“

What does it mean to be a proletarian, really?

…It means you are a cog in a process of production that relies on what you do & think, while excluding you from being anything but its product. It means the end of sovereignty, the conversion of all experiential value to exchange value, the final defeat of autonomy.

”

Yanis Varoufakis

(Photograph by Me from the Tiny Rebel toilets in Cardiff.)

I’m sure it’s just a blocked up door that stopped being used many years ago, but it’s nice to imagine.

As reported in the Telegraph today since it was launched nearly a year ago just 12 homes have taken advantage of the Green Deal with a few hundred more in the pipeline.

71,210 households had been assessed for Green Deal measures such as solar panels and insulation at the end of August … But only 677 households have gone to the next stage and said they would like to proceed with the scheme. Of these, 12 houses have had measures installed, while 293 properties had quotes accepted on work and 372 properties had installations “pending”.

It was always easy to predict that it may well have been so.

With few major jobs (painting, boxing in – nasty stuff!) left inside, mainly fiddly things that need finishing off, my thoughts are turning to outside. I’ve not done much outside since I laid the flag-stone patio in 2011, so plenty of attention is needed.

The hedge and further away the woodland that separates the barn from the field need attention in the form of clearing back and thinning out. I also (as ever) need to tidy up the yard, there’s still a lot of stone both dressed and raw stored out there. I’ll also need to build a new wood store. Once cleared there’ll be a space just begging to be filled by a shed.

I had every intention of saving up and buying myself a shed. However, sheds appear to be one of those products where you either pay through the nose from a reputable supplier or have to deal with shoddy suppliers, shoddy quality and potentially dodgy sales practices if you go for the more ‘reasonable’ end of the market. Thus put-off I remembered a leaflet that I picked up at the Royal Welsh Show earlier in the year relating to a week long training course in timber framing that is run relatively locally to me. So for now that’s my plan – to build my own.

In researching timber framing I came across an introduction to timber framing published by my alma mater, the University of the West of England (or Bristol Poly as I’m proud to say it was in my day).

More on the course and my plans as they evolve…

https://twitter.com/barnconversion/status/368427314868396032

flemish-barn-by-arend-groenewegen-architect

First we’re on a downward loop as we learn that the proposed planning reform, to allow homeowners to extend by as much as 26ft is now to be rethought. Eric Pickles had to compromise in the vaguest terms to prevent a defeat and ensure that the house disagreed with a Lords amendment giving power to local authorities to opt out of the reforms. Now it’s back to the Lords to debate further.

Read more in the Telegraph >> Government planning reforms in disarray after backbench rebellion

Good job I never started on those plans for my single story, palatial, garden room…