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!

Floor paint, shutters, schedules

13 March 2014

Since the weekend, and the latest round of photos, we have plunged into a world of schedules and 'if this, then that...' etc. and lots of emails back and forth as we try and get our heads around the myriad last things that must be done, in logical order, and without compromising the workmanship or sanity on site.

This week, the men are busy pointing the gable end wall upstairs; downstairs can only be done once the stove flue penetration is done. (Cue Charles. Charles? Can you read me? Charles!)

Gregg has completed the shutters and has been painting them on site with a thinned-down layer of our dove-grey colour as a base coat. G and I will have the job of applying the topcoats in the summer. By the end of this week, the men should have begun hanging the shutters.

Shutters under construction

The digger was due to come this week also, to clear the site around the barn to make way for the driveway and terrace. That should be done by the end of this week too, and by the end of next week, weather permitting, the geotextile membrane and gravel should be down...If it rains, then the downstairs pointing will be done (That means you again, Charles.)

Phil is on track with his stairs, and says they should be installed (complete with forge-blackened steel rods from the blacksmith) by the end of March. He is also almost ready to hang the bathroom door (the only internal door in the barn).

Next up after the stairs will be the upstairs floor boarding,  and once we have agreed on widths and prices etc., Tom will order the boards and get them into the barn to allow them to acclimatise. Apparently the engineered boards need only about 2 weeks to acclimatise, whereas the solid boards need 4 weeks, so we are gaining some time there. The plan is to lay the upstairs boards mid to end of April, once Charles has brought the bath and sink pipework up from the floor void. (I'm not saying anything.)

While he is upstairs doing the floor, Tom will also finish off the cupboard/storage areas.

The last thing on Tom's list is painting the concrete floor downstairs. The screed is drying 'lovely', to quote him, but is not particularly smooth underfoot, so we've asked him to apply a 2mm self-levelling layer which will be very smooth. This means that we won't have to rely on the paint to give us the desirable smooth texture. Talking of paint. The manufacturer (Farrow & Ball), suggests a 3-month delay before painting new concrete, no matter its thickness, which means that we will only be able to paint it on or about the 2 May. It will require a primer and at least two coats...

Once the floor is ready to walk on (after 24 hours), it will only be the plumbing in of the sanitaryware to do, and the commissioning of the stove and heating system. Only.

In the meantime, all G and I have to do is choose and order online a paint colour, using only the printed catalogue, a wing and a prayer.

Oh, and try and plan a trip over for handover, snag list assessment and final payment, preferably when all the workmen have left, there's running water, electricity, a flushable toilet and a shower. It has to be sometime in May...but not the third week (G has to go to the Philippines on business) and it can't be the end of May (year-end)...

Too hard basket.

Décalage horaire and Decision Making 101

2 February 2014

It's been quite a week. G away on business, and still the emails kept on coming (or not coming), depending on whether you were the builder, the electrician - just about anybody, really - or the plumber.

To be fair, though, Chas has been working hard and even over the weekend to get the plumbing out of the way before the plasterers began on Monday. He sent through a few photos on Monday, as well as a drawing of the flue design.

We have made clear our wishes for the stove and flue but they keep getting blocked by Chas, who quotes regs and negative practicalities in his by-now-familiar 'can't-do' way. We now expect a fairly complex flue design within the barn - a T bar allowing easy cleaning - and the stove can't sit as close to the wall as we would like, because of the flue that will have to connect and then turn vertically in the gap. There's also the small air vent (a never-before-mentioned last-minute surprise), so now Tom must make not one but two holes in the gable wall. Hmm.

The other minor character (no dialogue but more than a walk-on part) is the exhaust vent, required by French regs if you want to cook with gas. We made a decision to go with provision for a propane gas bottle outside the barn, because of space constraints, but apparently we still need a 50 mm vent at high level, in the same room as the cooker. With the plastering already under way, there was a flurry of emails between Sydney and France as I tried to establish a) whether it would be feasible (i.e. not too late) to put one in and b) whether high up in the stairwell near the two oblong windows would be an acceptable site (no stone to penetrate). A time difference of 10 hours meant that after sending off my emails, I had to wait all day for a reply from Tom and Chas-the-communicative.

By early evening, I had an agreement in principle (hint of clenched teeth) from the former; nada, zilch, diddly-squat from the latter. Tom - very decidedly not interested in contacting the plumber - making it clear that today or latest tomorrow (France time) was the last chance to interfere with the walls. Also, that my proposed site for the vent was, by chance, not yet plastered, but time was of the essence to make a decision and then DO it. Another email off to Chas. And a text. Everything cc'd to Tom and to G. Deafening silence. Finally, at nearly 11 pm Sydney time, a phone call to Chas. No answer.

That night, I took forever to get to sleep and then woke at 3 am to find a chatty communiqué responding to my queries and suggestions: 'Tom has it in hand.'

So.

The plastering is going ahead as planned, and Tom expects to have everything 'neat as a pin' by the end of Monday, ready for Chas to begin laying the UFH. He has two days for this and then, on Thursday, the screed is due to be laid.

Phil has been in and has fitted the front door, so the barn is now lockable. He will wait until the screed is down before starting on the stairs.

Ellie (Tom's very efficient other half, who drew up our plans and submitted them for us) has been making enquiries on our behalf regarding the telephone connection and which telephone pole would be the one to aim for with our cabling. Armed with that info, Brian has organised a digger to come and dig trenches for the EDF and telephone cables; Chas will make use of the same digger for his trench. This will require co-ordination and communication, so good luck with that, people.

Brian has helped us source outside lights that we are pleased with: very simple and traditional, and kind of rustic.

In other news, we sent off Bonne Année cards to our French neighbours, new friends and contacts and have been chuffed to receive several warm replies. And Ellie has invited herself to our housewarming party.

Better get the invites out.

"(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.