Month: October 2010

  • PassivHaus state of play October 2010

    I was interested to read the reasons that were quoted for the slow take-up of PassivHaus design and construction in the UK

  • Lintel fungus

    Lintel fungus – not a phrase you hear every day… A job that fell by the wayside some time ago was to treat the reclaimed hardwood lintels over the new window openings we added into the gable end. That was until I realised that there were various varieties of fungus growing from them… From Barn…

  • I walk up the field to investigate.

    A mystery with my edits… Midday. Blood curdling screeching of foxes – probably cubs – from the hedgerow up the field … Millie (a cat) stands, or crouches, in the kitchen doorway with with her ears flattened on her head. She looks at me in alarm. On the kitchen floor, a patch of fresh blood:…

  • Borax as a wood preservative

    In keeping with a Healthy House ethos I’ve tried to avoid the use of potentially hazardous or environmentally harmful products in the barn. When it came to wood preservative borax was the option that stood out. What is borax? Borax is the name given to several mineral compounds of the chemical element boron, namely sodium…

  • Orange sunset

    An strange orange hue to the sky at sunset last night… The colour was even more vivid 10 minutes or so earlier… From Barn Conversion 2010

  • nothing gives me more comfort or more anxiety than fire

    Nothing quite draws your attention like an open fire… Fire: nothing gives me more comfort or more anxiety than fire. … The fireplace has been subsumed by the TV, pushed out of the nest as by a cuckoo. People now comtemplate the TV, not the fire. A fire only really comes into its own when…

  • Lime pointing ~ before pictures

    As much time as I’ve spent on pointing and all the ancillary activities such as moaning, evangelising and generally bumping-my-gums about pointing, I’ve just realised, I’ve not posted a great deal of evidence related to my actually doing any pointing. To address this, I thought a range of before photographs, showing the walls of the…

  • like a bird’s nest be a thing of great beauty

    I’m not sure that the barn resembles any kind of bird’s nest, but I do appreciate Roger Deakin’s words on the beauty to be found in the ordinary. An old house may be built of the humblest, simplest materials, and, like a bird’s nest be a thing of great beauty. Or: like a bird’s nest,…

  • Mini-sites on MBC

    I sometimes feel that there are certain topics that run through this site but remain somewhat hidden – hidden because of the chronological sequential nature of a WordPress site. Even with tags (like design) and categories (like Barn Conversion Journal), the information related to these topics, for example, lime pointing, or managing woodland for fuel…

  • Cornwall 2010

    I picked up on a few ‘nuggets’ of inspiration on our recent trip to Cornwall…

  • Maintain Traditions, Maintain Integrity – materials

    When working with an old building maintaining its integrity is essential. One of the cornerstones to the integrity of a building is the materials from which it is built and with which it is maintained and the techniques applied to those materials. Choose your palette carefully – natural stone, slate, local timber, lime mortar ……

  • Attention to detail… October 2010 update

    You (still) can’t beat a good list (see the bottom of this post for the previous ones) – after more than a year since the last update this is the current position (with comments from May 2009 in italics): Done – were in progress in May 2009 Flooring and tiling We’ve bought slate wall and…