January Update - Week 41 (sunday)

Two windows down and one to go...

Luckily we were blessed with the weather on the sunday as we moved to the western elevation (the windy side). Before we fitted the frame in, the first task was to lift one of the original flagstones inside for the wood burning stoves to sit on. It felt like a team building event at first while we decided how to go about lifting a piece of slate the weight of a small car! Eventually between 8 of us the flagstone was in place in the centre of the barn.

Back to fitting the window frames and within an hour we had the main barn door frame in place (after removing a few badly positioned stones). So I would like to acknowledge the help of our very enthusiastic volunteers; (pictured below, l-r) Vicky, Noodle, Claire, Chris, Simon, (Dave), Chris, Dad, Cath and Dave. Thank you guys.

January Update - Week 41 (Saturday)

With the delivery of the largest oak window frames last week we knew we would need a few extra hands to help lift them into place, time to call in the favours; it turns out we had used them all up already but luckily we managed to convince 8 of our friends that it would be great fun anyway.

So on the wet and windy saturday we managed to fit the long bedroom window which was a bit of a squeeze aswell as the east facing barn door opening.

January Update - Week 40

With the underfloor heating in place and tested we could get on with laying the floor screed, the final layer before the floor tiles.

It took most of the week to finish the whole floor as we chose not to get a pour but instead Dave must have mixed over 100 barrow-fulls of screed.

The other picture details the roof trusses from below

December Update - Weeks 38-39

Around a short break for christmas we managed to lay the nu-heat underfloor heating system. We chose a warm water underfloor heating system which works by pumping controlled flows of warm water from a boiler through plastic tubing embedded in the floor. Because the emitting area is large, the warmth provided is quite sufficient even on a cold winter day without the need for any extra heat source.


We liked the fact that underfloor heating gave us the freedom to design room layouts as we want them with the added advantage of savings on fuel and maintenance costs. The picture below shows the optimal manifold (which looks more complicated than it is!) where it all happens.