Signed off & waiting for paperwork

Apparently after 7 months of waiting, 1 objection and a reduction of size the build has been approved (subject to paperwork)

I went up on Sunday and luckily had a few dry hours of making a pile of wood logs and making the bonfire even bigger.

Another update

Spoken to planning and something positive may be happening soon which is good news for us but not those in what has been given the name the "fly trap". I choose my words carefully as this blog has been quoted in a recent letter concerning our planning application which has caused me to think long and hard about communities and being part of one. I don't have any issues with people not agreeing to our plans but I do have large issues with people quoting this blog (Flora said I should have never started one)when they should at least have the decency to talk to us. We live in a small community where people on the whole sort things out face to face rather than in large cities where sending a letter of complaint to the planners is probably more acceptable and certainly less confrontional. Actually I feel rather amazed that someone would want to trawl through these pages maybe I should have included more derogatory comments about people with too much money inflating the house prices by buying second or even third homes.

Anyway less of the rant. I had an interesting conversation with Kensa ground source heat pumps. www.kensa.co.uk I said that despite the company always being very helpful when we've had a problem with our heating system in the Longhouse I wouldn't consider installing another at The Ropewalk. His response was if you lived in a place without mains gas there's a good argument for having GSHP. However apparently the return doesn't stack up when you have an efficient gas condensing boiler. So bugger here we go again! We like the idea of a renewable heat technology but we're literally be paying for it. Apparently the governments Renewable Heat Iniative is swaying towards paying people for installing either bio-mass or GSHP if they're not in a mains gas area. In a short time we've moved from investigating building with hempcrete and other natural materials to kingspan high density insulation and mains gas! Have we sold our souls? I think I'm swaying towards the arguemet that out house will require a really small amount of energy to live in therefore it's overally carbon foot print will be pretty small.

Fundamentals

I feel that we've gone around and around trying to choose how to build this house. From the more obscure hempcrete to zeigal blocks (they cost quite a lot and don't really have enough insulation) right the way to more conventional, cheaper mass produced materials. Finally Harry, Garry and Dave (builders), Phil (environmental consultant) and Andrew (joiner) and me sat around Harry's dining room table with tea and biscuits to discuss how to build the house. I couldn't help feel excited and nervous at the same time as it's been such a long time since we bought the Ropewalk. So either we get concerned with the house being breathable and use more expensive more natural materials or we don't and use Kingspan high density insulation. So we're going to go with the mass market stuff. This possibly isn't what I thought we wouldn't have done 2 years ago but in terms of performance it's the most effective way to achieve a house that requires very little heating. It's a compromise as things always are and I'm afraid we might be able to afford a better kitchen and a cellar if we go down this route! Harry's classic line of the meeting must be remembered "triple glazed windows are very un-British". Well that's ok but I can understand that they don't want to look unrefined and lumpy.

Key points Garry and Dave should be able to start early May.
They always take September off so by then the other trades will have to in a position to start.

We're meeting David Cragie on Sunday afternoon to discuss and design our kitchen. This should be the fun bit .... Ok the end result will be really good if it turns out well.

Chipping

Last Wednesday the chipper came to the Ropewalk. After 5 hours and lots of help from the MoB team we had cleared the site wow it looks so different. But doesn't stop there as the pine along the north wall has still got to go and a few more smaller evergreens in the corner. Apparently the plans are going to be approved soon but when you consider how long it has taken I'll believe it when I see it!

I've got to set up a meeting with Harry, Garry and Phil Neve to talk about the finer details of the house.

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.

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.

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!