More window frames delivered and painted ready to be hung. Do you hang a window frame? Insert? Install? Put up? You definitely hang a door, so maybe you'd hang a window. But the window frame? And what if the frame and window come together. Does your head in, doesn't it.
Still with electricity 1st fix. The most direct route from one end of the barn to the other is under the floor. There's already ducting under the oversite, the concrete base, which carries the mains supply to that end of the building. I believe they call it a sub-main, and there will be a consumer unit for the services at that end. However there's still a need to get across the entrance hall, which is double height, with other circuits - TV, phone, lighting. And since there's no floor above it's not obvious how you do that. One way is to put smaller gauge ducting across the top of the oversite. It will disappear beneath the celotex and floor screed which will go on top of the oversite.
Here's the rockwool going in between the studs. We're using rockwool not sheep wool as it's so much cheaper. Not too happy about it, nor are the guys - it's nasty itchy stuff. Ah well.
A window frame installed. You can see it's on the wonk, as they say in Suffolk. But of course the whole timber frame is on the wonk. There are no straight lines, no right angles, no verticals (apart from the ones newly installed.) But that's all part of the charm of the place, no?
Thought long and hard about window furniture - latches and stays. Didn't want anything too ornate or too modern. Eventually opted for black iron monkey tails. We spent ages looking at different manufacturers, eventually deciding which one we wanted. It turned out that only one of them did the sizes we require so we needn't have bothered. But we now know all there is to know about black iron window and door furniture - which is not a lot compared with, say, egyptology or brain surgery, but taxing nonetheless.
Progress with the wall construction is steaming ahead. And talking of water vapour, you need a vapour check barrier - a kind of vertical DPM. Actually, the black plastic stuff used for damp proof course is about the cheapest material you can get for the job so guess what ...
They've started putting up the plaster board too. Amazing the difference it makes when a wall really becomes a wall. If the open studs give you an idea what the enclosed, delineated spaces are going to feel like, filling in the gaps makes it real. Here's a section of the top of the wall between the main bedroom and ensuite bathroom.
We're having a small loft in certain areas, mainly to have somewhere to put the heat recovery units and also to provide a means of running services along the length of the barn. And where you have a loft you have to have a loft hatch opening.
Water quality - bit of an issue. The initial tests by the local authority environmental health people revealed that the water coming out of our borehole is high in iron, manganese, has traces of ammonia and, worst of all e-Coli. Altogether, not recommended for making tea with. So we're having some more tests to confirm the findings and decide what level of filtration and treatment our water will require. So much simpler if you can just connect to the mains and turn a tap on, don't you think?
They've moved round to the east side with the weather boarding.
View of the farmer's field out the back ready for the next sowing.
Our field to the left with its crop of grass for hay production, and farmer’s field to the right ready for a new planting of - I've no idea what.
Issues this week have included - the rockwool problems, painting the weather boarding, need for a design for the reinforcment behind the garage wall, how to ensure sufficient ventilation for the wood burning stove.
The rockwool irritation means facemasks, gloves and disposable suits. Maybe sheep wool wouldn't have been that expensive after all.
We've had a painter on site doing the window frames before they go up. We're planning to paint the weather boarding ourselves. It comes in painted black but needs another coat. Our painter has very kindly explained the best way to do it - start at the top and work down, keep a wet edge, use a medium sized roller rather than a brush, cover up the brick plinth where you're working. All good advice.
Did you know that for each kilowatt of heat from a wood burning stove you have to allow 550mm squared of fresh air vent. And to measure the area of an air vent you have to measure just the holes. We're having a 9kw stove so we need a total of 4950mm squared vent. Amazing what you learn isn't it? Going to be so useful later on.
And finally
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