 2010

Lime Pointing Tips As I near the end of my repointing opus magnum I feel a little more qualified to advise on pointing with lime mortar than on most of the subjects I blather on about on this blog. So here's my take on all things lime mortar related - others may have differing guidelines - this is very much my take. This post is this second in the series. Firstly, I covered the tools of the (pointing) trade now I'll move onto lime mortar and how to make it. From Pointing ~ tools Mortar What went before? When repointing…

"Oh the weather outside is frightful..." ...never seen so much snow, but Christmas is here at last... From Barn Conversion 2010 Have a delightful one...

Lime Pointing Tips As I near the end of my repointing opus magnum I feel a little more qualified to advise on pointing with lime mortar than on most of the subjects I blather on about on this blog. So here's my take on all things lime mortar related - others may have differing guidelines - this is very much my take. This post is this first part of a series of 3 or 4 (I'll see how I get on). Firstly, I'll cover the tools of the (pointing) trade. From Pointing ~ tools Tools You need some pretty specialist…

I have a very small amount of slate roofing to do and I was very pleased to come across a website that contains some great data-sheets on how to go about roofing with slates >> Welsh Slate.com In their own words: "Welsh//Slate based in North Wales is the worlds leading manufacturer of high quality roofing slate, architectural and aggregate slate products. Welsh//Slate roofing products have an unparalleled reputation for durability and quality." The link will take you to the sites Design & Installation (Technical) page from where you can find plenty of related and well laid out data-sheets. Informative and…

At last I've broken the strangle-hold that pointing has had on me! I've also gone back to being late making my monthly updates to the website (this one for November being written on the 15th of December) - swings & roundabouts I guess... I've retired from pointing for 2010, probably in truth falling just a little bit short of the finishing line in relation to my original goals for the year. I have about a square metre to point at the top of the back wall and the gable end (6 or 8 square metres) to finish. We had a…

I visited the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) again recently and I wanted to share the impression it made on me as I came away a little bit disappointed. From Travel I first visited CAT back in 2006 before I had ventured very far into the world of construction or conversion. I was still bright eyed and excited by the prospect of converting a pile of stone and slate into a home. I was looking for inspiration - for a roadmap through the technology, materials and techniques I should employ in following the 'healthy house, sustainable, ecological & environmental' approach…

Last Friday the 26th November it snowed like mad - 3 or 4 inches fell in just over an hour. Took me an hour and a half to complete a 7 mile journey and I gave a lift in the car to two separate groups of snow-bound refugees. Needless to say I didn't get much work done. Although I did restart work on the main bathroom which felt strange as I've spent so much time over the last few months working outside. From Barn Conversion 2010 Last week I promised some photographs of the garden after we had cleared it…

I've made 299 posts before this one on MyBarnConversion.com, so I thought I'd take some time out and see how I got here while writing the 300th... The first post was made on the 28th June 2006. Since I started monitoring traffic to the site on the 6th April 2007 there have been 113,473 Visits and 281,796 Pageviews from 96,717 unique visitors. The average time on site is 2 minutes and 3 seconds (that's a total of over 157 days that people have spent on this site). The 10 most popular search terms that bring people to this site are…

I've been itching get started on sorting out the garden and beds at both the front and back of the barn all summer. So, when we arrived at the barn last Saturday to find S digging a ditch along the drive with a digger and with the offer of starting on our garden there seemed like no time to lose. As it is dark at this time of year by 5PM, I rigged up a couple of halogen lights and we started work that evening...

We invested a lot of money in wood when converting the barn. The stairs, doors and window frames have all been pricey items. Each involved a number of decisions - hardwood or softwood, oak or pine, painted or treated, natural or stained ... Suffice to say that the decision made was rarely on the side of the cheap option. I'm happy with (but poorer because of) the results: From Barn Conversion 2010 From Barn Conversion 2010 From Barn Conversion 2010 On the last picture you can see how the ball on the top of the newel post has begun to…