In like a bullet this month, no messing about…

My tile-topped boxing-inin the bathroom (wooden frames, with painted sides and a slate and mosaic tiled top) has grown and expanded – it now runs between the sink and toilet, then further across to the ‘other’ side of the toilet. Three square feet of vanity case storage! I just need to finish painting, fixing and smartening them up a bit.

Getting the back-lit mirror working in the ensuite… has been a big failure so far… I’m keeping away from that job for the time being. Grrrrr electrics.

The fencing around the shed in the field is pretty much done, just the fastenings for the gates to complete. I can then fix the now horse proof satellite dish.

I’ve recently turned my hand to carpentry. I’ll be writing further posts on this over coming weeks and months. Suffice to say that my skills are ‘developing’. The first project is to build shelves under the stairs. These will have a dual role, providing storage and boxing in the unsightly underfloor heating manifold.

I’ve also spent quite a bit of time tidying the yard. I’ve shifted a lot of the flag stones that were out there to the garden ready to build my second patio. Much of the left over sand and stone has gone to finish filling the trench that carries the sewage pipe and satellite dish cable from the barn to the field. I’ve also built a temporary log store using a left over sheet of corrugated iron and the remaining bricks that were ‘reclaimed’ from the barn floor. Things are slowly improving out there.

After my post about lots of befores made up of pictures of locations before I started work on them here’s another after…

This photograph is a bit of a cheat… I’m really pleased with the second bedroom now that it’s been painted and had an oak floor and a radiator cover fitted, BUT it’s virtually impossible to take a photograph that does it justice. The shape of the room doesn’t help, the light in the room doesn’t help and the straight lines of the flue, window, radiator cover and curtain rail throw an odd angle or strange perspective into every picture I’ve taken. So, I present a slightly cheaty, mean and moody, edited ‘slice’ of the second bedroom.

The next job in this room is to build the cabin bed that I’ve promised my son. I’ve just had a couple of carpentry and joinery books delivered from Amazon to supplement the old school text book that I found in my fathers house. A couple of jobs to finish and I really need to learn how to use my electric router before I can start.

Second Bedroom

BEFORE

From Barn Conversion 2011

From Barn Conversion 2011

AFTER

From Barn Conversion 2011

With a week in Cornwall and no major pieces of work spurring me on, progress in September has been pretty lack-lustre…

The Juliet balcony is completed, I even finished off the heads of the bolts with small black covers for a neat and tidy job.

I fixed, finished and sealed the skirting boards in the second bedroom, now they just need a coat of paint.

I’m building some short, 12 inch wide ‘platforms’ that I’ll use to box-in the pipework in the bathroom. They are basically wooden frames, with painted wood sides and a slate and mosaic tiled top. I’ve made them so wide so that they can accommodate toiletries, makeup bags and the like and so provide somewhere other the floor to keep such items.

I’ve also finished grouting the rest of the bathroom tiling. I’ve used some sealant from (! amateurism alert !) Homebase for sealing the splashback. It gives a far gentler, less gloss finish than the professional product I’ve been using previously. I prefer the less glossy, thinner finish although it won’t be anything as like as hard-wearing, but should be fine for a splashback.

I’ve also been trying to get the back-lit mirror working in the ensuite… Working with electricity definitely needs to go on my list of ‘leave it to the professionals’ along with plumbing. I have voltage in the cables, but the light won’t come on… already been back to the drawing-board a couple of times and I think another visit is necessary.

With most of the work being done by S we’ve started putting fencing around the shed in the field. This is one of those overdue jobs that has risen to the top of the ‘to-do’ list spurred on by the latest inhabitants of the field – three large and feisty horses with a taste for satellite dish LNBs and banging heads against my slightly flimsy shed doors. Should be finished soon…

The mediocre weather has allowed the outdoor work to continue…

…I cut the new lawn again, there are some really tricky patches that need the strimmer or a mountain goat to keep short.

…I cut a narrow channel along the wall side of the concrete gas bottle platform. I had some concern that the platform was above the internal floor level, so the channel, backfilled with 40mm stone should sort that out. Internally there’s never been any damp and so I’m cautious not to create any.

From Barn Conversion 2011

The juliet balcony I ordered – made locally by British steel so it was bound to take a while to be delivered (!) – was eventually delivered and we fitted it. It took a big drill and some very ropey ‘home-grown’ scaffolding to get it fixed into place but very fine it looks now…

I also built the garden steps. The bank up to the lawn is steep and with small children hurtling about the place I thought that a safer way to get up onto the lawn was in order. I also had an old beam from inside the barn that’s been clutterng up the yard to dispose of. It’s a softwood beam that had sat decaying for the last few years. So it was cut up into six pieces, then each step treated on the underside and cemented into place. I then drove some small tree stakes into the ground to support the front-face of each step. I used some 20mm and 40mm clean stone I had left over from the drainage work to fill the gaps and the ‘treads’. All seems pretty firm – we’ll see how well they survive the winter.

From Barn Conversion 2011

After my post about lots of befores made up of pictures of locations before I started work on them here’s another after…

The kitchen step

BEFORE (during really)

From Barn Conversion 2011

AFTER

From Barn Conversion 2011