For as long as we’ve been planning and designing the conversion of the barn the issue of how to screen the large window on the yard side of the building has been nagging at us.

The challenge being to allow as much light in as possible whilst retaining a degree of privacy (although it’s hardly Oxford Street out there).

We toyed around with various blind, curtain and shutter based options – the favourite always being shutters although the price tag always seemed steep.

After a quote for well over £3,000 pounds fitted put me completely off the idea for a time, I eventually came back to them when I discovered via Google, Opennshut who offer a DIY shutter solution at a very competitive price.

I emailed and talked on the phone through the options with the very helpful Sam, then placed an order and waited for delivery.

Delivery was via DHL and wasn’t an auspicious start as my shutters were jumbled together in the back of a transit van and the driver and I had to drag them out and man-handle them into the barn – despite the warnings and urges to caution displayed on the box.

Once inside things improved as the shutters were very well packed and protected and nothing untoward had befallen them in transit.

As you can see from the pictures, my window consists of four shutter ‘doors’, each of which opens independently and a frame for the shutters that mirrors the window frame.

The two sets of doors (‘outers’ and ‘inners’) were boxed separately and the frame was in the third box.

So removing all the pieces from the packaging I had a frame and four doors.

The frame was pretty easy to assemble.

The top and bottom bars where labelled and the vertical bars pretty easy to figure out.

Once identified and laid out in the correct position the six pieces of the frame slid together easily.

At this stage I made my first mistake as I forgot to remove the thin facia strips that slot in along the front of each bar of the frame and allow access to the screw holes through which the frame is attached to the existing window.

So, to cut a long story short, after assembling, de-assembling and re-assembling the frame I had a completed pretty sturdy frame lying on the floor in front of the window.

So in rapid succession to my first mistake, I made my second when I didn’t test fit the shutters into place with the frame still laying horizontally on the floor, but instead put the frame in place against the window, using the provided spacers and wedges. Not test fitting the shutters made fitting one of the shutters a little fiddly as I mention below.

The frame was quickly screwed through predrilled holes to the window frame and then the facia strips I’d messed about with earlier clicked back into place to tidy things up.

Three of the four doors easily slid into place, the fourth required a little coaxing with some loosening of the hinges and the hinge pin needing a little firm handling to slip into place.
I don’t think I had the frame 100% square and I could have avoided this by test hanging the shutter doors whilst the frame was still on the floor – but no big deal.

But that was that, I hope the pictures show how neat and effective the shutters are – they look great from both indoors and out and provide complete privacy – try as I might I can’t peak through any gaps in them.

Great thanks to Sam and Opennshut and a very sound recommendation to speak to Sam if you’re in the market for shutters.

I ordered solid European oak flooring and associated underlay, fixings and tools from a flooring company (who will remain nameless for now) back October [Corrected]. The passing of time has made the details somewhat hazy, but I planned to get the floor in, at least on the landing, by Christmas and that included an allowance of three weeks for the wood to acclimatise to it’s new surroundings and ideally achieve a moisture content of somewhere around 10% (optimum moisture apparently!) before fitting.

Time passed and as of writing (December 24th 2009), my floor has still not arrived…

Over the months in response to my requests for details of its whereabouts, I’ve been informed that it was at a port in the UK, then back in Hong Kong waiting for a container boat to be filled (even European oak goes to the far East for processing supposedly – it’s a crazy world) then most recently in Folkestone docks…well travelled wood this…

But, at last I have a delivery date – 29th of December, we’ll see…

Finishing treating the untreated oak stairs and banisters is proving a real pain – the banisters along the landing have all been whitened & waxed, but the stairs themselves along with the banisters running down the stairs still need finishing, they’ve been whitened but not waxed. The problem is getting the timing right (never my strong point) and being organised enough to be able to wax the stairs as I’m leaving and not returning at least overnight – haven’t managed that yet.

Skirting boards have now been completed (I managed to source a supply from a different Wickes store in Cardiff) in the main room downstairs and I’m getting the bedroom and dressing area finished ready for the carpet to be fitted in December. My original plan was to put oak flooring down all throughout the whole of upstairs. However, a carpet will be warmer, easier to fit (for me), can be arranged by Christmas (unlike my oak floor that seems to be lost on the high-seas – more on this in future) and will help cut down on the echo-y-ness of the whole place, so seems a sensible option.

The rest of my efforts have been focused on the bedroom~dressing area~en-suite, painting, cleaning and attempting to get as much finished as possible ready for the carpet to be fitted (& Christmas!) in December.

Extruded Polystyrene (XPS) is made by mixing polystyrene and a blowing agent under pressure and then forcing the resultant fluid through a die. As it emerges from the die the fluid expands into a foam, which is shaped before it cools. Extruded is stronger than expanded polystyrene and as such is better suited applications where some load bearing is required such as below ground (for example, in providing an insulation layer in a floor).

Features

• Manufactured from petrochemicals so not sustainable and toxic when burnt.
• High embodied energy.
• Moisture tolerant and relatively durable.
• Versatile, strong and relatively easy to fit.

Performance
Typically has a thermal conductivity or K value in the range of 0.028 – 0.036 W/m.K. (Watts per meter Kelvin ~ lower value is a better result)

Cost
Depending on thickness costs should around £7 a square metre with more specialist flooring products up to £15 a square metre.