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

As the building progresses so some of the clean lines that I’m so fond of start to emerge. Below are some of my current favourite examples, more can be seen in my Picasa web album – (following a couple of technical hitches flickr seems to have abandoned me for the time being…) They are to…

MyBarnConversion.com is not the natural place for philosophical discourse but the building of the hearth in the barn has changed the way I view the building. It seems that the central position of the hearth against the gable end wall and within the building, its associations with fire and the power that has on the…

Often abbreviated to PU, Polyurethane is usually applied as a foam insulation sprayed onto the underside of roof rafters. Description A complex manufactured compound, polyurethane has traditionally been manufactured from petrochemicals and so has a few green credentials except for those gained from the energy it saves. Recent developments toward the use of polyols derived…

As well as bitingly cold weather the New Year has seen some slow progress on the barn. The hearth has now been installed ready for the chimney and stove and then eventually a joined together, operational heating and hot water system. I’m really looking forward to getting that up-and-running, it’s been so long in planning…

My concerns over the ability of Wales to achieve its zero carbon dream by 2012 appear to be shared by the political community. According to a news item on the Energy Saving Trust website our Housing and Planning minister Margaret Beckett has decided that the meaning of ‘zero carbon’ is now to be re-evaluated. “We…

The fact that I’m writing my December update in the middle of January tells a story of its own. The cold weather & Christmas have slowed down activity to a barely perceptible drag. The stove eventually turned up after several phone calls and a nagging doubt over claims of what was in stock and what…

In the same part of the world as the MBC barn is the Lammas ecovillage. As a venture into sustainable living on a far grander scale than our own meagre and partial attempt, it is a endeavour of both ideological and political personal interest. I applaud the vision of this initiative, the scale seems right…

Mineral Wool is an inorganic product manufactured from glass or rock. Most commonly seen in the UK in the form of rolls used for loft insulation it is also used in granular form as a cavity wall filler and as rigid slabs in construction. Certain products use recycled glass and can so claim green credentials.…

Zero Carbon is a term that ‘haunts’ me a lot (I need to get out more). Our barn won’t be zero carbon, for a number of reasons, but mainly because it would have cost too much. I’m sure that the time will come in the not too distant future when photovoltaics (the only sensible option…

What we now consider as high quality, high cost choices for building with, traditional materials such as limestone, sandstone, slate, hard woods, steel, dressed stone and hand-made bricks; were once standard. These materials are what contribute to those elusive but seductive and often valuable features of buildings often referred to as period charm or character.…

An interesting short article on green futures states that: Our historic buildings need not be unsustainable. What’s more, we can still learn a lot from their many examples of innovative technology …. underpinned by the old wisdom of self-sufficiency. I go a step further in that I see old buildings and the process of renovating…

I spend a far amount of time sourcing goods for the barn on the internet so here’s a summary of some of my favourite sites with great features, products or service.