There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

Apologies to all. Things got really busy towards the end of the year and my focus is on our Greening Campaign “Love Your Own Food” Event at Colden Common School. I will be updating the blog with the other stages that we went through.
The good news is that we got planning permission for phase 2 [...]

Sorry - this is a bit boring ! Insulation, Insulation Insulation!

Celotex is 1.2m long and if the space is larger then 2 pieces are required. This clip show you how we did it.

Day 3 consisted of more insulation laying and plumbing work to accomodate rainwater harvesting and a more efficient hot water supply. In particular, a hot water supply to the wasking machine (which only has cold at the moment) via a special mixer tap. This will reduce the amount of electricity used for heating the water. [...]

In order to make progress on the sitting room, all the services need to be in place before we can lay down the insulation. Day 1 was electrics; Day 2 is the plumbing. (Day 3 will be wiring for the TV.)
Lessons learnt:
Make sure you identify all the items that are stopping you from making progress [...]

The first step of the plan has started with emptying the Garage and Sitting Room for the following reasons :-

Electrics & plumbing for the utility room, sitting room and extension.
Insulation under the sitting room, utility room walls & ceiling.
Changes required for the wood buring stove.
Plumbing changes for future rain water harvesting.

So when planning the changes [...]

So far, its been intensive planning and lining up the various trades. The video below gives a quick summary.
However, problems on the planning permission front. Take a look here

This will be my last blog entry for the Guardian since the team are now focussed on the December Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen - you can still follow what we are doing to our property at www.greenhomediary.com
We will also be setting up a webcam so that you can see what is happening in real [...]

The news this week on the Veck ECO Refurb is that we have employed an ECO Architect - the same one that is working on Ann Link’s house. There was lots of enthusiasm from local architects, and some fixed price offers from remote practitioners.
I have also been to the National Self Build & Renovation Centre [...]

Sorry, but nothing exciting has happened on our house - we have not installed or done any work yet and for very good reason.  If we are going to be lifting floors, tearing down ceilings, removing roofs etc, we want to make sure we get this right, ensure it is sustainable, only do this once [...]