Once the wooden structure had been put up, the rest of
the construction was more or less run of the mill. The insulation
in the walls was made of Styrofoam
and the south end of the house was weather boarded. The Styrofoam is
bright blue, and someone who was driving along the road above us saw
the house at this time and thought it would be a good idea to go home
and paint his the same colour!
There are two dormer windows
in the main house and one in The Hafod. These we already owned as they
formed part of a building in the grounds of a previous home of ours
in Surrey. "Never throw anything away," is our motto. The
large panes of glass in both ends of the hall were made from a job lot
of toughened glass that we found in a liquidation sale so bought them
thinking they might come in useful one day. The other windows are new.
We put in too many in the end but the house has plenty of light.
We went to Architectural Salvage
dealers (of which there were few at that time), to find such items as
old radiators and doors etc. Nowadays these sorts of places are everywhere
and if you can't find what you want you can always have them made.
The slates for the main
house came from Blaenau Ffestiniog
- the Welsh Slate capital of the world and not too far from where we
live. They are called heavies and
are cheaper than the finer ones, but suit the house very well. We used
random slates on The Hafod and The Barn. We employed expert slaters
for these jobs.
Photographs in Gallery Getting
There include:
5 of the
trusses going up
5 of the new cruck frame going
up
5 more of the progress on the main
house
Please go to Extras