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

While writing an upcoming post on the subject of walls, I realised that I had never properly concluded the thread that was bubbling away through 2008 concerning what to do about the leaky, south facing gable end wall. After finding it was ‘infested’ with stalactites and stalagmites, I considered whitewashing the wall, then eventually it…

I’ve been considering what to do with the second bedroom in the barn. It will be my son’s room once it’s been relieved of its current duty as store room. I’ve been planning on installing a built-in-bed, both for reasons of practicality and desire. Practical because part of the construction can be used to solve…

As a consequence of my growing obessession with fire-wood I found myself buying a wood moisture meter that allows me to measure the moisture content of cut logs. You ideally need a moisture content of below 20%, although the intermittent 25%er won’t do too much harm. This handy gadget also allows me to measure the…

… construction material, requirements for attic space?… Consider the following: Do you need to replace the roof? The answer may be a resounding and obvious YES – you may have holes as large as tiles or a ridge line like a camels back. But there are more subtle reasons to replace a roof. To conform…

Your design ethos will be the very highest level of your design. Beneath that the next level of your design is to define the major systems, materials and design elements that you want to incorporate into your project. No need to be too specific initially … start vague and define… Here’s a checklist to get…

One thing I realised from my recent post on the downstairs travertine floor was that I haven’t recommended Stoneworks who are the company I bought the travertine flooring from and I’ve subsequently ordered mosiac tiles from for the splashbacks. I’ve always received great service from them and wouldn’t hesitate to use them again. It’s also…

The tiled floor that runs through the whole of the downstairs of the barn took a considerable investment in terms of both time and money in planning, sourcing and then fitting. It’s been completed for a while now (since August 2009), but I thought that a post summing things up would still be worthwhile and…

The process of coppicing is pretty straight-forward, this post shows you how…

I planted hazel and silver birch trees just after new year 2010…

The building of four new towns in England (housing being one of those aspects of policy devolved to the Welsh assembly government who are probably concocting some more crazy schemes like sprinklers in residential properties instead of schemes like this) at or near Whitehill-Bordon in Hampshire, St Austell in Cornwall, Rackheath in Norfolk and North…

(Very) belated Happy New Year, so what has 2010 brought so far… My formerly lost at sea oak flooring is spending January acclimatising and I plan to fit it, at least along the landing floor in February. I’ve taken delivery and started fitting some mixed ‘brick’ shaped and mosaic travertine tiles that will be used…

I have plans to start managing my half and acre of woodland…