Small details

23 May 2014

It's been hard, letting go of the barn and getting back into life on the other side of the planet. Two parallel universes, each so utterly absorbing.

On our last day at the barn, we left Tom and Gregg fiddling with the closure of the shutters, which we had not been 100% happy with - there were places where the wood clashed with the stone and the fit wasn't quite right. Also, we all agreed that the shutter fixtures could have been more sturdily fixed to the stone walls (one had fallen off while we were there) - it had proved tricky because of the uneven stone and crumbly mortar.

So, in the week after we left France, Tom and Gregg made fine adjustments to the shutters and re-fixed the hinges using cement and Gregg's secret mud-and-eye-of-newt recipe, so now they are both strong and aesthetically pleasing. Always a good combo.

Tom has finished the upstairs modesty wall (including skirting) and the storage unit next to and behind the toilet. It's lovely, don't you agree?

Still to do:

Brian needs to install uplighters downstairs, and move a switch in the kitchen (which we belatedly realised would clash with the fridge).

Tom says that his plasterer cannot come until September to make good any damage done to plasterwork now. Which means that we've had to ask Charles to go easy when he instals the basins etc. Hmmm.

Chas is talking about finishing his work in June. We can only hope.

"(We) have become irrationally protective of your stone walls :)"

24 January 2014

That's a quote from Tom again.

The pace is hotting up and G and I are spending lots of hours every evening poring over the plans, discussing detail, and composing email after email to one or other of the main players in the build.
It's all good; the devil, as they say, is in the detail, and we want to get it right.

The walls are being plaster boarded and now the stone gable is coming into its own...

 That's the kitchen window, under which will go the sink. Brian has been busy with the first electrical fix.

That tiny window is an original that Tom and Gregg have carefully renovated. We love its quirkiness.

Upstairs, the privacy wall  - behind which will be the toilet - has been built.

We are making use of every nook and cranny under the eaves for storage.

 The shelving is made of oak.

 The uneven purlins make the white ceiling look squiggly...

 The stairs will take just a small bite out of the top floor...

The major pressure now is to get all the plumbing sorted out in time for the plasterers to start on Monday. If we miss that window, Tom says he can't be sure when they will next be available, and that throws out the whole schedule... So we have had to nip at the heels of the plumber somewhat, but he assures us that he will be finished by Friday afternoon. Don't imagine that he would work over the weekend, as Tom has been doing.

The big issue of the moment is the design of the stove flue. We have all balked at putting it through the beautiful tiling on the roof (not easy with the clip system), and have chosen instead to put it through the stone of the gable wall.

Watch that space.

14.5 tog duvet (and the craic is good)

17 January 2014

Now that the plumber has been on site for more than a glancing look at the place (!), we can start to finalise the layout upstairs.  We now have pretty exact dimensions of the upstairs: the length and width of the room, as well as the wall height.

Several emails back and forth overnight, this time about moving the hot water tank downstairs into the shower room, thereby removing the large, person-sized eyesore from the toilet/bath area upstairs. It seems like a win-win to us. It also makes sense to make use of the very high ceiling in the shower room.

If the hot water tank goes, then the low privacy wall between toilet and bath upstairs can now be shifted and that frees up more space for the bath.

The electrician has fixed the power board in the only spot he could find that fulfils regulations - right next to the front door. A lovely welcome to any home. I guess we will soon forget about its ugly functional face. Maybe we could disguise it with feathers and glitter, or a trompe l'oeil bucolic scene?

A letter and photos in the inbox today. Tom says that Phil, Brian, Greg and he were all at the barn yesterday and there was 'a happy, productive atmosphere'. Only two things missing: G and me...
The photos show that the barn has been wrapped in its own winter duvet of thick insulation, and doesn't it look cosy?

From L to R - Phil, Brian and Gregg.

Brian enjoying the limelight as Phil takes a pic... before getting down to business with the pesky powerboard.

The shower room window with its oversized lintel.

The stairwell is coming along. 

The back corner where the yellow insulation is stacked is where the toilet will go, behind a low privacy wall.

Check out the A-frame.

Cosy toes.

Did someone mention winter? Bring it on.