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 12 July 2010

New week, new deliveries more sanding.

Rain greeted us this monday morning but it didn't stop delivery of the bamboo flooring. Thankfully Neil arrived just in time to help Ebi and Charlie off-load it. It was heavy work but everyone kept going with the benefit of Ebi's great coffee. Then the eco-friendly paints arrived; this time the children and I managed to help.
Teenage son power is also very useful for moving sand, as the first screeders still haven't picked up their materials, and we need to tidy up the front of the site!
Neil went back to work in the utility room. The air source heat pump is looking much neater now the covers are on the different components. It is very tight in there with all that technology. I'm hoping we can master using it all!
The floors in the bathroom are finished off by Ebi and Charlie with board in order to protect the ventilation ducting underneath.
Ebi and Charlie are carrying on with their filling and sanding. It makes a big difference to the walls, they are very smooth.

One day the job will be finished, but not yet. They persevere, the mechanical sander echoing round the house and by the end of the day they have finished the walls upstairs! Good job guys! Thank you!

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