Tag Archives: conversion

The materials in the build so far

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After all the trials and tribulations of the last couple of years I thought I’d better do a bit of an update on the house.

We are continuing to try and be as eco friendly as possible. Most of our materials are either reused our recycled. Although we have used blocks to rebuild the structure the blocks are made of ash collected from power stations. The blocks are great in that they have air bubbles in them providing excellent insulation. We had looked at a variety of options but even though the products were pretty kosher they required a lot of concrete.

All of the stone has come from the original barn and the rebuilt areas look amazing. We have used the bricks which came out of the barn as coins around the windows and doors. They are looking rather splendid.

We are now looking at roofing materials, all of them are pretty pricey. Cambrian slates are made from pulverised slate which is reconstituted, they use a horrid system at the end worth plastic, but they are more reasonable than reused Welsh slates. Such a quandary!

So decisions are our daily bread and butter.

The first week of owning a pile of stones and a beautiful piece of land.

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This is a bit of a blog for all our family and friends to keep you up to date with what we have been up to over the last 6 months, why we have been out of touch at times and what we will be doing for the next… who knows how long!

So anyway about 4 months ago we had accepted an offer on our house in Cardiff and were looking for a place to rent in west Wales. We had seen a lovely house in Llandeilo and in the afternoon went to casually look at a piece of land a bit further up the valley. It was out of our price range but was intriguing so we couldn’t resist looking. The owner had decided, however, that she would drop the price by enough for it to suddenly be in our price range. By the end of the day we had resolved to put in an offer and buy it. The last few months have therefore been a bit madcap! James was finishing his PhD and so the leap into this may have seemed more than a bit daft.

Our kind friends and family have helped us in many ways, from putting up with us and our mad cat in their houses, to storing our furniture and ridiculous amount of books and records. Our friends, Clayton and Dana who came over from America to go to our parents wedding anniversary party, even became our willing slaves for a week on the land!

Without them all this would all be even madder we’re sure!

So on the 29th of Feb we finally bought the place. A total of 9 acres of mixed land which has not really been touched in the last 40 years or so, a stream or few, about 5 acres of very rich, slightly clayey (is there such a word?), south facing field, the remaining 4 acres being a mix of woodland and open steep sloping meadow.

It’s a little piece of heaven!

We have been fortunate enough to be able to see the land go from the dark of December into the sunshine and snow of March. We have found bluebells, daffodils, snowdrops, foxgloves and unfortunately Japanese knotweed! The land is bordered on all sides by streams, but rises away from them, the barn is thankfully out of flood range by a good long way! The last week has been spent: climbing around in the brambles; exploring the range of the land; creating the platform for our yurt which we will be living in for the forseeable future; and getting the caravan up a crazy lane and track.

We will try to portray all of this in pictures as much as possible here.