Monday 14 July 2008

And suddenly everywhere smells of fresh green oak.

I seem to remember saying that the glass was the most exiting thing to happen in a while, how the barn has changed though in cladding it is another matter.
Detail of the South West Elevation, we've had to take some scaffold down as the scaffolders haven't turned up to dismantle it yet.

Showing the oak over Tom's room.
I've started to clad the South East elevation.

Updated views of the lightwell.
The lightwell from inside: Suffice to say we absolutely love it, the light into the hall and landing is fantastic.

Wednesday 2 July 2008

Light, and lots of it.

I don't think Kate and I have been quite so happy about a single element as we have this week about the lightwell. The glass fitted almost perfectly, (only one small on site chisel alteration to the timberwork) and the whole landing and hall are again bright and open.

The real surprise to me is just how professional it looks, and when we costed it up, its actually cheaper for its area than the slated roof. The main body of support was made and fitted in-situ by Dave and Jay some weeks back. The stepped support is fairly simple 4x2" timbers. After I had rung every glazier in the yellow pages Dave managed to get the number of the glass supplier his joinery firm use who were instantly both the cheapest and the most helpful to get us just the product we required. The final fixings were from a conservatory fittings firm. The only extra cost will be extra insulation elsewhere in the house to offset losses from the glass. Although the pictures show lots of people up there, in fact we spent a couple of hours getting the first four panes up, then I disappeared on appointments whilst Adam quietly measured up and cut all the fixing strips, he and I fixed all these in place, and then we spent an hour at the end of the day getting the last two in place.

Finished timbers, fixings and rubber gaskets in place.
First two panes in, marking the perpendiculars for the outer fixings.



Last pane.


The finished lightwell, which marries in remarkably well with the solar panels.