Look at the view from our kitchen :)

Chainsawing "the Kitchen Hole"

Visit to Andy's Hut

Window In

Framing the Window (The Nesting Box)

Well, first things first we had to build a step for the front door, lovely and level, a pallet propped up by breeze blocks. Super proud, did it all by my self :)

Then we framed the window:

Dad previously made a built in window frame, however because the whisky barrel its self is tapering outward, our rectangular window would not fit snugly in the slightly trapezium shaped hole. So to overcome this we are building a window frame away from the window. The design is large enough to allow a couple of people to sit in it comfortably and we have made it tall enough for me to stand fully upright in it (…just).

Step 1) Built in 4 'baby' floor joists (see above red arrows). These are made with 2" by 4" size timber. We cut right angles into the ends of the timber that sit on the whiskey barrel frame.

Step 2) Added the frame (see above) for the window using 2" by 4" timber again making sure the lower joist (red arrow) and top lintel were level, and the uprights (blue arrows) were plumb.

Step 3) Erected 2 (one of the 2 as seen at the orange arrow, see above) rear uprights to hold the pitch of the roof. We measured these against my head hight standing on the joists, hopefully the sloped ceiling at the higher point will be enough to send up in but then the whisky barrels frame isn't high enough to step through, so there for might be a little pointless. Its defiantly enough room to have a small book shelf above the whisky barrel window frame though. can't have enough extra space in a wee house like this though. 

It then got too dark to keep working so we packed up and called it a day.

Rocket Stove Research

Leyland Rocket Mass Heaters

Mylittlehomestead.com

Papered

Yesterday me and my dad papered around the timber of the barrel. We worked into the dark as its winter and the sun doesn't stick around long. Working from the bottom upwards so the over lapps would allow any condensation to run straight off and down. We used synthetic warp **stuff, and hammer tacked (staple gun but held like a hammer) it on. Helps having a dad who's a joiner around :)

Research on Reciprocal Frames

The type of reciprocal frame we have constructed:

Other reciprocal frames: