Door Step in place

In Feb 2013 the front windows and new kitchen main door are being delivered and fitted. 

They have all been bespoke made in the traditional French style the windows hardwood double glazed will be painted on both sides and the main door in Oak will be painted on the exterior and just oiled on the inside. The door is an copy of the original seen in the next photos showing the new doorstep going in. 
(apologies for the dodgy quality of the photos) 
When I say the door is a copy obviously I dont mean an exact copy with all the rot and gaps and stuff. 
It will be a new door in the same style three way opening made by Mick the artistically gifted carpenter who created our stairs and the main doorway from kitchen to lounge and the roof. 

The door step was next to be fitted

The granite step was cut to exact dimensions in the granite quarry up near Broons and measures 105cms x 45 cms x 15 cms and weighs in at 107 kilos. A lovely coloured granite (photos dont do it justice) that has little glittery shard in it and sort of matches the stone colour of the front. It will blend in even further with time and wear. 
My eternal thanks as ever to my good neighbour and his trusty old Massey Ferguson and his homemade pallet lifter.

 








I had already dug down the doorway and laid in the services such as mains water and a land drain that takes moisture out of from under the kitchen floor (see previous post) 
I then pegged out the levels 20mm lower than they needed to be and with a 1 degree tilt to the outside and made a batten wooden frame to which the concrete base be at the correct levels required. We then laid that and let it go off for a day. 
After checking the levels were good (which they were) we made up a firm mix or 4 sand 1 cement (with water-proofer).
WE had moved the step to lay parallel across the front of the door and it bwas resting ona sheet of zinc to make it easier to move
I laid out three battens 20mm thick on the base. 
I had put a flat webbing strop around the middle of the step and then using a method known as "union purchase" rigged a chain block to pull the step in and a ratchet strap to lift it as it went.
WE then put a load of cement in between the battens and a good 20mm higher than them and then just eased the step into position using the union purchase and a crow bar on either side to centralise it.
The weight of it coming in sat it at the correct height on the battens and it pushed any excess cement forward as it came.
A few minor adjustments and tweaks and it was in. 









You may notice in this shot that we also made and fitted a new oak window sill and refurbished and refitted the metal bars. After using a flappy paddle sanding dist to remove as much rust as possible we then primed and top coated them using a product available on the net called "Rust Bullet".

Starting to put some skin on the skeleton

Right up at the top of the house we have created a mezzanine sleeping deck to better utilise the space, rather than just having an attic.
I had strengthened the dividing wall (which is only about 350mm thick at the top) with a couple of coats of our normal lime / mud render mix, however as the place next door is just used as a storage barn I wanted to insulate. 
That means dry lining the wall, so I knocked up a framework and as I had some spare foil insulation hanging about have used that and 100mm of isotherm fibre glass type stuff as the insulation and plaster-boarded over that. 

The foil has air gap in places and some places it is snug against the isotherm and the wall but it was the best I could manage without loosing to much space and will prevent heat loss through the wall to the empty space. 














The foil you can see in the roof over the chevrons is a temporary measure and was put up in feb 2012 to create a warm space for my son and his mate when they came over and trimmed all our oaks at project number 2 and helped me with the kitchen floor here (see earlier post) 
It will be replaced by 30mm celotex between the chevrons and 120mm over them then counter battened and plaster boarded.
Hmm toasty.

This is the banister thingy (balustrade?) that will prevent anyone falling from the mezzanine into the office below. It isn't fitted yet but you get the idea and size wise it is just over two meters long and about 50cms high.








Here you can see the insulated dividing wall leading up to the deck





We will be plastering (proper UK plaster) so we don't have to be too fussy about the taping and jointing and wont have to suffer the dust that sanding it down creates. My building guru has told me that we dont really need to bother T&J if we are plastering but I am, as ever, taking a belt and braces approach which wont do any harm. 


The staircase going up to the mezzanine deck is going to be hidden and disguised as a bookcase. and you can see the start of that process in the coming photos. We will be using light colour wash on all the exposed wood and sterling board which will blend it in with its surroundings although looks a bit stark as it is. 
It was originally a temporary one from a brico shed and has now been backed with 18m sterling board. 

Here is a shot of the back taken from what will be the under-stairs cupboard.




Then a shot looking up the stairs and one of the side in the room showing. I have beading that will fill the gap between the stair stringer and the wall to make it all neat and dust trap free. 












Here is the first part of the cupboard under the stairs door and its frame utilising old wood re-claimed from the original roof. The door was the old original hay loft door or might have been the back door I cant remember now.
We had all the old doors and re-claimed wood sand blasted so we could see what we had and I have to say it worked a treat 

If you can imagine a backdrop of white or cream wash on all the wood and bookcase extended right to the top of the wall and across the top of the understairs cupboard 








The rest of the office is now plaster-boarded out and the electric distribution box for that and the mezzanine is in as are the back boxes for the plugs and lights.








This is the upstairs toilet waiting for its skin.
The wall that leads to outside will be insulated, plaster boarded then tiled. The wall with the wires in it will be acoustic insulated with isotherm stuff and plaster-boarded. To increase the acoustic insulation the timbers that are to take the plaster-board will have a foam like membrane which prevents the wall form acting like a drum skin.
I have only just found out about this and would have used the same stuff between the floorboards and floor joists had I known. 

I wanted to get at least one of the bits of hydro placo up in the bathroom before we left and just managed it on the last day.
Loads of acoustic insulation and noggins and the main timber is 100 x 100, so nice and thick as I am no fan of flimsy stud walls.
A trick my building guru told me to make stud walls feel thicker and more sold is to use a double layer of plaster-board which although obviously more expensive might be worth the effort in some places. 











So that's us starting to put the skin on the skeleton. 

Master bedroom

When we put the floor in we ran a 10 by 25 beam across the wall with which to suspend the floor on and my idea was to build up a wooden framework wall from that, insulate between us and them and then plaster board and plaster over for the upstairs bedroom. 
See here the big beam, (it should be noted that the joists are not in contact with the old beams below and we have no intention of doing so at this time) There is about two and half meters before the joists sit across some new beams. 





And the floor it supports (with mrsB adding some scale to it)





The flaw in my plan came when I realised that although it is a mighty chunk of wood it is helping to hold up a big floor and still moves. I popped my laser level on the beam and took a stroll across the bedroom and watched the laser light dance over the roof and knew that if I sat a stud work wall on it and then plastered the plaster would just crack off. 
What I decided instead was to suspend the wooden frame wall form the joints in the terracotta wall and leave a gap at the bottom (so it doesn’t touch the floor) which I would disguise by a floating skirting board when finished.

I used pieces of chevron (75 x 45) cut into 100mm lengths and then used screws and rawl plugs to attach them to the wall with the 75 bits as the depth .
From there it was simple enough to construct a framework built over it with 400 centers and then noggins in between.





The neighbours are only in residence for three months a year but I wanted to make sure I combined thermal and acoustic insulation so used the Isover shown and squeezed it in behind the framework and then inserted 25mm celotex style polystyrene between the noggins and then completed the sandwich with standard 13mm plasterboard. 














You can see in this one where the bedside plug sockets and light switches will be and also the actual light fitting locations above the middle of the bed. We have a rather extravagant bed and headboard planned but you will have to wait to see details when we have found the right bits. 





Up the top (ie above the a frame) which is their attic I decided to go with 120mm Recticil (which is a celotex/ kingspan equivalent) as insulation. 
The roof will be done with 35mm celotex/kingspan between the chevrons and 150 celotex/ kingspan over the chevrons, counter-battened and then plaster-boarded leaving whatever of the beams remain on show. 





Although this picture doesn’t show it I actually shuffled all the joints together so they were very tight and then taped them with the correct reflective tape. This then has an outer skin of 22mm thick Douglas Fir (un treated as yet) which can be seen here.





As we have plenty of old beams about we may slice a few and peg them to the perlings before we put up the ceiling for an extra bit of “old wood feel” although MrsB has yet to agree to this idea and will need to see one done before committing.

Thermal Store (called Richard) Is Installed

The thermal store is to be the central hub of our heating and domestic hot water system.
It will be connected to a log burning cooker with back boiler in the kitchen, a log burner with back boiler in the lounge and a couple of water heater solar panels. 
The purpose of it is to "store the thermal energy (heat) that you create every time you have the fires burning or the sun shines. Each log burned not only provides immediate heat to the room you are in but also sends heat energy to be stored in the TS that can be used for the UFH the radiators and of course to provide lots of domestic hot water. 

The principle behind us wanting to go the thermal store route rather than just a log burner running a few rads on its own route is a simple case of the most effective use of energy (more bang for you buck) and, to us, makes long term economical sense.

I have lost count of the times I have read on various French forums about the trials and tribulations of getting up in the morning to a cold house as the fires haven't stayed in and having to get it all flashed up again to obtain some heat. 
Therefore it makes logical sense (to me) to store the heat you do produce and then it can be used for days after the fire has gone out, yet alone just a few hours. 
The one we have is capable of storing heat for over a week and usually will not lose more than half a degree per day.

It isn't the cheapest route to take on installation which will put off the "make do" and penny pinching types and may not be suitable for all types of use, but however you look at it having access to stored energy that you have created and that would otherwise disappear makes perfect logical sense to me.

We reached this decision after a couple of years of research into various methods of heating, which included but was not limited to various green building and alternative energy sites along with surfing google to check out each new idea that cropped up and then consulting with a couple of professionals about how to design it. 
This is the company product we used http://www.akvaterm.fi/fin/Akvaterm.1.html

There was a three month build wait for the tank so we made and paid our order and waited for the day to arrive which was due to be the week commencing 5th November.

I had arrived back from sea on 27th October and we started work straight away on preparing the area where the TS is to live. 
It was going to be in the main space that will be MrsBs art studio so after clearing the area and deciding on orientation we set about clawing out the dead wood of a rotten beam built into the wall and then making the wall good again 

After that we dry studded the wall and insulated between us and the derelict next door. 
You can see the 100mm polystyrene insulation that was backed up with 100 mm isotherm fiberglass stuff. That is the wall between us and the empty one next door.
In the floor joists (under the bathroom and above the tank) is 100 mm isotherm to act as an acoustic barrier rather than a thermal one. 




On this one you can see some extruded polystyrene I had hanging about which is 30mm thick and is on the wall that backs onto the lounge. Not sure if it was needed but thought bit wouldn't do any harm (he says adjusting the braces and taking the belt in a notch) 





Then we just tape and jointed and slapped on a few coats of "Johnstones Obliterating Emulsion" (which in my experience is the best emulsion paint I have ever used) and we were good to go. 





The bit missing you can see in the corner is where (behind) the bath and sink drain are going to come through the floor from the bathroom above and run along that wall towards the front of the house (all hidden) so I needed to make sure I still had access to make sure I made a good connection with the drain pipes. 

We had been told that the "Thermal Store" was "en route" and would be with us at 0830 on the 8th November however the truck delivering it didn't have a fork lift or crane so we would have to make our own arrangements for unloading it.  

I couldn't find the local farmer to ask if I could (borrow/hire) his Manatu for the morning so I nipped into town and organised a half day hire from my normal hire centre, with whom I have developed a very good business relationship with. 
So with a slight sense of excited anticipation of the next days delivery we popped up the road to have a couple of beers and some cake with a mate of ours whose wife was in UK for a few weeks.

When we returned through the village we noticed a massive articulated truck parked in the school car park,  with the driver inside cooking, and on the short drive from there home we chatted about what it must be like being a trucker and wondering why more of them didn't take their wives along fot the ride.
On arrival at home we were met by one of the two elderly lady neighbours, who is given to lots of hand waving and Oooh La La ing (we think she is great) telling us that the biggest lorry in the world has come into the hamlet nearly ended up in a ditch Ooh La La because he was so wide Ooh La la he couldnt turn around the corner Ooh La La and has gone to the village for the night Ooh La La and its all our fault because he has something for us. 
I drove back into the village and knocked on his cab door just as he was finishing dinner and told him to stay there in the morning until the manitu was delivered and I came for him in my pick up. 
Turns out he was a Croatian driver of a Swedish registered truck making the delivery from Finland.   
My initial thought was "F@ck Me!! for all my energy saving green friendly ideas there goes all my carbon credits in one truck trip", but all that escaped my lips was an Ooh La la of my own.  

So onwards and upwards as I hear the familiar air horn of the hire centre truck announcing his arrival with the Manatu.
I drove up to the village and had the trucker follow me around the widest bits of road to make a circle back to our place where I had him park at the top of the road while I nipped down the lane and flashed up the manatu.

When the trucker pulled back the curtains I could see that it was a gert big lorry for one tank, however it did have three rolls of paper he was taking to Vannes after my drop so my eco greeny points started to rise again. 
The TS looked much bigger than I expected and also it was the wrong way round on the truck, however with a bit of fancy wriggling with the manatu and I had it sorted and then it was a simple case of take it down the lane and pop it into the room. 

All was going well until "Err Huston we may have a problem"

As you can see it looks a bit bigger than the door 

So it was a case of re-rig it and take off the first layer of wrapping and try again. With a little bit of shakey jiggly and with 5mm to spare each side it was in. 
HooooRaaah

This next photo is awful but it does show if you look carefully through the haze how we landed it onto two tower scaffold boards on which were in turn on three wooden rollers.

Then it was a case of putting an extension on the forks and giving it a gentle shove as far as I could across the room.

Then with the help of my good neighbour Pete and his trusty trolley jack we performed the technique known as “gently gently catchy monkey” using the three rollers and two scaffold boards and the jack, and moved all 500 kilos of it 5 meters across the room and turned it 90 degrees to its final resting place.

And after a bit of grunting and groaning and “hang on a minute” whooooah, OK OK OK, Puuuush now, just a bit this way, and some choice expletives from me (as seems to be my way when I am working) the Thermal Store,. Known henceforth as "Richard" (yes it’s corny but it will be the warm ‘heart” of the house) was in situation.

Mrsb then looked at me with raised eyebrows (but smiling eyes) and said “Why have you turned my art studio into a ships engine room???” 

Which it has to be said gave me a great idea, because once we have all the pipe work connected to the various heat sources and the distribution manifold installed on the side wall, we will be constructing a wall around it to make its own room and I thought, in homage to the engine room comment, I would put in few portholes in it to give it that nautical feel. 
Arf Arf