Being a fan of lists, we’ve been using one to keep track of those items that we need to specify and decisions we need to make in regard to the detailed design of the conversion ~ attention to detail.

This is the current position:

• Ground or Air Source Heat Pump that is the question. >>
  Answer = Neither We’re now planning for a ’simpler’ system with solar and multi fuel burner input. More on this soon.
• Heating. Go with under-floor heating on the ground floor with radiators on first floor ~ drawbacks, problems, source of hot water for radiators (potentially from back-boiler on multi-fuel room heater)?
  Answer = UFH with radiators on first floor. Decision made on grounds of cost and the unsettling prospect of all that scree suspended on the first floor!
• Internal doors (find some that we like).
  Still working on that one.
• Openings through internal walls. Have we allowed for one to few? - yes but we will replan the bathroom / bedroom entrances.
  Answer = One opening. I’m pretty pleased with the one opening as it has allowed us to plan in a dressing area and thus create a main bedroom ’suite’. More on this soon.
• Paint. Compare eco alternatives to branded products.
  We love clay paint. Eco / Green ‘gloss’ paint review coming soon.
• Rain-water harvesting. Readdress the quote I’ve already had and evaluate cost and fit to the current plan.
  I’m going to save this one for phase 2.
• Flooring and tiling ~ select!
  We still need to decide on the main floor tiling for the ground floor, but I’ve already bought some slate mosiacs for the en-suite. We’ll use slate flooring in both bathrooms. The wall tiling in the main bathroom will be white, probably with wood panelling. More on this soon.
• Guttering and down-pipes excluded from bill of quantities, estimate and add them back in.
  This is one for later…
• En-suite bathroom~ what shall we do with the 1 metre dressing area.
  Sorted! See ‘Openings…’ above.
• Bathroom suites and Kitchen…
  Working on this one…
• Storage~ allow for narrow cupboards built into internal partition walls on the first floor.
  We’ve got a utility area in the kitchen, cupboards in the dressing area and second bedroom. So we’re getting there - the partition wall idea isn’t such a good one, although hopefully we can install shelving on the landing.

You see, we are making some progress.

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