Whilst we were in the middle of the build a friend's parents had a new patio laid to replace their old one. When we heard that they had several hundred old block paviours to get rid of as a result we were quick to offer them a home. More than two years later the block paviours that have taken up valuable space in our garage are finally going to be used to form our drive. All being well this'll happen this weekend once we've installed the drainage, levelled the sub base and put down a layer of sharp sand.
There are still plenty of things on the To-do list at Hillside, but laying the drive is the last major hard-landscaping work at the front of the house, making it look complete and getting rid of the last area of mud that we've lived with since we moved back two years ago!
Thursday, 27 October 2011
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
A year of solar heating
The unseasonably good weather at Hillside over the past few days, with clear blue skies from dawn to dusk and temperatures around 25C, is a very pleasant suprise. Along with giving us a welcome last taste of summer that wasn't very forthcoming in July and August, it means we can eke some more use out of the solar hot water system.
2011 has been our first full year of using solar hot water. Whilst we'll get a few more good days from the unexpected sunshine, we've now had most of the useful sunshine for the year so now is a good time to review how the system has performed.
This year has seen us generate around 2,200 kwhs of hot water from the sun, and we expect it to reach 2,500 before the year is out. If we had used gas to generate the same amount of hot water it would have cost us approximately £92 on a typical tariff. However, we don't have gas in the village so would have to use either electricity, oil or wood pellets. The equivalent costs for these would be £315, £145 or £130 respectively. As wood pellets are our fuel source we'll use that in our calculations.
Our Navitron, self-installed, 30 tube solar thermal system cost just over £1,000 excluding the twin coil hot water cylinder which we bought separately. If you bought the complete kit from Navitron it'd set you back £1,600.
So, using the figures calculated above and the cost of the complete kit, a simple payback calculation shows the solar thermal system will pay for itself in 12 years. I must admit I'm slightly disappointed by this as I thought it'd be less. However, you could take the view that before the renovation project we would've been using oil, and we had to replace the cylinder anyway so the true payback is £1000/£145, and is a much more satisfying 6.9 years.
Even the 12 year payback period shows that the system will easily pay for itself in it's 20+ year lifetime. So we can rest in the knowledge that the solar thermal system is not only cutting our CO2 emissions, it's also saving us money in the long-term.
2011 has been our first full year of using solar hot water. Whilst we'll get a few more good days from the unexpected sunshine, we've now had most of the useful sunshine for the year so now is a good time to review how the system has performed.
This year has seen us generate around 2,200 kwhs of hot water from the sun, and we expect it to reach 2,500 before the year is out. If we had used gas to generate the same amount of hot water it would have cost us approximately £92 on a typical tariff. However, we don't have gas in the village so would have to use either electricity, oil or wood pellets. The equivalent costs for these would be £315, £145 or £130 respectively. As wood pellets are our fuel source we'll use that in our calculations.
Our Navitron, self-installed, 30 tube solar thermal system cost just over £1,000 excluding the twin coil hot water cylinder which we bought separately. If you bought the complete kit from Navitron it'd set you back £1,600.
So, using the figures calculated above and the cost of the complete kit, a simple payback calculation shows the solar thermal system will pay for itself in 12 years. I must admit I'm slightly disappointed by this as I thought it'd be less. However, you could take the view that before the renovation project we would've been using oil, and we had to replace the cylinder anyway so the true payback is £1000/£145, and is a much more satisfying 6.9 years.
Even the 12 year payback period shows that the system will easily pay for itself in it's 20+ year lifetime. So we can rest in the knowledge that the solar thermal system is not only cutting our CO2 emissions, it's also saving us money in the long-term.
Monday, 12 September 2011
910 bottles lying in a wall....
Okay, so we slightly underestimated how much time it'd take to fill the gabions. Not only was this due to the amount of time to collect all the bottles we needed, but also it proved to be a labour intensive and fiddle job getting the bottles and stone facing to look exactly how we want. Lobbing random rocks in would've been quicker and easier but wasn't the aesthetic we wanted, or the materials we planned on using.
So the combination of 15 baskets, 910 bottles (beer, wine & champagne), 23 tonnes recycled aggregate, several tonnes of builders rubble, 2 tonnes of recalimed local stone and plenty of hard labour have resulted in our final section of retaining wall.
We're really pleased with the result, but won't be rushing to build anymore! And the local wildlife must like it as we've already spotted a Death's Head Hawk Moth caterpillar setting up home in one of the many crevices.
So the combination of 15 baskets, 910 bottles (beer, wine & champagne), 23 tonnes recycled aggregate, several tonnes of builders rubble, 2 tonnes of recalimed local stone and plenty of hard labour have resulted in our final section of retaining wall.
We're really pleased with the result, but won't be rushing to build anymore! And the local wildlife must like it as we've already spotted a Death's Head Hawk Moth caterpillar setting up home in one of the many crevices.
Monday, 25 July 2011
Filling
We've started filling the baskets - looking good so far but it looks like we'll need more materials.
Monday, 4 July 2011
Baskets
In addition to levelling the garden, as much as possible, the contractor will also be digging out a car parking space alongside our garage. As with the courtyard, this area adjoins the garden which is at a level 2m higher, so a retaining structure needs to be built.
At the start of the project our architect and structural engineer assumed we would be extending the concrete retaining wall to do this, but cost and our desire to avoid using too much new concrete and steel meant we haven't. Instead we'll be using baskets.
Not just any old baskets - but gabions, more usually seen retaining slopes alongside motorway cuttings, although they have sneaked into contemporary RHS Chelsea designs in the last few years. As we need 16 of them, each holding around 1 cubic meter of material, we'll need plenty of fill. We've already amassed a collection of stone, old bricks and pebbles but this won't get us very far so we need more material to act as the structural bulk and to face the front of the baskets.
Pinching an idea from Chelsea (which is suitably apt as we keep finding bottles in the garden that were buried by previous residents of Hillside before refuse collections existed) we'll be using a combination of beer and wine bottles to face some of the gabions. Thankfully we know somebody who owns a pub so won't have to empty all the bottles ourselves! As for the bulk fill, we'll be using old concrete from demolished buildings, the perfect use for recycled aggregate where it won't be seen.
At the start of the project our architect and structural engineer assumed we would be extending the concrete retaining wall to do this, but cost and our desire to avoid using too much new concrete and steel meant we haven't. Instead we'll be using baskets.
Not just any old baskets - but gabions, more usually seen retaining slopes alongside motorway cuttings, although they have sneaked into contemporary RHS Chelsea designs in the last few years. As we need 16 of them, each holding around 1 cubic meter of material, we'll need plenty of fill. We've already amassed a collection of stone, old bricks and pebbles but this won't get us very far so we need more material to act as the structural bulk and to face the front of the baskets.
Pinching an idea from Chelsea (which is suitably apt as we keep finding bottles in the garden that were buried by previous residents of Hillside before refuse collections existed) we'll be using a combination of beer and wine bottles to face some of the gabions. Thankfully we know somebody who owns a pub so won't have to empty all the bottles ourselves! As for the bulk fill, we'll be using old concrete from demolished buildings, the perfect use for recycled aggregate where it won't be seen.
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Clover
Well the quotes are in, and we've decided to go with the cheapest and not to proceed with the contractor who was advocating the extensive use of roundup. Numerous 'net searches have given us reasons to doubt the 'safe' claims made to us. The downside is that we'll have plenty of weeding to do.
The contractor is booked in to come and level the garden in just over a week so we're now investigating where to buy grass seed, and what type we should buy. We don't want a bowling green so are more than happy to go for an economy 'lawn' - after all we just want a green flat area! It turns out that the most environmentally friendly option, due to inherent drought resistance and nitrogen fixing properties, is to go for a clover lawn. Not just clover, but ryegrass with clover mixed in. As the current Hillside has several large patches of clover that are lush and green whilst the grass is looking disticntly brown, we can vouch for this being true.
So, just the small matter of calculating how many kg of seed we need before we get it ordered.
The contractor is booked in to come and level the garden in just over a week so we're now investigating where to buy grass seed, and what type we should buy. We don't want a bowling green so are more than happy to go for an economy 'lawn' - after all we just want a green flat area! It turns out that the most environmentally friendly option, due to inherent drought resistance and nitrogen fixing properties, is to go for a clover lawn. Not just clover, but ryegrass with clover mixed in. As the current Hillside has several large patches of clover that are lush and green whilst the grass is looking disticntly brown, we can vouch for this being true.
So, just the small matter of calculating how many kg of seed we need before we get it ordered.
Friday, 10 June 2011
Roundup or hard graft?
Now that we've got the steps built up into the garden we've been working out how best to level off the not so level garden that the builders left us with. At the moment it's an undulating slope of assorted weeds with some grass mixed in. We want it to become a garden with borders of naturalistic planting (nothing too formal) with small areas of grass including grass/lawn paths. To achieve this we've asked a couple of landscape contractors to quote for levelling some of the slope to make into lawn areas.
The other areas that we'll eventually turn into planting borders leave us with an eco-conundrum. We either spend a lot of time and effort digging these over to remove the grass and weeds, or we spray them with a herbicide such as Roundup. The Landscape contractors advise on the latter and are quick to point out how benign a herbicide it is. We're yet to be convinced.
Just cos it's the world's biggest selling herbicide doesn't mean we should be happy to use it in our garden. However, if we dont use it the alternative means a lot of hard graft. Not that this is something we're adverse to, but worth considering the amount of fuel (both for power tools such as the mower and strimmer, along with food for us) that would be consumed as a result. What's worse for the environment? We certainly don't know the answer. So we'll ponder this a while longer whilst also waiting for the contractor's quotes to arrive.
The other areas that we'll eventually turn into planting borders leave us with an eco-conundrum. We either spend a lot of time and effort digging these over to remove the grass and weeds, or we spray them with a herbicide such as Roundup. The Landscape contractors advise on the latter and are quick to point out how benign a herbicide it is. We're yet to be convinced.
Just cos it's the world's biggest selling herbicide doesn't mean we should be happy to use it in our garden. However, if we dont use it the alternative means a lot of hard graft. Not that this is something we're adverse to, but worth considering the amount of fuel (both for power tools such as the mower and strimmer, along with food for us) that would be consumed as a result. What's worse for the environment? We certainly don't know the answer. So we'll ponder this a while longer whilst also waiting for the contractor's quotes to arrive.
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Cottage Garden
The last few weeks have seen good progress with building the front garden wall. Whilst it can be as frustrating as a huge jigsaw puzzle, it is mostly very satisfying to see order and form emerging out of a random pile of rock. It's also great to start to see a defined boundary at the front of the garden, where it's been a blurred edge or tarmac and soil for months.
It'll be a while yet before it's complete and can we can think about replanting, but even so the self sown aquilegia and valerian are in full bloom and are doing their bit to make it look like a real cottage garden. It's not a style that we were thinking of using, but the contrast this will provide to the italian courtyard at the rear of the house seems to work. So when we do get to the fun stage of buying plants or seeds it'll definitely be for cottage style but with some unusual plants in the mix. Thankfully this is what my sister specialises in at her plant nursery Tinnisburn Plants, so I know what'll be on my list of things to collect when we visit in August.
Mind you, that's assuming she doesn't sell all her stock at Gardening Scotland this weekend!
It'll be a while yet before it's complete and can we can think about replanting, but even so the self sown aquilegia and valerian are in full bloom and are doing their bit to make it look like a real cottage garden. It's not a style that we were thinking of using, but the contrast this will provide to the italian courtyard at the rear of the house seems to work. So when we do get to the fun stage of buying plants or seeds it'll definitely be for cottage style but with some unusual plants in the mix. Thankfully this is what my sister specialises in at her plant nursery Tinnisburn Plants, so I know what'll be on my list of things to collect when we visit in August.
Mind you, that's assuming she doesn't sell all her stock at Gardening Scotland this weekend!
Sunday, 15 May 2011
It's a sign!
Last October, whilst on holiday in Cornwall, we stumbled across a manufacturer of house signs, coasters and clocks that grabbed our attention. www.ashortwalk.com use recycled coffee cups to make contemporary products that look as if they've been riven from slate when they are infact a made from waste material. Recycling at it's best.
With us making good progress at the front of the house we thought it was now time to get a new sign for Hillside, and this is what turned up in the post on Friday courtesy of Ashortwalk:
Okay, so there is already a stone at the front of the house with 'Hill Side Cottage 1905' carved into it, but it's at first floor level and seems to be out of most peoples line of sight. The number of callers we have at the door who ask if the house is anything but Hillside confirms this.
So hopefully, once we've put the new name sign at the front of the house we'll stem the regular flow of delivery men looking for some other property. We'll see.
With us making good progress at the front of the house we thought it was now time to get a new sign for Hillside, and this is what turned up in the post on Friday courtesy of Ashortwalk:
Okay, so there is already a stone at the front of the house with 'Hill Side Cottage 1905' carved into it, but it's at first floor level and seems to be out of most peoples line of sight. The number of callers we have at the door who ask if the house is anything but Hillside confirms this.
So hopefully, once we've put the new name sign at the front of the house we'll stem the regular flow of delivery men looking for some other property. We'll see.
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
Wall
The record breaking dry weather has encouraged us to carry on with work outside, despite there being indoor jobs that we'd planned to do. Think they'll have to wait till the weather turns wet.
So we've been able not only to complete the new steps up to the house from the pavement, but also start rebuilding the front wall. Using a combination of stone from the original wall that we rescued from the builder before he removed it, along with rubble from our friend's garden, we have managed to make good progress with the new wall. We're not skilled or experienced enough to build a dry stone wall, so we are resorting to a semi-dry wall with some mortar used to give it strength but it wont be fully pointed. Hopefully this will mean it is in keeping with the local vernacular rubble walls and wont look out of place, whilst also being structurally sound.
So we've been able not only to complete the new steps up to the house from the pavement, but also start rebuilding the front wall. Using a combination of stone from the original wall that we rescued from the builder before he removed it, along with rubble from our friend's garden, we have managed to make good progress with the new wall. We're not skilled or experienced enough to build a dry stone wall, so we are resorting to a semi-dry wall with some mortar used to give it strength but it wont be fully pointed. Hopefully this will mean it is in keeping with the local vernacular rubble walls and wont look out of place, whilst also being structurally sound.
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Stepping up
Another month is well on it's way with Spring well and truly here, so much so it felt like summer at the weekend thanks to the fantastically warm and sunny weather. It's been dry for ages which isn't great for harvesting rainwater but does mean the solar hot water is working flat out. So much so we got home from a weekend away to find a tank brim full of hot water, and with the water in the heat exchanger at 153C! All this good weather has meant jobs inside have ground to a halt and we've focused on work outside. As a result we're almost halfway with the stone steps up to the garden and new paving now adorns part of the front of the house to replace the temporary recycled slabs that we put there 18 months ago. Not content with our own rubble etc we did a favour for a friend and allowed him to dump rubble in our front garden. Sounds like a mad thing to do but we'll use the stone to help rebuild our garden wall and any rubbish (bricks etc) will be useful infill material. Not only will this save us money but it diverts a couple of tons from landfill.
Sunday, 20 March 2011
Clay
With spring just around the corner, and with two days of wall to wall blue sky, we thought this weekend was finally time to tackle the steps up from the courtyard up into Hillside's elevated garden that sits a full storey height above our courtyard. Whilst the builder had left us with a muddy slope we are understandably keen to turn this into something more practical and aesthetically pleasing - the photo below was taken last November when we'd just completed laying the courtyard slabs and when the slope was at it's mudiest and most lethal!
Several hours of digging in the sun we now have and some seriously aching muscles and the rough shape of two thirds of the steps. So far it seems that we've been digging out clay that dug out and then backfilled when the builder built the retaining wall. Whilst it's been hard work it's not been as bad as it would've been had it been the clay rock that Hillside is built on. I have a slight concern that the top three steps are far enough away from the retaining wall to be in ground that hasn't previoulsy been disturbed so we may well find rock. Time will tell.
At least it means we'll get another good workout as we certainly don't have time for other forms of exercise!
Several hours of digging in the sun we now have and some seriously aching muscles and the rough shape of two thirds of the steps. So far it seems that we've been digging out clay that dug out and then backfilled when the builder built the retaining wall. Whilst it's been hard work it's not been as bad as it would've been had it been the clay rock that Hillside is built on. I have a slight concern that the top three steps are far enough away from the retaining wall to be in ground that hasn't previoulsy been disturbed so we may well find rock. Time will tell.
At least it means we'll get another good workout as we certainly don't have time for other forms of exercise!
Monday, 14 March 2011
Warming up
At last, after the long winter, there is some heat in the sun and we're seeing more of it. Several sunny days in the last week have meant that the solarhot water system is already doing some useful work, topping up the hot water cylinder with 'free' heat.
Technical guidance from solar thermal suppliers and designers says you should only expect to get useful heat out of these systems from April to October in the UK. Okay, so our system isn't yet seeing enough quality light/sun to mean we can switch off the boiler supply to the hot water cylinder, but our first full season of using the solar thermal system is definitely underway.
Hopefully I'll be able to advise on how long the system will pay for itself later this year, so come back then to find out more. With fuel prices going upwards thanks to the Middle East and Japan situations we could be looking at shorter payback than expected.
Technical guidance from solar thermal suppliers and designers says you should only expect to get useful heat out of these systems from April to October in the UK. Okay, so our system isn't yet seeing enough quality light/sun to mean we can switch off the boiler supply to the hot water cylinder, but our first full season of using the solar thermal system is definitely underway.
Hopefully I'll be able to advise on how long the system will pay for itself later this year, so come back then to find out more. With fuel prices going upwards thanks to the Middle East and Japan situations we could be looking at shorter payback than expected.
Monday, 7 March 2011
February?
Where did that last month go?! Apologies to regular readers but the shortest month of the year has flown by without any blog posts. I'll endeavour to rectify this in the coming weeks and months as we awake from the cold of winter. I hope.
Our first load of visitors since last autumn enjoyed the hospitality of Hillside at the end of last month. Before they arrived we'd set ourselves the target of completing the bathroom and ensuite. Whilst both rooms have been functional for over a year now we'd not completed the tiling in either room as there have always been more important things to do. So the cold and dark of February seemed a good time to get this work done. And with the exception of a few minor finishing touches the work is complete, complete with a bath panel made from T&G that we found in the old brick shed when we first moved in 4 years ago.
Our first load of visitors since last autumn enjoyed the hospitality of Hillside at the end of last month. Before they arrived we'd set ourselves the target of completing the bathroom and ensuite. Whilst both rooms have been functional for over a year now we'd not completed the tiling in either room as there have always been more important things to do. So the cold and dark of February seemed a good time to get this work done. And with the exception of a few minor finishing touches the work is complete, complete with a bath panel made from T&G that we found in the old brick shed when we first moved in 4 years ago.
Hopefully this now means that we can start to focus our attention outside once more, and just as spring arrives. With the landscaping of the 'front garden' to be done, along with extending of the veg plot, not to mention sowing the seeds etc that we need to plant up the plot, there's plenty to be done out there.
Needless to say we can still find a few jobs to do indoors if spring isn't quite here yet.
Tuesday, 25 January 2011
What fuel crisis?
With the news full of the high oil prices I thought it was about time I did a review of the finances of running our wood pellet boiler for a full year.
As you may have read before, we've tried out a one year contract with Treenergy in Monmouth. Not on our doorstop but the most local supplier of wood pellets that we could find. Not only has the service been great, with pellets delivered at a weeks notice when required and at a time that has suited us, the product is consistently good with no resultant problems with the boiler. Due to the contract we setup we were able to buy the pellets at approximately 22p per kg.
We aren't on mains gas, so if we hadn't gone for the eco option we would've had to go for heating oil. Last year, according to the BoilerJuice website, oil prices averaged around 45p per litre. So with 2.2kg of wood pellets approximately equivalent to a litre of oil, last year saw the cost of our pellets marginally more expensive than using oil. But the satisfaction of saving a load of CO2 more than made up for the difference!
However, if oil prices stay anywhere near where they are at present we'll be saving money hand over fist this year. And with the overall trend for oil prices to keep going up our decision to move to wood pellets is looking like a very wise financial move along with reducing our carbon footprint.
As you may have read before, we've tried out a one year contract with Treenergy in Monmouth. Not on our doorstop but the most local supplier of wood pellets that we could find. Not only has the service been great, with pellets delivered at a weeks notice when required and at a time that has suited us, the product is consistently good with no resultant problems with the boiler. Due to the contract we setup we were able to buy the pellets at approximately 22p per kg.
We aren't on mains gas, so if we hadn't gone for the eco option we would've had to go for heating oil. Last year, according to the BoilerJuice website, oil prices averaged around 45p per litre. So with 2.2kg of wood pellets approximately equivalent to a litre of oil, last year saw the cost of our pellets marginally more expensive than using oil. But the satisfaction of saving a load of CO2 more than made up for the difference!
However, if oil prices stay anywhere near where they are at present we'll be saving money hand over fist this year. And with the overall trend for oil prices to keep going up our decision to move to wood pellets is looking like a very wise financial move along with reducing our carbon footprint.
Friday, 7 January 2011
Going to seed?
One of the mildly interesting parts of visiting my parents over Christmases through the years has been flicking through the various magazines and books that have rested on their coffee table. Whilst these have varied in subject matter to some extent one small publication that has been guaranteed to be found is the seed catalogue. Usually Thompson & Morgan, this has been joined over the years from time to time by publications from obscure and specialist plant nurseries. Todate my interest has only ever been fleeting, and even when we've taken a spare copy home it's gone unused.
This year is different.
We've brought home Thompson & Morgan's Potato catalogue, and it's suprisingly more interesting than it sounds. Really. Keen to build on last year's success with our great crop of Charlottes and Jersey Royals we've been reading up on 2011's must have varieties. We haven't yet decided which varieties we'll grow, but Anya, Lady Christl and good old Charlotte are looking favourite.
There's something far more appealing about thumbing through the A5 sized catalogue thinking of this summer's potential crop than browsing the T&M website, which I find quite strange as a lover of the 'net and the power of Google etc. Maybe it's a sign of getting older, or maybe it's just something inherent in garden related information that is better delivered by old forms of media. I don't know. Either way I can't wait for spring to arrive so we get some seed potatoes in the ground and can look forward to another bumper crop of delicions spuds.
This year is different.
We've brought home Thompson & Morgan's Potato catalogue, and it's suprisingly more interesting than it sounds. Really. Keen to build on last year's success with our great crop of Charlottes and Jersey Royals we've been reading up on 2011's must have varieties. We haven't yet decided which varieties we'll grow, but Anya, Lady Christl and good old Charlotte are looking favourite.
There's something far more appealing about thumbing through the A5 sized catalogue thinking of this summer's potential crop than browsing the T&M website, which I find quite strange as a lover of the 'net and the power of Google etc. Maybe it's a sign of getting older, or maybe it's just something inherent in garden related information that is better delivered by old forms of media. I don't know. Either way I can't wait for spring to arrive so we get some seed potatoes in the ground and can look forward to another bumper crop of delicions spuds.
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