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 26 July 2010

Sanding and priming

After a weekend of priming and sanding the kitchen units, we did more of the same today. Fortunately, the priming is now finished so a bit more sanding tomorrow and we might make a start on the top coat.
A moment of reflection up on the garage deck ...
Just as we were about to go and find some lunch the sanitaryware arrived, with no one to help, Tony had to take it into the house single-handedly. Not easy over the mound of sand!
The mosaic tiles that were needed to finish the bathroom were delivered, as well as the levelling compound, purchased to remedy the upstairs screed.
There wasn't much action from the tiler today as there was the question of the residual moisture content in the downstairs screed, which is a little higher than expected. However, given the hot weather and the fact that the underfloor heating has been on, we have decided to go ahead and tile the downstairs bathroom, there would be lots of downstream jobs that would be delayed otherwise.

I took a quiet moment in the afternoon to admire how much sky we now see from the house.
Tomorrow will be a bit more busy given that the plumbers will be back on site. Ebi will be back later in the week. In the meantime, the kitchen units wait...

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