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 2 March 2011

The grass is greener or is it?

It's been a long time since I last wrote on the blog. The house hasn't changed much but we've started to look at the back garden.

From a distance I was pleased because it looked like the lawn was growing back. However, on closer inspection I saw




it was ground elder!!! These tiny shoots bode alot of back-breaking work. They will keep coming back unless you get rid of all the long roots.







After two days of work, I'd hardly made an impact. I think I may have to think of a plan B. No weedkillers though as we plan to grow veggies here.

The digger may have helped to spread the ground elder around, but it also helped by making the pond. About two months ago we put the liner in the pond and waited for rain. It didn't seem to come. Then suddenly it started to pour down. A couple of days ago it looked like this. The liner was a bit big but I'm using it help collect more rainwater.



Meanwhile the front garden looked devoid of life as we decide what we're going to grow in there. But miraculously, perhaps caught on the digger tread, a small crocus tulip is flowering. Perhaps it is telling me to get on with planting before ground elder spreads to the front garden too.