Rest and Recuperation
Firstly, I must apologise for the infrequency of my recent posting.
I’ve been away in France for a little ‘R and R’ staying in a barn conversion in Normandy (can’t stay away from the bloody things).
The place we stay at now has four barns converted for holiday accommodation. We stayed in the first conversion at the farm more or less exactly two years ago and since then three more have followed.
What I find interesting is that whilst there are many similarities in the buildings and the climate between here and South Wales and in essence the conversions are similar in design approach, the building regulations obviously differ greatly. These buildings have nothing like the (expensive) levels of roof & wall insulation or high specification windows and doors that we use. Now I don’t know if there are different standards for temporary holiday accommodation in France or other factors at play here, but anyway it makes you think…
Perhaps we have something to teach the French…? Or is that the other way around…do we over-specify?
Put another way, where should we draw the line between energy efficiency, pragmatism and cost? That line seems to be drawn differently in different countries.
If you enjoyed that post, then read these...
Building Progress ~ March 2008, week 1 & 2 on March 16th, 2008
We've now arrived at the stage where I need to get start getting services installed into the fabric of the building - first fix electrics and plumbing.
Brambling take 2 on May 15th, 2007
There's been some pay-back from the bramble clearing that we spent so many weekends doing.
Pears ~ help needed! on July 6th, 2007
We have a few fruit trees just behind the barn.
White-washing? on January 10th, 2008
One solution I'm considering for the seemingly porous stone gable-end wall is to repoint and dub-out the joints between stones where necessary then whitewash it to provide a greater degree of rain protection.
Big Metal Shed on July 16th, 2007
I've been at the barn for a few days, digging holes, hitting things with hammers & lugging things around with a wheelbarrow - my builder competency level is somewhere around that of navvy.
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