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.