Welcome to our blog.

This blog will follow the ultimate in home improvement: demolish and rebuild!

This is our starting point: a 1930s bungalow. While not a bad house; it is too small for us with three teenage children so what should we do? A full storey extension versus complete rebuild - ultimately the stronger eco-credentials and more certain finances of a new-build helped to guide our choice.

For a number of years we've been trying to find the right route for us to build an eco-friendly, low energy home. We tried various architects and building companies and have eventually settled with a German prefabricated build. The new house will be nearly to passivhaus standards (but not quite due to budget constraints). In any case, the house will be heavily insulated and airtight.

As a family, we have not built a house before so everything is new and exciting but the risk of making a mess of things is quite high!

This blog aims to outline the day to day steps involved in our build.

Friday 5 February 2010

Point of no return

When I was a child I thought that in order to be somebody, you had to have your own key. Now I've got keys to nowhere, I wonder what I'd have made of that?
I retrieved the thermos from the quagmire that is our site. It's great that we are onto the next phase, there is no turning back. The house is scattered all over the county and beyond, being reduced to hardcore, tiles re-used and wood recycled and thankfully, nothing put into landfill.
I'm now back to preparations for the new house which, while essential, aren't very photogenic as they are mostly organising trades, and deciding on more of the finer details of the house, which is a job that I've been doing full time since October.
It looks like we may have to have a soil survey done, we were hoping not to (more bills), just as long as it doesn't hold up the build and our tight schedule.

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