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!

Plastering? Check. UFH? Check.

6 February 2014

The plastering was duly finished on Monday night, allowing 2 days for the UFH. Predictably, Chas was delayed and was only half-way through on Wed evening, just hours before the team was due to arrive on site to lay the screed.

Tom had to make a round of uncomfortable phone calls to call off the various parties (including the electrician, who in turn had to postpone the digger) and call in some favours regarding rescheduling. Needless to say, Tom was not a happy camper.

Despite this, he says:

"The barn is really starting to come together now, I’m really pleased with how its all looking."

And we can see why.

First, the UFH. I rather like it. Cancel the concrete floor.

This is the shower room, and the pipes all emerge from a boxing-in arrangement which will sit behind the toilet. The unaltered area to the right is the shower wall, which will be tiled. The cubby above the toilet is built in front of an existing niche in the stone, which we asked Tom to preserve. In the end, the wall depth became so thick that he has had to build out from the niche. That means it will be an extra deep space, at the back of which will be original stone.

 Er...we somehow have to fit some stairs in there on the left.

This is the corner of the room where the wood pellet stove will go, and this mess of pipes will be organised into 4 attractive manifolds :)

Now, the upstairs. Of course, the beams still need to be cleaned up, and the plaster needs to dry out.

The Juliet balcony is done!

And the other one too. No falling from the top floor windows now. Here's a photo of the one at the front of the barn.

The last pic shows the cladding that will go over the area of wall overlooking Monsieur's cabine - this  was, if you recall, open to the air, which is why we decided to put in two windows there, and have the rest clad in wood. We had envisaged lapped oak, but Tom has suggested larch (at this thickness, less inclined to warp), which is what these sample pieces are, I gather.

Next stop: The Screed. Mind the gap.

Reaching the pointy end

16 January 2014

Of the project, that is. Since the work began on site after the Christmas break, there has been a flurry of emails (you knew, didn't you, that 'flurry' is the collective noun for emails?) back and forth between Tom, Brian, Phil, Gregg and us. The ten-hour time difference means that we wake up to find an email loaded with detailed questions and requiring Decisions to be made, preferably in time for the email to reach T, B or P before they leave home to head to the barn for the day on site (late afternoon, Sydney time). Which means that there has been a lot of phone calls between G and I (the collective noun for phone calls being 'a lot') during the working day... :)

Once again, we've spent hours poring over our detailed electrical plans and have confirmed or amended earlier decisions about the positions of light switches/light fixtures/power points. The drawings had to be updated and scanned and emailed off before a loooong Skype call with Brian, who is powering ahead (sorry) with his side of things.

After much deliberation, we have decided to go back to Plan A and have a ceiling downstairs. It was either that or live with the look of an ugly Sterling board (a really coarse chipboard) subfloor between the beams. Neither electrician nor plumber were disappointed about the ceiling U-turn; it makes life much easier for them.

One surprise since the last update was that Tom rendered the gable end wall on the driveway side upstairs. We had planned to have both gable walls pointed stone, but he misunderstood and had rendered it in readiness for framing and plaster boarding before we spotted it in a photo and realised. Give him his due, Tom accepted responsibility and offered to remove the render (several days' worth of work), but we decided to go with the flow. It's not as if we lack for stone, and it will make the end gable wall that much more special. And it will make upstairs brighter. And, well, we have justified the change such that we now wish we'd planned it all along.

Phil is busy constructing the stairs, and according to Tom, they should be installed mid-Feb. For some reason, I'm incredibly excited about the stairs! Tom has fixed a sturdy wooden structure to the stone wall (which will be hidden behind the plastered wall) to which Phil will attach his lateral (and only) stringer.

Gregg is progressing well with the job of salvaging and repairing the old barn doors, which will close over the new barn doors like giant 'shutters'. He is our 'shutters guy', and will be making all the window and door shutters for the barn. He is also going to be our 'cup-of-sugar guy': he and his wife have bought the empty and unloved house next door! They plan to renovate, and it's lucky - G and I happen to know of a good building team...and we've reason to believe that the neighbours are nice.

Charles is...well, he's plumbing the depths of everyone's patience. Sorry. Unforgivable, but a bit of levity is called for, when feathers on site  - and as far away as Sydney - have been ruffled. Suffice it to say that Tom has been required to move a stud wall, and he's not happy. A couple of extra-long phone calls to T, then C and then T again, and I think we're on track.

Where to place the hot water tank; where to situate the pressure reducing valve, main stopcock, stop valve for the outside tap and the hot and cold distribution manifolds; where to place the room thermostat; whether the underfloor heating in the shower room is worth the bother; how to manage the pellet boiler flue; whether there is headroom for the loo and bath upstairs under the eaves...all these and other practicalities to consider this week.

It's a rock 'n' roll life.