Blog Post 12: Barn Conversion - Getting My Hands Dirty :-)

March 2023 - thankfully, with the help of a dehumidifier and a heater, the acute dampness in the property is resolved … I’m told that commissioning the air source heat pump, which is now scheduled for the beginning of April, will mean no recurrence of the issue.

The revised kitchen delivery date is Monday … to accommodate the scheduling of remaining tasks, I need the joiner to crack on with the kitchen installation as soon as it arrives … which means I needed to get the bare plaster ceiling & walls in the kitchen painted and the remedial work to the kitchen wooden beams complete before Monday.

Decorating is not my forte, so, it had always been my intention to use a professional decorator for the project … I naively thought the ‘whole house’ nature of the job would mean decorators would be interested in taking the commission … but … it just shows you what I know … I’ve been trying unsuccessfully for months to get several decorators to return my calls about getting an estimate :-(

Thankfully at the 11th hour, a colleague suggested someone who could fit in the painting of my newly plastered kitchen ceiling & walls as a ‘stand alone’ job last week.

That left the work to the kitchen wooden beams to be done … my builder, who was scheduled to do that task, is still unable to get to site, so, on a ‘needs must’ basis, I find myself doing the work to the beams … Osmo Oil … who knew :-)

The bulk of the stair installation was completed this week …

There are protective covers on at the moment so you can’t see the oak treads or landing …

The idea was to achieve the effect of ‘floating treads’ but doing that within Building Regs was challenging - thank goodness for Alan Dawson: Adaptahaus - he has kept me right :-)

The 2 issues to find solutions to next week are:

(1) Given the stairwell height, how the downlights will be installed and how the decoration will be done?

The exposed RSJ will need intumescent paint and the lighting position indicator discs will need to be replaced by actual downlights.

(2) Radiator / towel warmer valves (The ground floor of the property has underfloor heating but the first floor will have rads.) … I wanted coloured valves to match the colour of the rads I have chosen but my air source heat pump chap, who is supplying the rads, says the coloured valves from the rad supplier aren’t very good - so - if I want coloured valves, I’ll have to source them separately myself.

When I started looking into sourcing the values, something else has come to light … the air source heat pump chap recommended thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs) throughout the first floor … but … advice from several commentators online suggests that TRVs aren’t necessary in en-suites and aren’t recommended for rooms with a thermostatic control … it seems I deffo need to do some more research needed around that issue :-(