Construction of a historic gardening shed

[Anne Repnow]

I wanted some lighting on the outside of the wee house, too. I spent a lot of time searching for the right lamps. I felt lanterns would be a bit too quaint, so eventually I decided on traditional farmyard lamps. The copper will quickly acquire a dull patina, I hope.

[Yann]

topnoch building, lot's of technical skills for building it.

[Anne Repnow]

That's it, folks.
I end with some photos of rooms to let. I hope to share the wee house with a lot of winged creatures next year.

(The last photo shows an old milk churn filled with cardboard tubes for wild bees - Osmia bicornis. As a child I used to be sent to the next farmer with this churn to get fresh milk. Unpasteurised - good stuff...)

[brianw]

Not being that familiar with copper gutters, check how it might react with an iron chain, as regards corrosion. I would hate to see the gutter corroding away first rather than the chain. The rain water is soft and probably acid so corrosion may be a problem. Probably the wrong thing to say here but plastic chains look quite real and weigh considerably less as regards being supported.
Going back a bit in the construction. When we reroofed our old house in ~1970 we took off tiles that were fixed with oak pegs and laid on straw, by then well rotted. You should have seen the mess on the ceiling below as we removed them. Traditionally (more recent times) Scottish roofs had boards under the tiles and English tarred paper/felt, now replaced by vapour permeable fabric membrane. How things change?

[Anne Repnow]

I think you are right about iron and copper - they do react. However, the rainchain as well as the gutter are made of copper, so it should be ok.

Interesting about the straw... I guess it will rot and make a mess eventually. And the roof will become more "airy". I'll think about that problem when it comes.
Roof construction has come a long way. Over here they they propagate new ways of doing it "properly" regularly... Keeps the roofers in business.

[mark smyth]

What a fantastic thread - I only just read it today

Rain Chain on ebay.co.uk http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Single-Metal-Rain-Chain-Bucket-Design-Copper-Plated-1-8m-or-Buy-2-for-a-Discount-/251689055131?pt=UK_HomeGarden_Garden_PondsWaterFeatures_UK&var=&hash=item3a99d6339b

Mason bees are great to have. I can't wait for mine to hatch in April

[chasw]

Absolutely amazing would love one like that

[brianw]

Looks fine. The copper plating will go to green, but presumably the iron underneath will then start to rust as usual. Wonder how long it lasts, the colour you want is presumably green.

[vivienne Condon]

How fantastic I think I will grow wings and then I might be allowed to visit. Just loved this whole construction felt your frustration with builders it must be world wide. Thank you for sharing your journey Viv

[Anne Repnow]

Yep, the copper will go green, Brian, but there won't be rust as all the copper used is pure copper, not copper-plating. Which worries me a little as (so far) I do not live on site. There is a lot of copper-theft around.

Vivienne:  you can come visit even without wings. Gardeners are always welcome.

[Anne Repnow]

Just in case you are wondering what became of my wee house... (photo 1)

After the last winter it turned out that the front of the house (incl. the door) was splattered with mud from the winter storms. Because of this and as I enjoyed sitting in front of the house I decided a little terrace would be nice. The chaps from the hard gardening firm were asked to remove earth (about 40 cm deep) where the terrace was to go (photo 2).

[Anne Repnow]

Then they put in a row of porphyry cobble stones to mark the edge of the terrace and to line the pit where the water from the roof is to trickle away. They founded this row of cobble-stones in concrete. The area of the terrace was then filled with rough gravel which was stamped down with a machine. Then a layer of fine gravel was put on top. The gravel looks dark around the edges of the terrace because I cleaned the cement off the cobble-stones with water.

[Anne Repnow]

As I didn't want to buy more paving material than absolutely necessary, I used stuff that was lying around or which I could have for nothing from friends. The only paving material I bought was the sandstone. Material: Porphyry cobble stones, porphyry slabs, sandstone slabs, old sandstone cobblee stones, old paving bricks, new paving bricks.

My friend Iris Ney (known to some of you from Galanthours she organises from Germany) is an excellent garden designer and very good at paving! The two of us paved the terrace in about 3 days - Iris doing the important work (photo 1) and myself doing the less creative jobs as carrying sand and stones. We both had aching bones after the job was completed (photo 2).

[Anne Repnow]

Once the dust is washed off the colours of the different materials emerge (photo 1)

The curve around the drainage pit was Iris' excellent idea - we had managed to get hold of some porphyry slabs with rounded edges (photo 2)

[ashley]

A lovely design and beautiful work.  Enjoy it Anne.