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

I was at Rounded Developments last week for a meeting and a big bag of sheeps wool insulation was cluttering the place up. It was a cancelled order that was now looking for a home and fortunately I have a home for it. I have two ‘boxing-in’ projects to complete. From Barn Conversion 2010 The…

I managed to grow a couple of pumpkins this year. From Barn Conversion 2010 They led me to make some soup, which in turn led me to write up the recipe, which in turn led me to write a post on a website that I all but abandoned a couple of years ago when the…

I was recently ferreting through my old posts re-tagging and categorising them and came across this Progress in Pictures post from summer 2008. An update seemed to be in order, so in the spirit of these posts, I’ll let the pictures do the talking… Before… autumn 2007 Before (picture taken October 2007) During… summer 2008…

A week last Saturday… Emergency, emergency…. From Barn Conversion 2010 It’s OK – 2 year-old firemen were at hand…

As usual, I must agree with Roger Deakin… Planners have a lot to answer for on the commons. Roof heights are all wrong now. The monster executive villas dwarf the older, vernacular language of the Suffolk houses, which all more or less had the same roof height and alignment. Planners have allowed the scale and…

This review is part of the Green Books campaign.

Consider the local vernacular.

Update on building progress during October 2010… ‘Seems like I’ve been repointing for ever and ever…’ …but I’m nearly there!

I’ve been poring over Roger Deakin’s Notes from Walnut Tree Farm again. I feel somewhat chastised for my insistence on oak in the interior of the barn (although there’s also beech in the kitchen)… …converting old barns with as much oak as possible. Oak represents value now and is like gold teeth here: you have…

I’m trying to get the pointing finished this year, but it drags on and I could do with a change of scene. So although I’ve not yet finished the northern gable end I decided to finish the more straight-forward and visible back wall. I’d completed all along the bottom of the back wall – up…

I’ve spent a bit of time roaming around the slightly confusing web-world of the ‘do’ lectures, the ‘do’ shed and the ‘do’ village. (This article on the Guardian website make things clearer). Arranged by David and Claire Hieatt (ex of the clothing brand Howies), the lectures are an annual event: …all about getting a handful…

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