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.

Wednesday 28 July 2010

8 week old house

Phew! Today we finished painting the satinwood topcoat on the kitchen doors. We are going to varnish the cupboard interiors with a water-based varnish but depending on how Ebi wants to do things, we may wait until the kitchen is installed. Next we have to decide on how we are going to protect the wooden worktops.
We have managed to catch a photo of camera-shy David, the tiler. He is working on the tiles in the downstairs bathroom on the walls. He wants to finish them today so he can grout them tomorrow. David is also going to grout the tiles in the utility room as there will be more through-traffic when the plumbers  and Ebi return.
We had to leave before David was finished for the day, so tomorrow we'll see how much he managed to get done. 
Interestingly, more and more people are hearing about our house through the local grapevine, I can't go to any local builders merchants without people asking me about the project. Even some online suppliers have heard about us! It is like a ripple effect. This blog is also now getting a wide readership- thank you. It would be good to hear from you and hear about your projects too! I nearly forgot to mention; the house is 8 weeks old.

2 comments:

  1. Greetings from Australia, I have been following your blog since the start and hope to have look at the final product from the outside when I am back in Abingdon in December to visit my grandchildren, daughter and son in law. It is interesting to observe the different building techniques us by German tradesmen, in the UK compared to Australian building. My son in law always has a lot to say on the UK versus OZ buidling techniques. Good luck and keep the coming. Cheers Ellen

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  2. Good to hear from you. You're right the German building techniques are very different to the UK ones. It would be interesting to hear what is done in Australia. Best wishes, Ecobuilder

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