My Barn Conversion … musings in small-house, off-grid, architecture, design with smatterings of art, history and literature

Since spending far too long for my wife’s liking queuing for fresh pizza from a small portable clay pizza oven at the Abergavenny food festival, I’ve fancied one of my own. The Eden Project sell one for £600 and apparently Jamie Oliver tries to flog one for over £3000, but you can build one from…

There’s an inescapable melancholy about some of Roger Deakin’s writing… There’s more truth about a camp than a house. Planning laws need not worry the improvising builder because temporary structures are more beautiful anyway, and you don’t need permission for them. There’s more truth about a camp because that is the position we are in.…

With retaining walls and raised beds popping up all over the place and the over-grown patches treated to a dose of the modern day equivalent of Agent Orange, I thought some during pictures were in order… From Barn Conversion 2011 From Barn Conversion 2011 From Barn Conversion 2011

I spend most of the week in and around Cardiff. Anyone who spends any amount of time in around Cardiff and manages raise their eyes to the skyline can’t help but witness the impact that Marquess of Bute and William Burges had on the city. William Burges (1827 – 1881) was an English architect and…

Update on building progress during March 2011…

The gallery on this site has frankly been a bit of a mess since I messed up my Flickr account and started loading photos locally and also into Picasa. Now they’re all in one place and accessible through my new gallery page – much neater. The gallery link in the menu just below the site…

You (really still) can’t beat a good list (see the bottom for a list of previous lists) – six months on from the last list this is the current position (with old comments in italics): Flooring and tiling [May 2009]We’ve bought slate wall and floor tiles for both bathrooms and travertine for the ground floor. Finally,…

I’m carrying out some work on the site at the moment – so any oddities, errors or omissions are probably due to that. Back to the usual (ir)regular service soon…

The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), is a UK government scheme to encourage the installation of low-carbon heating systems. The first phase, the details of which have just been published is aimed at large-scale installations. A domestic version of the scheme will be launched in 2012 as a part of the governments Green Deal. Between now…

I have lots of retaining walls and raised beds to build in the garden and quite a lot of flags to lay as a patio. I’ve made a start over the past few weeks, but thought I’d post some before photographs before I get too far… From Barn Conversion 2011 From Barn Conversion 2011 From Barn…

Update on building progress during February 2011…

I’ve been reading Walden by Henry David Thoreau for quite some time now. When you start to read about self-building or self-sufficiency you’re bound to come across references to Walden and Thoreau. The book, first published in 1854, describes Thoreau’s experiences over a two year period living in a cabin in the woods at Walden…