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.

Monday 7 June 2010

Render and first fix

A new week begins as does the first fix plumbing and electrics in earnest. They park their vans in the street, as do the scaffolding guys who are required to add more planks to the scaffold.
The rendering team from the company has arrived. They need to have access to a whole wall in one go as the type of render they use sets in 90 minutes!






Christoph, Mike and Benjamin have cut strips of a heavy guage gauze fabric which they are using to cover the seams in the house.
Meanwhile, inside the house upstairs the electricians are hard at work. Here is Mark starting on the first fix in one of the bedrooms. You can see on the floor the pipes that have been laid to house the electrical cables.

Paul, the plumber, is busy sorting out the supply to the shower downstairs, helped by Joss.

The race is on, who will finish first for the day? The German team are making great progress on the exterior.

Paul and Neil, the electrician, ponder over the arrangement of pipes that is on the utility room floor.

I know we are wanting minimalist but this kitchen sink is stretching the point!

Josh is now working on the socket boxes too.
In the final showdown, the plumbers win, closely followed by the renderers but the electrician is last to leave (but he was clearing up the cups and thermos!). Game on again tomorrow.

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