Saturday 28 January 2012
Pruning
Hamish & Mike came with their chainsaws, wow it's made a huge difference now we've got lots of manual work dragging the branches to chip on 15th February.
Thursday 26 January 2012
January a summary
1) Still waiting for planning to be granted. I met Anna Groskop in the street but didn't think was a good idea to ask her directly as it just wouldn't speed the process up. She apparently will or has decided whether the plans need to go to committee.
2) Meeting with Roger Honey from Natural Building Technologies. He dispelled my previous concerns using zeigal blocks and is now coming up with a quote.
3) Meeting with Harry. Chatted over the drawings and he agreed that our idea to reduce the downstairs bathroom in order to create a doorway from the corridor into the play room was a good use of space freeing more space in the sitting room, hurray! Meeting part B is going to happen tomorrow morning after Hamish and Mike have started cutting the leylandi down.
4) Discussion with Phil Neave today. He met Harry last week and now we need to make some sort of financial commitment for his services including doing the mandatory certification plus advising us and then ensuring we achieve a code 4.
5) The latter has now been stipulated due to investigating mortgages. Most banks etc rates are about the same and I can't much advantage about other complications for the four years at least. We want to pay the loan off as soon as we can without being in crippling debt! Ecology Building Society offers a variable mortgage with a .75% discount if the house achieves code 4. I haven't yet worked out the finer details of paying Phil but hopefully it would stand to reason that his costs cover the benefits of the cheaper loan.
6) Tree day - Hamish with Mike the tree surgeon came up from Devon to pollard the evergreens towards the end of the telephone exchange.
2) Meeting with Roger Honey from Natural Building Technologies. He dispelled my previous concerns using zeigal blocks and is now coming up with a quote.
3) Meeting with Harry. Chatted over the drawings and he agreed that our idea to reduce the downstairs bathroom in order to create a doorway from the corridor into the play room was a good use of space freeing more space in the sitting room, hurray! Meeting part B is going to happen tomorrow morning after Hamish and Mike have started cutting the leylandi down.
4) Discussion with Phil Neave today. He met Harry last week and now we need to make some sort of financial commitment for his services including doing the mandatory certification plus advising us and then ensuring we achieve a code 4.
5) The latter has now been stipulated due to investigating mortgages. Most banks etc rates are about the same and I can't much advantage about other complications for the four years at least. We want to pay the loan off as soon as we can without being in crippling debt! Ecology Building Society offers a variable mortgage with a .75% discount if the house achieves code 4. I haven't yet worked out the finer details of paying Phil but hopefully it would stand to reason that his costs cover the benefits of the cheaper loan.
6) Tree day - Hamish with Mike the tree surgeon came up from Devon to pollard the evergreens towards the end of the telephone exchange.
Friday 13 January 2012
Potential to back down
Harry may be write in saying that Zeigal blocks are too expensive if there's anything to go by this forum discussion in the Green Building Forum
http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=1085
I have absolutely no problems saying (if it's true) that someone else was right but I will always have to be sure with decent proof to come to that conclusion! Harry is meeting Phil the Eco consultant on Tuesday in order for them to discuss and agree materials to use and cold bridging elimination/reduction. Part of me would like to be there to ensure they do indeed discuss the materials but I'll ask Harry what Phil's perspective was concerning this matter. If we can use more natural materials I do feel that would be a step in the right direction. I'm taking the morning off to meet a guy Roger Honey from Natural Building technologies (mentioned in the above thread). I think it's beat to dismiss this materials until I've spoke to him who seemed to be a decent person talking to him on the phone.
The only thing is that we're sitting down trying to look at the final design in real detail coming up with questions and calculations such as I worked out our wood shed is likely to only store 9 tonnes of wood or 1 years supply, shit what can we do? Answer either a lean to or shed which doesn't break any planning laws!
http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=1085
I have absolutely no problems saying (if it's true) that someone else was right but I will always have to be sure with decent proof to come to that conclusion! Harry is meeting Phil the Eco consultant on Tuesday in order for them to discuss and agree materials to use and cold bridging elimination/reduction. Part of me would like to be there to ensure they do indeed discuss the materials but I'll ask Harry what Phil's perspective was concerning this matter. If we can use more natural materials I do feel that would be a step in the right direction. I'm taking the morning off to meet a guy Roger Honey from Natural Building technologies (mentioned in the above thread). I think it's beat to dismiss this materials until I've spoke to him who seemed to be a decent person talking to him on the phone.
The only thing is that we're sitting down trying to look at the final design in real detail coming up with questions and calculations such as I worked out our wood shed is likely to only store 9 tonnes of wood or 1 years supply, shit what can we do? Answer either a lean to or shed which doesn't break any planning laws!
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