Life is all about compromises

Unless you are a millionaire, and possibly even then, life is about compromises.  I had always wanted bay windows.  One of Mum and Dad's friends had glorious bay windows in their home which we used to hide in as kids and read in as teenagers.  I loved the feeling of being soaked in sunlight but being out of the wind and away from the flies.  Unfortunately, bay windows (as in the glassy component) are ludicrously expensive and well out of our league.  Thankfully, the strawbale walls are 500mm thick once they are rendered and provide an excellent opportunity for wide sills.

As we had milled our own timber for the beams, we had some offcuts and rejected pieces that we had deemed unsuitable for beams but would do just fine as sills.  The gentleman builder set about installing sills and reinforcing them to ensure they will hold enough weight to be used as window seats.  This meant that, again, we had to manoeuvre a very heavy piece of wood into an awkward spot.  The gentleman builder set up a couple of levers to lift the wood to the right height and I, as lacky, provided ballast on the ends of the levers while the gentleman builder put the central supporting pole under the window sill.

Brackets were used to attach the sill to the wooden posts at each end.  Strawbales were then trimmed to fit under the sill.

Once baled and rendered, the sills look pretty awesome.  The one in the bedroom faces north and is gloriously warm on a cold, stormy day.  I foresee that I will spend many spare hours reading in that spot!

Dining sill - facing east for beautiful morning sun