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And relax.
It’s a relief when the first rental of the year arrives because it marks the end of a three month DIY binge on the big house. It’s more of a relief when those people have been here before and know the ropes and it’s even more of a relief when you have run it as close to the wire as we just have.
Yesterday there were 3 roofers, 3 plumbers, 2 electricians and Richard and Phil from Greenflame here, the cellar was in bits with rubble and wire and bits of plumbing and holes all over the place. It seemed all day like luck was on our side. While the rest of the country froze up, here in the north of Scotland it was mild and the earth defrosted enough for us to fill the trenches. By 9pm we had persuaded the boiler to speak in English rather than German and we were on the last of the wiring. Then it got troublesome. The new system could run a footballers mansion and persuading it to just cope with our Edwardian heating and a pair of new cylinders was the first hurdle. Then it transpired we had blocked a port in the hopper by filling it before attaching the vacuum pipes. It wasn’t until 1.30 this morning that it finally opened its valves, filled itself up and kicked into life. We still have to install the heat monitors and wire in the immersion back ups, add more controls, insulate the pipes, work out how to go about centrally heating the bedrooms and tidy up the wiring before its officially commissioned but that can all wait for another day. It’s on, hot water comes out of the taps and the tangy petrochemical smell that accompanied the old system is gone. Phew.
Inshriach goes sustainable part V.
Today has felt pretty calm after the tempest of trades that have been here the last few days. Only me and mum and Dean the plumber were on the job today. The cellar looks more and more like a boiler room, two new 300 litre tanks found their way down there and Dean has been stitching it all together. I fed the vacuum pipes into underground electrical conduit to give them some protection from the roots of the tree and any vehicles passing that way, then laid them into their trench. It would have been good to finally fill that in but the piles of earth that came out of the trenches are frozen solid.
Inshriach goes sustainable part IV.
These renewables updates are coming thick and fast this week, and they need to, with 4 days and counting until our first rental it looks a lot like we are still spot on schedule (not that we ever made a schedule).
Today was a beautiful frosty morning. We kicked off with the vacuum ports and internal pipework being installed in the hopper so the last braces and the lid could go on. Then Brian from Donside Slating, probably the least vertigo afflicted person I know, arrived with a little tracked scissor lift to get the chimney liner in, Graham came back and hacked some more holes to help the liner through, landed the boiler in its final position and fitted some of the heating pipework and the circulation pump, then Alastair and James (lovely sparkys we adopted from the solar install) popped by this afternoon to see what wiring would be needed. As I write this, just after dusk, a huge tipper truck is rattling 5 tons of pellets along a pipe into the new hopper.
Last night hit minus 9 and with no heating, big holes in the cellar walls and no door between the cellar and the house there were bitter draughts racing through the place. Tonight the door is back on, its a mere minus 4 (and falling) and the holes are stuffed with rockwool so now we can get away with lighting a fire and collapsing in front of the telly.
Inshriach goes sustainable part III.
Today was the turn of Greenflame Technology to add their wisdom to our sustainable situation. It’s been a nervy weekend, I checked the tech on the boiler on Saturday and gave Richard from Greenflame a massive fright by finding out that our unit was 10cm wider than the cellar stairs. Further frantic internet searches and phone calls to the manufacturer and we reckoned we could strip enough off it to squeeze in, perhaps with as little as 2cm to spare. It still weighs well over half a ton even after stripping off anything shiny, delicate or electrical so we borrowed a block and tackle, ran a strap along the corridor and across the utility room, passed it out the window, tied it onto a forklift and then gingerly tipped the boiler down the stairs.
Once it hit the deck Richard and Phil set about figuring out which bits had come from where, Marcus MacBean the blacksmith came to weld extensions onto the old pipework and Graham the plumber and 2 guys knocked the necessary holes through the foundations of the house for the pellet feed. In the meantime anyone who was free helped me bolt the big silver space hopper together (the first delivery of pellets arrives tomorrow), mum made soup and sandwiches and by the end of today we seem to be bang on with what is certainly an ambitious schedule. At this rate the folks renting Inshriach this weekend will have hot baths.
The Beer Moth hits the press.
The ‘moth has really captured the public imagination. Last week it went in the Sun travel section, this week I’m told it is in Country Life. Conde Nast Traveller featured it first, then over the last month or so it has picked up its petticoats and gone a trampling across the net. Among the many blogs it has popped up on the one I’m most proud of has to be Lloyd Kahn’s . Lloyd wrote the absolutely fabulous books ‘Shelter’ and ‘Home Work’, full of handmade huts, shacks, yurts, treehouses and trucks, books which in no small way inspired the conversion in the first place.
Now the lonely planet want to come to stay and a press agency called up for high res pictures so you can expect to see it out and about some more over the next few months. Right now it’s up on blocks in the farmyard. Once the renewables situation on the big house is under control I’m going to rebuild the brakes and get it running spot on for whatever adventures 2012 may hold.
Once that’s done it will be available to rent again through Canopy and Stars.
Inshriach goes sustainable part II.
The next round of the sustainable circus got underway this week. Unfortunately we discovered that our old cylinder was insulated with Aconite, the sort of asbestos you dont really want to play with. That meant lab tests, a 14 day notification to the HSE, the whole cellar being placed in a negative pressure airlock, acres of plastic sheeting, double bagging, a decontamination unit on the drive, funny suits and high vis jackets, 2 inspections by a third party and another chunky bill. The guys who dealt with it, NJS, were dead professional (and as reasonable as could be expected on our finances), they stuck to their price even when the decon unit froze and the the job overran by a day and now we are sat here with no boiler, no tanks and no heating in preparation for next week, when the new system arrives.
A gigantic meccano set turned up during all this which is to be the new wood pellet hopper. It’s modular so there are dozens of bits of stainless steel and fittings, bags of bolts and mastic, and no instructions. A boysy weekend of head scratching and spannering awaits.
Inshriach goes sustainable.
Phase 2 (or is it phase 5) of our winter of renewables is now underway with the wood fired boiler. The slab for the hopper went in before Christmas but the blocks had to wait until everyone left and we had a day that was warm enough. True to form it was fully dark before it was finished and the morning revealed blockwork only a mother could love.
Then we needed a trench to the house through which a vacuum transfer system will draw the pellets, up the bank, past a tree, shallow at the hopper and at the house and deep where it crests the bank. This again was all good until I hit the foundations of the house that sat here before Inshriach, a Victorian farmhouse then known as South Kinrara. 5 foot of beautifully dressed stone were firmly mortared in my path. The trench got wider and wider as the blocks gradually worked free. Just outside the foundations I hit a seam of earthenware and old bottles, builders rubbish perhaps. I think I broke some with the spade before realising there were intact bits, then I came over all Tony Robinson, fished out these lovely little pots and chiseled the last bits of wall out of the way.
Next week we decommission the old boiler and strip the tanks, then have a mad rush to get the rest installed in time for the first booking.
Late availabilty.
Due to cancellation the weekends of the 10th and the 17th March are now available in the newly wood fired and solar powered Inshriach House. Long weekends for either of those dates can be yours for £1500, Thursday to Monday.
It might even look like this, in which case the solar panels definitely wont work.
The Insider Olympiad.
It happens earlier each year, the inevitable moment when the monster we call the Insider Festival starts demanding our organising attentions. This year is the year of the Olympiad and you can catch The Backwoods Sporting Societys Olympic rundown over on the Insider 2012 blog or you can get up to speed with plans over on the Insider Facebook page or sign up at the Olympiad event page.
This year the Insider is the 15th to the 17th June and once again we are weaving together a line up of Scotlands finest musical talent, only this year, if we are lucky, we may have as many as none of the countrys finest sporting celebrities.
Bring it on sportspeoples.
January DIY rundown.
Thoroughly refreshed by the traditional highland New Year of wholesome behaviour, fresh air and long walks (ahem) we have hit the ground running in January.
At number 5 in the January DIY rundown are the new garage doors, they were stuck shut and all broken hinges before hogmanay and they now swing free and boast shutlines a BMW would be proud of.
Coming in at 4 is the back on the cottage woodshed. The roof lifted some time around hurricane Bawbag and the entire back wall fell out. Big thanks to Jack for helping lift the whole thing straight and to Dave for spotting someone disposing of a wriggly tin building and bringing it round before it even hit the floor of the skip.
Number 3 is all about the electrics, I wont include a picture of the new plug sockets in the utility room and the office because that would be too dull for words.
At number 2 we have fine Scottish kilowatts. The last of the solar panels have made it onto the roof of the barn and the garage so the farmyard is now a net exporter of energy (so long as nobody puts the lights on or takes a shower). The house (pictured) has been up and running a while but it was the winter solstice when we put them up, the sun barely gets above the chimneys this time of year, then it snowed, then the inverter tripped and we didnt notice so they have generated a total of £5.
And in top spot, move over Lawrence Llewellen Bowen, the house is getting a make over. So far that extends to transforming the big drawing room into a big pile of furniture in the hall and new curtains in the little drawing room and the housekeepers room but by February eagle eyed viewers will notice new pelmets and curtain rails here and there, painted soffits outside the house, new hinges on the oven, new light fittings in the library and a host of other small but tastefully implemented improvements.
These are filling the time nicely as the wood fired boiler has been delayed by a fortnight, leaving us, as seems to be the case with all renewable projects, starting work dangerously close to our first booking of the year.
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