Year: 2011

I’ve spoken about the National Planning Policy Framework in a couple of posts of late. I’ve given my opinion and provided links to others who support my view – but that’s not very even-handed of me, so I thought I should present some information about the Framework, what it means, says and its current status.…

We spent a week down in Cornwall at the start of September and there was me snapping photo’s of old bits of stone as usual. More inspiration for my raised beds – although I don’t really have as much regularly shaped stone as these require: From Barn Conversion 2011 At a beach front cafe, I…

It’s been a great summer for sloes for some reason (lack of sun would be my guess), they rippen at the barn just as summer is turning to autumn. I can’t help taking photo’s of them – these are on the way to my sloe vodka demi-john – first established in 2003 and still going…

I’ve been giving some thought to the mooted change in planning policy that threatens a relaxation of planning laws in relation to building on green field sites. I posted a couple of weeks ago about the National Trust petition opposing the new planning policy framework and looking for more information came across the Daily Telegraph’s…

If you have an interest in vernacular architecture then you’ll find plenty here to while away an hour or two, but my feelings toward this book are ambivalent…

Update on building progress during July 2011…

After my post about lots of befores made up of pictures of locations before I started work on them here’s another after… The kitchen step BEFORE (during really) From Barn Conversion 2011 AFTER From Barn Conversion 2011 The step is an original from the farm that the barn is on that I bought from a…

Following on from my post about lots of befores that comprised of pictures of locations before I started work on them I’ve been getting on to some afters, here are some more… Land drains around the unpaved parts of the barn BEFORE From Barn Conversion 2011 From Barn Conversion 2011 From Barn Conversion 2011 From…

There’s an amount of irony to the statement from Vince Cable in yesterdays Telegraph, that people who object to government plans to make building in the countryside easier are “semi-hysterical”. This is after all the same Vince Cable who has reportedly made such statements as “I have declared war on Rupert Murdoch and I believe…

Following on from my post about lots of befores , where I published pictures of locations before I started work on them, I thought some afters were in order. Here’s the first… The Yard between the Barns BEFORE From Barn Conversion 2011 AFTER From Barn Conversion 2011 —

I hired a big SDS Max drill this weekend – really a breaker more than a drill. I’m fitting a juliet balcony to the old hay loft door (building reg’s) and I wanted to get as large a drill as I could to ensure I could drill the 120+mm deep and 12mm wide holes in…

“You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year…”