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.

Friday 14 January 2011

Snow progress

Amazingly, just before Christmas, our newly moved summer house received a new layer of felt on the roof, thanks to our intrepid handyman, Harry. Despite the snow he managed to complete the job, so like the house it is water-tight.

Our house is more than water tight. In the recent snow, even when the snow was melting on the neighbours houses ours was still intact. How's that for the good insulation in action.
Now it's a new year and we realise that in comparison to the house project, the garden will be more straight forward. Like sorting out the snagging problems, both will progres slowly but I will continue to update the blog occasionally.