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

One corner of the barn has been carefully rounded, it speaks to me of workmanship, care and simple good design (don’t worry I’m not literally hearing walls speak). The stones are arranged to offer no sharp edges, no right angles. My favourite reason for constructing the wall in this was is to save cows that…

Whilst the insulation continues to be installed into the roof of the barn, I have a admission to make… despite eco aims and intentions I’ve not been precious in ensuring that the insulation products we are using adhere to this ethos. To be honest, I find the various pro’s and con’s of individual insulation solutions…

I’ve recently been undertaking some redecorating (not at the barn – we’re not that advanced yet) and as part of the healthy house ethos that I’m following, I thought I’d explore the possibility of using natural paints. I chose to use earthBorn clay paint as an alternative to a standard emulsion for painting internal walls.…

The true proportions and dimensions of the final building are now beginning to appear. The wooden frame that will hold the insulation and boarding away from the original walls is now starting to take shape, the insulation is going into the roof, and the basic structure for the first floor is nearly complete. I approach…

I’m determined not to keep going on about Grand Designs, so this is the last I’ll say on it (at least for the moment), but it was nice to see Kevin find his old critical eye again – I guess he lost it somewhere on the way to all those rich peoples houses. The Gothic…

The barn is endowed with a handsome pair of opposing cart doors. The doors stand about 12 feet tall and are topped by a arch of cut, dressed stone. After some research on Wikipedia, I reckon they are segmental, shouldered arches. The arches are two of the major features of the barn, when building has…

With a project like this it is sometimes easy to allow the big picture to overwhelm the little things. It is often the little things that make the whole thing seem worthwhile at the beginning. So, in appreciation of the little things, I thought I’d put together a series of posts on those features that…

I love Grand Designs, it’s been an inspiration to me and is at least partially to blame for this project. But the latest series has so far defined grand in terms of pounds and pence rather than any more noble or aesthetic value. So far we’ve seen rich people building rich peoples houses – grand…

Sue Roaf, Manuel Fuentes, Stephanie Thomas ~ 2003, Architectural Press. This is the second edition of this book and has two introductions – one for each edition. The introductions carry the usual messages of doom regarding rising sea levels and diminished fossil fuels that pang of preaching to the converted, but sets the context for…

At the moment, my life seems to be dominated by lintels – oak or concrete, big or small. Progress is really racing along at the moment – the first floor in the main part of the barn is almost complete, the floor has been started in the smaller kitchen end and the first floor doorway…

Progress has really slowed as my builder is away on holiday and left his boys finishing off another job at the start of the month. However, as I write I’m led to believe by my spy on the ground that there’s furious activity at the barn. Whilst the first floor continues to be built, the…

As this project progresses certain features become core to the overall design whilst others fall onto the ‘B’ list. This ‘B’ list consists of technologies and design elements that I would like to implement during some future phase of the project as time and money allow. Electricity-generating photovoltaic (PV) solar panels have always been on…