It all started a few years ago when I bought this old barn in France. There was a problem with the roof – it didn’t have one! Not being the kind of person who wastes money hiring scaffolding, I decided to build a mezzanine floor at the front of the barn so that I could get easy access to the tops of the walls and the front gable. The first year of ownership was basically thinking time, I tried to protect the structure, but there were Tarpaulin Problems. I wasn’t sure of the angle of the original roof, and because a lot of the gable wall had collapsed with the roof, I had to make a Roof Truss Template to try and figure out the final shape. When I was sure of the shape and angle of the roof it was possible to fix the front gable by putting ladders on the mezzanine floor. The roof is supported by 2 large A-Frames which are bolted together with high tensile steel bolts. Angled Queen Posts support each of the 4 purlins. Because I needed to have a dry area in the barn I left some of the old original roof in place until the first bit of the new roof had been built. The rafters were covered with an OSB Roof Deck, which in turn was covered with Spirtech 200,a breathable membrane. Six Castorama velux style roof windows brico depot roof lights, a few thousand Roman Tiles and then I Installed a Chimney. The roof still needs some insulation! When the outside of the roof was completed a rotten oak lintel had to be replaced above the front door.  As soon as the lintel was replaced I could install a new Front Doorway and a Barn Door.

Concreting the barn floor was more stressful that is should have been because the concrete mixer truck arrived without the ordered conveyor system.  It took a couple of attempts to get preparations for the concrete floor right because initially I was not going to use a damp proof membrane. French Ready Mix Prices were expensive but at least the job was done quickly. When the floor was dry it got a coat of  concrete floor paint.

I did consider wind or solar power as an alternative to mains electric, and a Rain Water/Grey Water system instead of
mains water connection but overall I think it is cheaper to connect to the mains. Now that ADSL is connected hopefully  I will be able do my day job in France. I have just found an inexpensive way to Transfer money to a french bank account, so hopefully my ADSL wil still be working when I return in March, at least the bill will have been! Very soon I am going to have to do a bit of French Wiring and install an LPG/Cooker/Water Heater Boiler system that runs on either Butane or Propane.

Since starting this project I have found the cheapest way to get to France, and I think I invented the British -> French multiway power adaptor, but I haven’t been able to get on Dragons Den with this product yet! I seem to have broken 2 petrol generatorsand a Belle Mastermix 110 Concrete Mixer.

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