Your design ethos will be the very highest level of your design.

Beneath that the next level of your design is to define the major systems, materials and design elements that you want to incorporate into your project. No need to be too specific initially … start vague and define…

Here’s a checklist to get you started:

Roof – construction material, requirements for attic space?
Walls – for a conversion your hands are usually tied but you’ll need to consider insulation, finishes and any remedial work.
Floor – floor levels are dictated by a heady blend of building reg’s, foundations, ceiling height and final finishes – you need to consider each of these – tricky!
Space usages and purposes. Rooms – what, where and why?
Internal partitions & walls – materials and finishes.
Heating – space and water. What are your input systems?
Lighting – natural (free) and artifical (paid for).
Water – rainwater harvesting?
Electricity – feed-in tariffs may help you fund your PV panels or wind turbine.
Insulation – cuts across many of these items, but worth considering in isolation as well.
External space and surroundings – gardens, patios and outside rooms, again what, where and why?
Fixtures and fittings – furniture (materials and finished), appliances (energy ratings) etc.

I’ll go into each of these over coming weeks and months…

One thing I realised from my recent post on the downstairs travertine floor was that I haven’t recommended Stoneworks who are the company I bought the travertine flooring from and I’ve subsequently ordered mosiac tiles from for the splashbacks. I’ve always received great service from them and wouldn’t hesitate to use them again.

It’s also worth contacting them for any advice you may need related to tiling with natural stone wall or floor tiles.

StoneWorks Ltd

In their own words: "Stoneworks supplies high quality natural stone wall and floor products at competitive prices."

Thanks StoneWorks!

The tiled floor that runs through the whole of the downstairs of the barn took a considerable investment in terms of both time and money in planning, sourcing and then fitting. It’s been completed for a while now (since August 2009), but I thought that a post summing things up would still be worthwhile and an opportunity to show off!

In terms of cost, the rather crazy numbers split pretty crudely three ways …just over third of the cost was to buy and get the tiles delivered, another similar amount to get them fitted and the rest went on the expensive adhesive, grout and chemicals needed for preparing the original concrete floor and cleaning, sealing and finishing the travertine tiles. I never thought when I bought the travertine for a pretty reasonable price that the total cost of the floor would come anywhere near the final figure. Certainly a budgetary lesson has been learnt.

As you may have guessed I paid my builder to fit the floor for me. I did consider doing itself my self, but based on past productivity I’m pretty sure I’d still be working on in now…

We’re very pleased with the finished floor. I’d worried about getting the colours right – not so dark as to spoil the lightness and airiness of the barn and no so light as to dazzle. The colour of the tiles also need to be in-tune with and complement the white walls, oak stairs and furniture and rough lime pointing of the internal wall, all of which I think we achieved with the choice of travertine.

Now I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking…

From Downstairs Floor

From Downstairs Floor

From Downstairs Floor

From Downstairs Floor

From Downstairs Floor

The process of coppicing is pretty straight-forward:

Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management in which young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level. In subsequent growth years, many new shoots will emerge, and, after a number of years the coppiced tree, or stool, is ready to be harvested, and the cycle begins again. (Note that the noun coppice means a growth of small trees or a forest coming from shoots or suckers.)

Wikipedia (the font of all knowledge).

I think this diagram from Wikimedia Commons sums it up pretty well.

I’ve applied this technique to a few ash trees. In most cases a pretty messy exercise for me as the ground underfoot was pretty boggy and my big forestry boots sink nicely. But I got the trees down, cutting with my chainsaw or band saw depending on the width of the trunk and usually with some wrestling of the tree to get it finally down and / or out of the ground. I now have the inch plus thick stuff nicely stacked away in my shed ready for burning and the rest will be chipped for mulching.

From Woodland

Follow the Woodland link above for some other pictures of my recent tree related exploits…

Now I promise to get back inside and get some ‘real’ work done.

I bought 60 hazel and 60 silver birch trees just after the new year started. Planting has been pretty slow going as I’ve been reusing old tree guards and stakes from some replanting of mainly ash trees that took place (I guess) 8 or so years ago.

I chose hazel and ash to provide some variety in amongst the mainly ash existing tress and because quite simply I like both varieties. These are fitting into gaps in the woodland both natural and created (where I’ve cut down some existing trees).

From Barn Conversion 2010

The first weekend I managed to plant 30 hazel trees and 12 silver birch.

I then potted on ten of each for planting in gaps and filling in where replanting had failed over the next year or so.

Last weekend I managed to get another bunch of mainly silver birch into the ground, that leaves me with 23 silver birch and 16 hazel trees to plant… I’ll try for a final push this weekend if those new tree guards I’ve ordered arrive in time.