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

So apparently stoves are like hens teeth these days, demand for them has rocketed in line with spiralling fuel bills. I’ve been trying to track one down, our original choice had a 14-16 weeks lead-time on it so a bit of digging around on the internet later I managed to find a Country 16B Multi-fuel…

I wanted to minimise the use of steel in the building and I like the texture and appearance of untreated hard woods – that led to the importation of two eastern European oak beams for use in the barn. That long journey (let’s not worry about carbon footprints for now) and a few weeks sitting…

The bath I bought doesn’t quite fit into the bathroom if it’s placed along the same wall as the shower… It does fit if placed across the corner as in the picture, so the question is corner bath? Does it say badly planned bathroom or boutique hotel? Corner bath?

Please excuse the slightly pompous title to this post – guess I’m pretty happy with way this aspect of the conversion has gone. The initial design was a little bit strange, with two doors through an internal wall that didn’t really have enough space for them and an over-large en suite bathroom that was a…

Having spent much time pawing over VAT documentation in preparation for my VAT reclaim I discovered that the HM Revenue & Customs definition of items ‘ordinarily’ incorporated in a building makes for interesting reading and may suggest a few VAT free inclusions for your design. In short, you can claim for building materials that are…

Now here’s a conundrum… First the facts: The barn lies just outside of the South Wales Coal Field. Our heating system will comprise of solar thermal water heating (from in-roof panels) with a multi-fuel burner as the ‘primary’ heat source (& a backup electrical heating coil in the tank) [Read the background to that] (I’m…

Decide upon your design ethos. Much as I hate the pretentious word ethos I think it’s essential to define what you want to achieve. To continue on a pretentious theme whilst shifting into the world of business speak to define your terms of reference. For example, do you want a eco-minimalist, ‘healthy house’ or country…

With the somewhat baffling success of our YouTube videos now playing on Channel MBC … (Serving over 1,000 discerning TV viewers to date!) I thought I should turn my attention to still photographs and using the best of the web to make them available to you. Please join our new My Barn Conversion flickr group…

I know that many UK readers of this blog are interested in Value Added Tax (VAT) in relation to conversion projects. As we’ll be nearing the end of our own project over the next couple of months (fingers crossed), I thought a refresher on what the current policy is and what you need to do…

Made from pulped wood, wood fibreboard is potentially a local material for all. As such the challenges and costs (both financial and environmental) of transportation can be more easily managed than some alternatives. Description The pulped wood is held together to form boards, the adhesive used will influence the sustainability and environmental impact of the…

We’ll be making a few changes to My Barn Conversion over the coming weeks. Hopefully they won’t cause any problems but if you notice anything strange around here don’t worry it’s not the Halloween effect, it’s just progress…

Made from straw, a practically global resource strawboard is potentially a local material for all. Best viewed as an insulating ecological alternative to chipboard rather than purely as an insulator. Description Strawboard is made from straw waste that is pressed and then exposed to heat. Heated straw sweats out resins which create a natural binder.…