Bonfire party and Eco bling

From last weeks doom and gloom 'we're never going to build the house we actually want to live in' to lets invite our neighbours around for some mulled wine, sparklers (thank you for those guests that actually supplied them) and a large pile of tree cuttings just waiting to go up in smoke.  An apparent perfect opportunity to show our ideas to those who are going to be looking at our creation for years to come.  I think the saying goes 'If you want to be friends with your neighbour let him choose the colour of your front door'.  I hope this isn't in a literal sense?  "You can choose anything as long as it's the wood we like????"

Still, the mad frenzy of activity 15 minutes before the welcome time i.e. lighting a large bonfire with your 10 month daughter on your back was interesting, or trying to hold a conversation with an neighbour while a small person is hanging off your arms, does make the whole process more stressful it has got to be said.  I completely forgot to print off any pieces of paper asking our neighbours to support our plans, anyway it didn't matter they could barely see the plans with our all so powerful collection of random candles.... ok give me some credit for perhaps a smidgen of journalistic imagination!  In truth we think around 20 households came and we think / hope everyone liked our ideas.  What was really nice was creating an opportunity to meet everyone.  We still do have quite a large pot of mulled wine if you want to pop around to our cottage?

On the actual design front -  what is in and what's out this week?

1) Having had good look at a lovely oak house last Thursday (same sort of size as ours) Oak is most certainly IN. Lets not worry too much about silly things like cost deter us at this point in time.


2) Eco Bling - according to a journalist in Country Life magazine if your house has either solar panels or a wind turbine or such paraphernalia at the detriment of the aesthetics of the house then clearly this is considered naff.  Oh well, we never really considered ourselves up with the times!  Yes we're definitely having solar thermal panels and if we can afford it solar photovoltaic panels too.

3) Balconies - are on the border line.  We both like them but feel that the house has got to stand on it's own before putting a beautiful balcony in.

4)  Sun porches made from oak and glass or in other words a outside inside space will always be on the agenda.

5)  Voids are out.  Voids in a house do add (let me use a architectural phrase) drama but I think it's a real luxury that we would rather have larger bedrooms..... or am I just being boring?

6) Extreme sand pit playing - the only two things we've actually done at The Ropewalk is dig the girls a sand pit and cut off branches from some trees.  Polly thankfully amused herself by playing in the sand pit lit by a small candle, that's my girl!