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.

Thursday 12 August 2010

Light up Thursday

Today was a busy one for the electricians Neil and Steve. They started by trying to find the conduit for the outside lights...it wasn't quite where they expected so they had to try a different approach. But they were successful.
We then started on the LED lights for the stairs, or rather the connector cables. It wasn't as easy as we'd hoped. It would have been a lot better if we had put the cables in before the staircase was lifted into the house! Instead Neil and I devised a method using tape, plastic ties and cardboard.

It was a long job so Steve and I worked on the cables after lunch.
We managed to get the LED strips in place in the staircase grooves so that they can be connected to the drivers. Each LED strip will light the tread below it.
 Steve started to insulate the sockets that are on the external walls, trying to maintain the high level of airtightness.
Now the LED spots have lamps! It's great to have light, and the room is separated into three zones so we can choose how many lights are put on at one time.
Our feature light now has power too.
The house still looks like it's in a building site with the large pile of sand in front but at least the skip is now gone. I'm hoping to improve the front garden before we move in.

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