Out of date update

Don't ask why there is a picture of the static home on here! We've had a couple of enquiries from fellow self builders so its an easy place to see a photo! Sadly it seems we can't find that piece of field in Norfolk to allow us to keep the caravan, and HDC will charge us council tax until we remove it, so sadly it will have to go :(

Why we chose this one: Here and arriving on site Here


It seems that with all the work to finish the house we stopped blogging. Just for those who do look in here, we've been living in our wonderful house for a month now, had 10 of us staying here over Christmas which was fantastic. When I get a chance between finishing skirting boards and painting all the unfinished rooms I'll post some pictures.

Moving forward, and a poignant parting.

Its been yet again a time of real and exiting change. Firstly we've had all the ground floors insulated with 80mm of Celotex, and then Christian and Cain have piped all the underfloor heating pipes, (with their new helper Mark who spent a day pretending to be an underfloor heating engineer).


Dave has hung the rest of the French Doors, plus the stable door to the office/study, and then we had the downstairs screed laid. For the first time we have a real perspective of the final feel of the building.

Christian and Cain putting the waste pipes in.

The major change has been seeing the plastering, especially to the lightwell, plus the vaulted ceilings, the lightwell is a triumph I feel for all concerned.

Its now time to move on to the non-building works, plastering downstairs, the stairs, second fix lighting, floor finishes, bathrooms and kitchen, decorating and heating.

Sadly though we are just one week, (and for us at South Barn, one last day) away from Dave, Mick and Adam finishing and moving on. It will be a very strange site without them, the place is unrecognisable from the heap of rubble they started with. I don't think we have had a cross word with each other since they started, its been an absolute pleasure working with Dave, he's always been completely on message with what I've wanted to see created here, always understood the little details which make the whole thing work and he'll be sorely missed.

Madcap Plans

We've decided that the hall and landing need a staircase to suit, so once my detailed plans have been approved we should end up with a helical set of stairs. Here's a simple animation.

A time of transformation.

Since the last post Dave, Mick and Adam have returned from their summer holidays and have started the big push to finish their work.

Mick and Ad have been grinding out for re-pointing, and Dave has been framing and putting up the external doors. Don't be fooled by the pictures above, Dave had done all the work here, its 7.30 on a Friday evening and I've only come out to interfere.

We've had a fixed price for the plastering, and whilst they have covered a lot of ground its a real shock to have employed people on site as opposed to self employed people. 4 to 6 hour days, and everything seems to be grumbled about. Compare that to Patrick the sparky who apologises for being late if he turns up at 8.30, and then leaves at 7pm because he just had to do that extra few cables. Dave invariably works until 6pm most nights and Christian and Kain the heating engineers think nothing of leaving site at 9pm if they know we need pipework to be finished for the morning. Oh well, irrespective of this the boarded upstairs looks great, the lightwell is a minor triumph we feel, and the reflected light we are now enjoying is fantastic.

Main guest room fully boarded.
Our room about to be boarded.
Kate has sound insulated all the walls.

Both sets of doors need to be painted yet.

Boarded lightwell.

Wet Outside, Warm Inside?

Since our last post the weather has been quite awful, however now we are inside this is less of a problem.

We've finally finished the cladding. The final finish is so effective.

I've tried to reduce some of the level at the back as the ground level is actually higher than the internal floor. It all went well until the heavens opened and the plant were just sitting in a quagmire.

Mark and Dave have insulated the vaulted roof sections with two separate layers of Celotex (or similar) phenolic insulation.

More to follow later today.

At last, a dry building

I'm pleased to say that at last we are dry roofed throughout. In order to have the scaffold access to the rear gables we have had to have two downstairs rooms exposed to the elements. however, with the scaffold off-hired we have been able to take down the rear sections.

Dave spent two very productive days cutting and erecting all the timberwork.

When we returned from holiday the rear slates were all but finished.
With most of the scaffold down its great to finally see the clad elevations.The oak looks great against the wheat across the valley.

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.

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.

Moving Inside

Alas its over a month since we posted, so here's some updated photos.

Its been a month of huge changes, both in the build, and in the working. Firstly we had agreed with Dave that he would move across the way and manage Matt (Paul's brothers build) and yet still be on-site to field questions, check the work, and basically act as a consultant. This seemed to good to be true, as with costs now overrunning this would be a great way to have the very best input from Dave. These plans now seem to be on hold for the time being, yet Dave has quite magnanimously agreed to work for us for a day a week, Paul two and catch up on other works for the rest of the week. This is great for us, and as long as it works for Dave, the most cost effective way forward.

The same great relationship can't be said for our original roofers, after three weeks of really first class slating they went AWOL without a by your leave. The main reason is that after three weeks they realised that on a fixed price they were never going to finish in time, and so with nearly three quarters of their money they were off. However all clouds have a silver lining and thanks to Colt the roofing labourer we had directly employed anyway, he was back with a family friend Mick, who is a thoroughly pleasant guy, works a longer day and is on message to where we want to get to.

The main roof will be finished tomorrow, and then Mick and Colt will be back to slate the lean to when the timberwork has been done.

Dave and Adam constructing the timber base for the gulley, and finishing the brickwork over Beth's window.

The main change has been the first fixing inside, Christian and Kane have ran all our upstairs underfloor heating pipes, and fixed the manifold, and Patrick my wonderful electrician has been running what seems miles of ring, lights and Cat 5 cables around the house.

Uponor pipe and thermal foil to our room.

Last weekend we started laying the floors, me cutting and gluing, Beth marking the joists (essential with underfloor pipes) Kate nail-gunning the boards down, and Tom clearing up after us. Its a slow job gluing them, but it should lessen any squeaks, so I'm guessing we will be flooring for a few weekends yet.

With the underfloor heating you have to fix the sole-plates for the stud work before the pipes can be laid as the film is laid to create separate zones. After such a successful solar panel Saturday I asked Harvey if he fancied doing the sole plates with me, he did, we had a really productive day, and he rashly said he fancied having a go at the stud work. Two weeks later he was back and in a single day all the main studs were up. For the first time we can see the rooms, the landing and the stairwell.

All the windows are now in, including the main full length ones in our room, and Mark and Adam have added all the final timbers to support the glass lightwell, the battens are up ready for the cladding, and the lean to is nearly ready for the wall plate and cut roof timbers.