Blog Post 7: Barn Conversion - 2022: End of Year Progress
December 2022 - whilst the two week Christmas shutdown isn’t helping my barn conversion to progress, I’m relieved to report that the stud work, the first fix plumbing and the first fix electrics are now done bar one or two snagging items.
Looking back over the last couple of months, I’d say the most challenging thing has been co-ordinating the trades to make sure the right people were on the site at the right time … I’m not sure I always got it right as I’m certainly on a steep learning curve here.
Another positive thing to report is that after much deliberation, I have again chosen InHouse: inspired room design - this time to source the fixtures and fittings for the en-suites and the cloakroom. Rhys, my designer, has been wresting with how the aesthetic I am going for can be achieved in the bathroom spaces within my budget. I find myself struggling to accept ‘the compromise position’, so I fear, a bit like the kitchen, I may overspend on the bathrooms. I really do need to start thinking of where I can claw-back the overspend. Solid oak doors may now have to be oak veneer :-)
Getting someone to install my ‘bargain’ stove is proving problematic - seems companies only want to install stoves they have supplied; they do not want to install my pre-purchased stove - what I thought was a bargain stove may not have been such a bargain after all :-)
Some good news re: the staircase; my main contractor suggested a local chap, Alan Dawson: Adaptahaus, who has agreed to try to come up with an appropriate design for the barn conversion bearing in mind my now very limited budget :-)
Also, I think I have finally sorted out a layout for the boot-room. I’ve been vacillating about what can go where - the floor to ceiling window on one wall made it challenging but fingers crossed the configuration I’ve eventually come up with will work.
Taking advice from my contractors, rather than keeping the former external stone wall (which is now incorporated into the living room) as exposed stone, I have reluctantly agreed to it being boarded and plastered.
Lots of activity in the kitchen for first fix electrics.
Drilling through at the rear of the property for external lighting … I wasn’t at all sure about the need for external lights because I love the intensity of the darkness around the property - but - my electrician has convinced me that the the ability to find the keyhole must win out over my dark sky obsession :-)
So much cabling - who knew I needed so many downlights.
As I’m no longer keeping the stone wall in the living room exposed, Building Control have said it’s OK if I keep this section of original wall on the half-landing as exposed stone instead.