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We applied for Planning Permission from Caerphilly
Borough Council in 2002 and following a lengthy and
frustrating process, we finally got the permission to
convert our old stone barn into a house. We found an
excellent Architect from Bridgend, Alun Arthur, and we are now nearly 5 years into what was a 5 year project. Andy, being Andy, is doing all the work himself assisted by one of our neighbours Garry who is a complete star. Our son
Andrew was also a great help but he is off travelling now. I haven’t seen Andrew in the flesh (only Skype) for more than 2 years but he is having a great time. He is in Perth, Australia at the moment, shortly going to Bali, and then on to New Zealand.
Despite my optimism that the barn would be ready to move into last summer....it wasn’t; and it still isn’t and it’s February 2011. A number of things have prevented Andy from putting the effort in required to get it finished.
However, we do have a beautiful fitted kitchen which we have partitioned off from the rest of the barn as it’s still a building site. I will put some photos of the kitchen up soon.
Andy is currently working on the finished floor slate in the largest ground floor bedroom and once they are com-
pleted, we can fit the lights, sockets and paint. That will be the second room to be finished, the kitchen being the first.
The scaffolding upstairs is all down now and the ceiling has been plastered and painted. You can get an idea now of how it will all look when painted, which is great.
The services cables and pipes are all in. Have a look at the Control Centre in the utility room because I’ve never seen anything like it in anyone else’s house. A Nuclear Power Station maybe....but not a house! The plant room and garage have been completed up to the first floor so Andy now has to build the wooden second floor which will be a granny flat.
One of the two patios has the slate down which makes a real difference but the second one won’t be laid until all the slate is laid inside the house. The slate is so heavy though that it takes two people to lay it and even they can’t lift one slab. The copper guttering is up which looked nice and shiny at first but has turned darker and apparently will go a green colour.
Have a look at the recent photos!
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