At last, the heating is finished - Update # 26

25 February 2015

Put up the bunting: we've had a positively upbeat and chatty email from Chas:

"At last it is finished and we've had it running.

Unfortunately a couple of issues meant we had to turn it off before it reached full temperature. These have been sorted out but time pressure meant that we have left it drained down. We can't actually get back to it until next Monday (2nd March) but we should be able to do a full test up to temperature then."

The photos show the buffer tank in situ outside and the complex manifold area. (We love it - it looks 'the business', G says; I love the copper pipes - and it has that industrial look that we anticipated and hoped for. Weird, I know.) It looks seriously over-designed for the job, but hopefully that means we'll be warm as toast in the winter months. (Eek. Not looking forward to learning how to get the thing to operate.)

I have asked Chas to photograph the stove with its red ceramic jacket in place, but I'm not holding my breath...
STOP PRESS!! A photo of the finished stove below.

Red ceramic jacket in place. Now all we have to do is work out how the thing works.

Manifold, anyone?

The buffer tank in situ outside in the little lean-to, which will, of course, have fixed sides and an access door.

 Chas has fixed the bath feet in place, with an ingenious (if oddly clunky) solution:

Oak doughnuts. A world first. 

Here's a very sophisticated outdoor shot, showing the stove flue and septic tank vent, complete with caps etc. (Promise they're vertical; I think the photographer may have been listing to the left.)

To give him his due, Chas managed to engineer a complicated system to hold the vent and flue to the uneven stonework of the wall, and negotiate the eaves. Of course, had he been available to discuss the project with Tom at the outset, he could have routed the flue through the roof...

Stainless steel and galvanised zinc, anyone?

But we won't quibble at this late stage.

Huge sighs of relief all round. It looks as if we are getting there, people!

A month in limbo...

26 June 2014

...a whole month, during which there has been a deafening 'oosh' from la Fromagerie.

G and I have been busy at this end, though. When I last counted, we had managed to recruit 6 family members, from near and far, and three close friends to come and visit during August! Our month at la Fromagerie will be a blur of people, and we are thrilled to bits: we always said that it wouldn't feel like home until those dear to our hearts had spent time there. Clearly our wishes have been heard by the Universe, because our summer in France has all the makings of a French farce, without the seedy connotations!

We'll have mattresses on the floor, tents outside under the walnut trees, hammocks strung between the apple trees, and an instant labour force, should G and I feel like springing an impromptu painting party :)

It's going to be wonderful and I can't wait to share our little laat lammetjie.

Apart from the 'recruitment drive', we have also spent hours on the internet, comparing fridges and cookers and washing machines etc. Chas let us know that he would be there yesterday, so we had the cooker delivered, and now, of course, Chas has issues with the plumbing-in of said cooker - it's as if he'd never thought about such things before. I'm working on the premise that, given time, he will sort it all out, and that he just has an unfortunate habit of finding problems at every turn.

So, thanks to Chas, the barn can now boast:

1 toilet (1 to come)
1 hotwater tank (sounding pretty civilised)
1 bath (gosh) with taps (even better)
3 radiators (4 would have been greedy)
1 towel rail (but no towels)
1 cooker (for warming croissants)

The tank is way up there to make use of the high ceiling, and really, where else?

Upstairs toilet. Just the handbasin to come now. It's already plumbed in readiness for very short people.

Cute, huh? Can't wait for a bath under the stars...

I'm guessing we won't see the blue and red pipes for ever. (I'm not fond of primary colours.)

Ta da! The towel rail. 

And that problem child - the cooker. It does look kind of huge, sitting there sans croissants.

 Form an orderly line, please. You will all get a turn.