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

I have a rather tricky carpentry challenge in that my hot water cylinder / accumulator and the all the paraphernalia associated with my solar panels, hot water & heating system has grown beyond any expectations and has now occupied a large corner of the second bedroom. The challenge of how to box this in (or…

A couple more useful sites that I’ve used recently and can recommend. So if you want something antique but don’t know where to start looking then get on to Scavengers and they may be able to find something to fit the bill for you. I bought a chandelier from Scavengers which despite having a bit…

Determined to beat my previous poor showings, here’s the April update, just a few days after April has ended … impressed? This post should really be titled Stairs Progress ~ April 2009 (but that’s already been done) as there’s not a great deal more than the installation of the stairs to report. In addition, I’ve…

(Oh no I’ve done it again; my March progress report is late just like February’s was – sorry) The two main developments this month are the completion of the flue that I’ve already mentioned and the water mains connection being brought into the barn – previously it only came as far and an external tap.…

Pleased to say that the stairs are now in, which changes the whole feel of the building – makes it start to feel like somewhere that may one day be habitable. Although I miss clambering up and down a ladder. they started off as a pile of bits of wood (this is just some of…

On the grounds of affordability and cost effectiveness, I’ve discounted any foray into the world of microgeneration of electricity from renewables to date. I don’t think I’m about to change that stance, but I think an interesting angle on this comes from the offer from ecotricity to buy surplus electricity from microgenerators. Now I guess…

Hey, in the words of the song, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad … I can do stove & flue, but chimney is outside … From MyBarnConversion 2009 I really like this photograph as is shows both floors in one picture and the progression of the flue, from the stove, up through the first floor…

Seems everyone is doing it so why not MyBarnConversion…? I’ve created a Twitter account for mbc – barnconversion I’ll use it to post the latest thoughts, progress and decisions made regarding the development of the barn. As well as a chronological view of what’s happening and when, I hope it’ll act as a to-do list…

Way back in 2007 I put a small raised bed into a clearing in our patch of woodland. We had some old sleepers that needed moving away from the barn and this seemed like a sensible thing to do with them. The bed has a weed control liner and 10 to 12 inches of mixed…

As it’s already embarrassingly late I’ll make the February update a whistle-stop tour of what progress has been made. My clay-paint painting is going well (if slowly) although I think in places, where I’ve not been so careful in getting the grain of the application of paint quite right – by that I mean where…

It’s been a while since a VAT update so I thought I’d review the current position, especially in view of the pre-Christmas credit-crunch fuelled reduction in the standard rate of VAT from 17.5% to 15%. My own VAT reclaim will be due soon – by early Summer at the latest, so I thought I’d review…

Also know as PIR. Polyisocyanurate is essential a stronger more fire retardant development of Polyurethane. As may be expected it shares many of the characteristics of Polyurethane. Description Usually produced as a foam panel insulation, PIR foam panels coated with aluminium are used for the prefabrication of ducts and flues commonly used in heating and…