Author: Me

Yet another shade of blue?

The team are working hard on finalising the pack of documents so the Builder (more on this later) can pull together their costed proposal. Our part in this has been finalising our choices on the different finishes we want – floors, ceiling and so on which feels very surreal given we have yet to dig any (proper) holes. It will however smooth the build process if this can all be agreed up-front.

In the course of all this, the architects suggested we take a look at an environmentally friendly, mineral paint for our walls. This then led us to getting distracted for days in the fascinating and confusing world of colour.

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An unexpected turn of events

A wise friend told us that building a house is a seemingly never ending series of hurdles but eventually there be none left and the house is finished. This week’s unexpected hurdle has been fire safety. Apparently the fire brigade have minimum requirements for access to domestic houses and needless to say we appear to fall short against these. However there is a solution … install sprinklers!

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All the little jobs

No great leap of progress to report at the moment but many, many things are progressing. In no particular order the team have:

  • designed out most of the new steel structure, replacing it with wood to dramatically improve the thermal efficiency of the building;
  • lots and lots and lots of detailed drawings have been produced ready for the construction stage;
  • we have agreed a plan for the perimeter fence with our Farmer neighbour;
  • surreally work has started to select final room finishes including carpet and tiles;
  • we have started prepping the party wall paperwork for our neighbours;
  • our plywood kitchen is starting to firm up;
  • a garden plan is coming together and …

… we have started negotiating with a Builder. More soon.

Balancing Act

One of the key requirements of a PassivHaus or in our case something built to the EnerPHit standard, is air tightness. To achieve the thermal efficiency required, we need to be obsessive about cutting out any air leakage and with it our precious heat. Once you’ve sealed your house up and made it air tight you then need a plan to prevent the air going stale, oh and for making sure the occupants can still breathe.

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The big book of words

The house project rollercoaster continues with great leaps of progress in some areas (design) while elsewhere we appear at times to be no further forward (amendments to our planning permission). Lockdown 2.0 has at least given us some enforced ‘stay at home’ time which we have put to good use reviewing the huge amounts of detail that is being produced and assembled by the team.

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Starting at the bottom

One of the many things we have to work out is how to insulate the ground floor. The Architects Matt and Elly, are helping unpick the mysteries of what you usually take for granted since it’s buried in the ground.  It’s all a balance between making sure the building doesn’t sink, cost, achieving un-interrupted insulation, minimal thermal bridges, and it turns out dealing with radioactive gas. 

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