Hillside

Time flies

2012-01-24T04:29:00.001-08:00

It's nearing the end of Jan 2012 already and I've realised I've not posted to this blog for a few months. Not that we've been short of news, after all the block paviour drive is now complete making the front of Hillside look like a normal house at last and not a building site.

And whilst we've made a point of taking it slightly easier during December and the start of 2012, we've still found time to fit the Utility room sink, cupboards and recycled worktop.

With the list of building related jobs getting shorter at last we are now starting to focus on the niceties: pictures, additional furniture etc. You never know, summer 2012 may be when we finally get to fully relax and enjoy the fruits of our labour. Which reminds me, must check the seed packets and plan what fruit & veg we're growing this year...

Recycled drive

2011-10-27T05:09:00.000-07:00

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!

A year of solar heating

2011-09-28T14:47:00.000-07:00

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.

910 bottles lying in a wall....

2011-09-12T05:18:00.000-07:00

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.

Filling

2011-07-25T14:24:00.000-07:00

We've started filling the baskets - looking good so far but it looks like we'll need more materials.

Baskets

2011-07-04T05:15:00.000-07:00

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.

Clover

2011-07-02T14:30:00.000-07:00

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.

Roundup or hard graft?

2011-06-10T15:09:00.000-07:00

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.

Cottage Garden

2011-05-31T14:27:00.000-07:00

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's a sign!

2011-05-15T14:42:00.000-07:00

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.

Wall

2011-05-04T15:05:00.000-07:00

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.

Stepping up

2011-04-12T04:54:00.000-07:00

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.

Clay

2011-03-20T15:56:00.000-07:00

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!

Warming up

2011-03-14T15:11:00.001-07:00

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.

February?

2011-03-07T05:14:00.000-08:00

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.

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.

What fuel crisis?

2011-01-25T12:06:00.000-08:00

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.

Going to seed?

2011-01-07T05:05:00.000-08:00

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.

Winter

2010-12-17T05:10:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure where the time has gone lately, so apologies for not posting over the last couple of months. Maybe I need to consider my New Years resolution for 2011!

Winter has well and truly arrived at Hillside, along with a delivery of two tonnes of wood pellets that we've been making good use of. Unlike this time last year when we were having a few teething issues with the pellet feed auger, all is well with the boiler and it's chugging along quite happily. This is as long as I remember to fill up the hopper, something that I didn't do in time a couple of weeks ago when the sub zero conditions resulted in us using far more fuel than normal.

The bitterly cold weather has meant we've had to call it a day on most jobs outside so we've restarted work on the second-fix carpentry. An opportune couple of weeks holiday between jobs has meant we've been able to get all the architraves along with most of the skirting. We've used pine even though we are painting the wood. It's not as cheap as MDF but we didn't want to use something with formaldehyde in it, let alone a material that produces very fine dust when sanded which could well turn out to be the next asbestos.

With Christmas fast approaching we've decided to go for the budget and recycled option on the tree front this year - so the circa 1980 plastic tree has been retrieved from the dark of the lost and is now decorated and illuminating one corner of the kitchen/diner, with LED lights of course!

Needless to say the freezing weather means there's very little to report on from the garden and allotment; the leeks are frozen in the ground and other than the last few potatoes from this summer's bumper crop stored in the shed there's no other produce out there. Once Christmas is over I think we'll have to start looking at what crops we want to grow in 2011. Roll on Spring!

Good reason for a bonfire

2010-10-26T14:32:00.000-07:00

Okay, so bonfires are not renowned for being particularly great for the environment. Infact there are many environmentalists out there (particularly some members of the AECB http://www.aecb.net/) who are casting doubt on the benefits of burning biomass as a low carbon form of heating. So burning a pile of wood at this time of year to commemorate the failed attempt to blow up Parliament neither helps heat our homes nor, if we're honest, does it celebrate our seat of Government.

Despite this we'll be having a bonfire this November. It probably won't be on the 5th and I doubt we'll be organised enough to invite friends round to tramp up the muddy hill to see it. Instead it'll probably end up being me on my own making sure the fire stays under control and safely burns all that we pile on it. The reason why? To control the effect of leaf miner moths on our 100 year old Horse Chestnut tree.

Last autumn the huge tree that towers over our garden suffered from the signs of the dreaded moths, with leaves turning brown, shrivelling and falling from th

e branches long before November. There seems to be little that can be done to combat these destructive moths but I read somewhere that if you do nothing else, burn the leaves instead of composting them. So we did, although there's no way we could collect all the leaves from some a huge tree.

Looking at the tree this Autumn it looks in far better condition with the leaves just turning brown, unlike Horse Chestnuts that we pass on the way to work that have been bearing brown shrivelled leaves for weeks. I can only deduce that this is thanks to us destroying moths that would otherwise have overwintered in the dead leaves and would've been ready to attack the tree this spring.

So our bonfire will nodoubt be smokier than some, with it's abundance of leaves, but it'll be in a good cause to try and protect the iconic horse chestnut that has towered over Hillside almost since the day the cottage was first built.

Roe Deer enjoying the fruits of the horse chestnut tree

12 months

2010-10-18T14:09:00.000-07:00

The last month has flown by, helped by our first real holiday in ages where we escaped to Cornwall for a week with no DIY. Not wanting to totally escape from talk of buildings and projects we found time call in on Graham and Isabelle to sample produce from their vast veg plot and to see what their little project looks like - http://tremayne.tumblr.com/

Meanwhile back at home Autumn has finally set in, reminding us that we moved back home a year ago today. Things have moved on massively over the year, both inside and outside the house, but it's been surprising how long some tasks have taken to complete. Laying all the oak flooring was an epic task that took up a lot of time, and prevented us from fully using the house till Easter. That's something I'm glad not to have to revisit, although we did have to cut an expansion gap in the oak downstairs at the end of September to prevent it from buckling.

With the cooler weather now here we've fired the boiler once more with the solar thermal system providing a top-up for the hot water. 1 year on it's interesting to see that we've used 7 tonnes of wood pellets. This sounds like a lot and is more than I'd hoped we'd use. But I think the combination of the extremely cold winter, a house that was incomplete when we moved back in, plus the poor thermal performance of the old parts of the cottage and teething problems with the boiler last year will all have resulted in increased pellet consumption. My aim is to make sure that the next 12 months see a significant reduction. We'll see!

Locally grown

2010-09-18T14:44:00.000-07:00

Despite working on the house, and more recently, the garden and paving the courtyard it's been great to be able to have a good summer of growing our own. In the last couple of weeks we've dug up all the remaining potatoes (a whole barrow full) and they're now stored in a cool dark vermin-proof cupboard in the shed. Not that they'll last too long I'm sure as they are so tasty, especially the Charlottes which have beaten the other variety we grew (Jersey Royals) hands down.

Elsewhere in the garden the runner beans are still producing at daunting rate, despite blanching and freezing a load of them and we've finally got a few French beans to enjoy as well. We've pulled the last of the beetroot but still have courgettes growing and leeks in the ground to be harvested later in the year.

The ever present brambles are doing their one positive thing of the year and are now laden with blackberries, of which we've had a few but probably ought to pick and freeze a load. The raspberry canes, new in this spring, have produced a good few handfuls of fruit and our eating apple tree (Jonagold) is laden with a dozen good sized apples that I'm looking forward to tasting soon. Unfortunately the Bramley threw it's fruit earlier in the summer but hopefully that was just a symptom of it settling in to it's new home.

The greenhouse is proving it's worth now that the days are getting slightly shorter and cooler, with tomatoes and chillies ripening nicely. And with pot grown salad leaves and various herbs we've been able to enjoy a load of home grown and very tasty food this summer, with only a few 'food yards'! To top it all though, I had a conversation with Andrew our part-time farmer neighbour this evening and have put in an order for half of one of his lambs which are currently grazing in the field adjacent to our veg plot, which will make for some very locally grown meat to go with our veg.

A month of sunshine?

2010-09-02T14:25:00.000-07:00

We've had the solar thermal system running for a complete month now so it's a good time to see how it's been performing. The TD3 controller that Navitron supplied with it stores all sorts of useful data so assessing how it's doing is a simple task.

August, as is so often the case, proved to be a month with plenty of cloud and several dull wet days when there was little if any heat gained from the system. We had to use the electric immersion heater to boost the water temperature on a few occasions as a result. Even so the system generated 273 kwh of hot water during the month, saving us approximately £10. Not a lot when you consider the cost of the system but not bad for a very grey month. It'll be interesting to see how September fares, as we're only two days in and it's already generated more than 10% of what we saw in August thanks to clear blue skies.

And we're not letting the plentiful hot water go to waste either, as we spend this week laying 80 square metres of paving slabs to turn the muddy area at the back of the kitchen/diner into the courtyard, so hot showers are proving a good way to soothe aching muscles!

Levelled

2010-08-07T15:02:00.000-07:00

Between the showers and brief appearances of sun today (it is August after all!) we dug over the new shed base. As with most of the 'allotment', a significant amount of back breaking effort had to be put in to removing brambles and their roots. Last weekend's bonfire had helped but there were still plenty of roots in the clay.

This, combined with trying to get some semblance of a level site for the timber shed, made it quite a task. That said we've now got the site prepared ready for the erection of the shed tomorrow, using four of our ample collection of old pallets as the base. The plan is also to extend the front of the shed with a 'veranda' using more pallets and old decking that we've collected, but that's a job for another time as it's way down the list. Mind you, when we had our afternoon coffee break sitting in front of the shed site we were able to see the hills of East Wales and the Tyndale Monument to the North (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyndale_Monument) whilst listening to the sounds of sheep bleating in the field next door, so this could be a great place to escape to with a cuppa in future and may have to be propelled up the 'To do' list.

Meanwhile the veg plot is continuing to provide a plentiful supply of potatoes, beetroot, courgettes and beans to accompany the pot grown salad leaves and tomatoes.

Glazed

2010-08-01T14:22:00.000-07:00

The greenhouse is now full of glass. Okay, so one panel is plywood to replace a long broken piece of glass and a couple of other panes are cracked. But other than these all the glass is in place so we've started relocating plants into it. A couple of chilli plants that were in the kitchen-diner are rehoused, with their fruit turning red as a result, along with most of our tomato plants. Thanks to the sunny dry summer we've managed to grow a decent amount of tomatoes outside against a south facing wall with the first fruit just ripening - and now with the greenhouse this should speed up.

Over the past few winters the lack of a greenhouse has resulted in us losing a few tender plants, mostly fuschias, but also a few pelargoniums and even a tree fern. Hopefully the greenhouse will help to prevent this in future.

We've also cleared a huge patch of brambles and blackthorn so that we can erect the new shed. With a few weeks of clear evenings we may be able to get this sorted soon, and then relocate the log store before autumn arrives. It'll also mean we can then finally say goodbye to the old woodshed that lurks beneath the horse-chestnut tree.

Digging in the dirt

2010-07-26T14:47:00.000-07:00

The builders filled several skips of rubble and other rubbish during the build. In order to limit what they sent 'away' to landfill in the skips we kept an eye on what they disposed of, especially easily recyclable cans and plastic bottles, timber that we could reuse or burn, and bricks or other hardcore that could be reused somewhere in the garden.

As a result of this we've been left with a huge mound of rubble to the side of the house that has been earmarked to provide a base for the terrace at the rear of the house. With the builders having left site almost a year ago now the mound has become a familiar site as we approach the front door, so much so we've hardly noticed it of late. With the plan to order materials for the terrace before the summer is over, we decided it was time to tackle the mound at the weekend.

We'd hoped that the builders had taken on board our request to segregate waste and that it would just be a pile of bricks, blockwork, tiles and other debris from the cutting the holes into the rear of the house. Unfortunately, when we disturbed the mound during the heat of the weekend the smell we encountered confirmed that wasn't the case. Not that we found any food waste, or worse, in the mound. It was all debris from the house. Mostly it was inert rubble (bricks, broken tiles and blockwork) with some pieces of metal, small amounts of plastic (broken lightswitches etc), none of which would have been decomposing to produce the smell. The two offending items we found though were wood and plasterboard. Both of the latter produce gases as they biodegrade, with plasterboard a particular problem in landfill sites where it results in hydrogen sulphide being produced. Not something we want in our garden, and certainly not under the terrace!

So our afternoon of moving the rubble mound to the rear of the house also entailed a sifting of the waste so that we didn't rebury the offending items. Instead yet another bonfire pile has appeared, the metal recycling heap is larger than it was, and with a pang of guilt we sent the plasterboard 'away' in our black wheelie bin. But at least the mound has diminished and we can now measure up to see what additional hardcore we need to bring in to provide the base for the terrace.

Greenhouse

2010-07-21T14:53:00.000-07:00

We'd been looking for a second-hand greenhouse on Freecycle for while when friends (Jess & Yinka) mentioned in passing that their new house came with a 6' by 8' greenhouse that they didn't want. Not something that would go well with their 6 year old son and his desire to kick a football!

So a couple of months ago, just after they moved in, we visited them armed with spanners etc and dismantled the aluminium framed greenhouse. The iPhone captured a few key photos and mother-in-law (who was visiting that weekend), sketched the general layout of the frame whilst C stuck labels onto the structural parts.

Since then the structure has lain in the 'allotment' waiting for us to build a base. We finally did this last weekend using old bricks, patio slabs and crushed plant pots for hardcore. So we were able to start putting the frame up,only to find most of the labels had faded, the sketches didn't capture all the relevant details and the iPhone pics weren't as clear as I'd hoped!

However, some common sense and a couple of bags of new bolts later (to replace those that'd sheared off) the frame is now up. We just need to rescue the glazing from the advancing brambles before cleaning it off and putting it into the frame so that we have a sun trap for our tender plants. It'll also be a place to ripen off any tomatoes if the rain that has appeared over the past week persists for the rest of the summer.

Best laid plans...

2010-07-20T14:31:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I didn't quite finish off the installing the solar thermal system after my last post. With the system all pressure tested and leak free I installed 6 of the evacuated tubes to see what effect they would have for starters. As the tubes can be damaged if left in the sun without the heat being taken away I didn't want to risk damaging the full complement of 30.

It was probably just as well as an annoying intermittent electrical fault plagued me for a few weeks! This meant several fuses blew, some 3 amp from the fused spur supplying the TD3 controller, along with a couple of the special fuses in the controller itself. Thankfully the guys at Navitron posted several spares at no cost. Finally I tracked down the power spike to an extra 'stat that I'd wired up, thinking it would give me additional control. The TD3 came with three sensors (1 for the panel, 2 for the cylinder; top and bottom) but I thought it'd be good to use a spare mains 'stat that was supplied with the cylinder. It appears that this was producing a power surge every time the water temp dropped below 60C, blowing the fuses.

All this has coincided with weekends of visitors and a weekend in Dorset so there's not been much DIY time for a while. The last weekend was the first opportunity to fiddle with the system once more, adding a high temperature automatic air vent at the high point, before finally installing all 30 tubes. This proved to be an easy task, just as in the Youtube video. Interestingly it was overcast when I put a batch of 10 tubes out on the roof, and the 15 mins or so it took me to nstall them was long enough for the copper tail on the last tube to be hot to touch, so definitely not something to do on a sunny day.

The last thing I have to complete is installing the final few reflectors, strips of aluminium that clip between the tubes to bounce light onto the back of the tubes to increase the system efficiency. This evenings rain stopped me from doing this. But this is just a final tweak as the system is up and running, generating our hot water for the rest of the summer, and hopefully well into Autumn. So the biomass boiler has been switched off and we can now enjoy 'free' hot water. The TD3 controller keeps a detailed tally of how much energy the system generates, so I'll have to give an update in a few weeks on how quickly (or not) the system will pay for itself.

Getting warmer

2010-06-25T14:31:00.000-07:00

Okay, so time during our week off was spent painting the outside of the house in Lime paint and as a result the solar thermal system didn't get very far. Life since then has been consistently busy (hence the lack of posts) so the system isn't yet fully installed. Not having quite the right fittings and running out of PTFE tape for the compression fittings hasn't helped.

However, I ought to note that so far it's been easy to install the Navitron system. As per their YouTube video you need a couple of people to install the frame and fix it to the roof structure, but other than that it's an easy one person job. I've also completed most of the plumbing and most of the wiring, which have proven to be pretty straightforward. Tomorrow should see me complete the installation, fill the system with water and pressure test it. Then I'll need to dose it with glycol, fill it back up with water and if it's all okay I can then install the tubes. We can then start harnessing some of the fantastic sunshine that we've been having of late.

Hot water

2010-05-19T14:36:00.000-07:00

When we had the new hot water cylinder installed last year we made sure that it had two heating coils, one for heating from the pellet boiler, the other for solar water heating. And finally we've got to a position with work elsewhere in the house being well advanced so we can plan to do the solar hot water installation and use the second coil.

We've investigated a load of solar hot water system suppliers and a while back fixed on Navitron as our preferred supplier. Along with a comprehensive website full of useful information, they supply DIY solar kits at significantly less cost that some of the major solar retailers who want to supply and install systems. And at the end of a long building project we can't afford to pay somebody else to install our solar system so DIY seems to be the best option. So I'm looking forward to seeing exactly how these things go together!

We placed the order last Friday for the solar array (an aluminium frame with 30 glass tubes to catch the heat), pump, pressure system, specially insulated pipework, controller and a few pipework fittings and they were all delivered on Monday. Looks like a fascinating set of bits, but I'm glad it's so easy to get onto our house roof as I wouldn't want to climb a scaffold with the fragile glass tubes.

So the plan with a week off next week followed by a Bank Holiday weekend is that we should have plenty of time to do the solar installation along with a few other major jobs we have planned. Who knows, we may even have some time off!

Whatever happens, the plan is to soon be in a position where we can switch the boiler off fully until the autumn, with all hot water provided by the solar system. I've a bit more reading up to do first as it's going to be important to get the control of the system working correctly. Hopefully everything else will be as easy as it sounds on the Navitron website.

Fire

2010-04-27T04:37:00.000-07:00

According to the lady who grew up in Hillside the old dining room used to have a Parkray woodburner installed, but that was long gone when we moved in. Instead the fireplace was a bare and incomplete hole, with a nasty grey tiled hearth that blended in well with the bare concrete floor. As a result it was never our favourite room. The fact it was always freezing cold didn't help, and the only time we tried using the fireplace was a disaster with the smoke blowing back into the room.

Now in it's new role as the front hall, with the oak door, floor, and now pristine white skirting, the room has a new lease of life more befitting it's place as the entry point to the new Hillside. But the grey fireplace still exists to remind us of how it was. So we've been looking for an inexpensive way to turn the fireplace into something that is more inkeeping with the cottage and it's new decor. £300 would buy us a reclaimed cast iron fireplace not unlike the two that have been retained in the old bedrooms, and less would buy us a new Repro' fire. We've tried to avoid new, after all re-use is the second of the three R's and is fundamental to a lot of what we're doing. Not happy with paying that much for a fireplace that will hardly ever get used we've trawled the 'net to no avail for a few weeks.

Sure enough though, Ebay finally came up trumps and we've located, bid for and won a compact and understated reclaimed fireplace that will look perfect in the hall. We collected the fireplace a few weeks ago from somebody doing a similar renovation near Radstock so were able to empathise with one another on the joys of living on building sites. All we need to do now is source a hearth and we can then install the fire to complete the room. We're thinking of using slate, as we have with the woodburner in the lounge, and once a few other more essential things come off the 'todo' list it'll get sorted.

Solar Gain

2010-03-16T15:13:00.000-07:00

After one of the coldest winters I can remember it's been great to feel the warmth of Spring sunshine over the past few days.

When we designed the kitchen/diner extension we wanted to ensure we captured 'good' warmth from the sun, or 'solar gain', whilst avoiding 'bad' solar gain. Capturing the good at this time of the year is working - over the past few days the extension has been warmed by sunlight that has streamed in via the extensive amounts of glazing to such an extent that the heating in this room has switched off. With large windows on the east and south sides of the extension, the low March sun reaches deep into the room, heating up the limestone floor and other surfaces. The warm surfaces then radiate the free warmth into the room.

All this is great, but what we don't want to experience is the typical conservatory greenhouse effect that blights too many UK homes. As a relatively inexpensive way of gaining extra living space many homeowners add glazed conservatories onto their homes, often on south or west facing walls. This means that a room which is pleasant in the Spring and Autumn gets the full force of the summer sun, becomes too hot to use during the summer months and transfers the excess heat into the rest of the house compounding the problem.

To avoid this from happening with our extension we've incorporated a few key design elements. Unlike a conservatory the roof isn't glazed, so only sunlight at a low angle can penetrate deep into the room, e.g. Spring and Autumn sun. The roof has generous overhangs so that during the hottest times of the day in the summer when the sun is almost overhead, little direct sunlight will enter the room. Deciduous trees on the south and west boundaries of our garden provide the additional solar control, with the bare trees allowing in Spring sunlight but once they are in full leaf they will soak up the unwanted heat of summer.

Only time will tell if what we have designed will work fully as intended, assuming we get a hot summer of course. I wonder which is least likely...

Brushes

2010-03-14T15:38:00.000-07:00

When I cleaned out the hearth of the Ecoflex boiler last month I ignored the couple of lines in the manual that stated you should clean the soot tubes. After all, I've been expecting winter to end for a while now and this was something I'd planned to do once the heating was less in demand.

However, I've noticed over the past few weeks that the boiler has struggled to get up to temperature when starting from cold on days when it's been cold and frosty, of which we've had too many still. This wasn't an issue when we saw the worst of the winter weather so it seems there has been a drop off in efficiency in the boiler. The only likely reason for this, or so I've assumed, is due to 'fouling' in the boiler - a build up of ash and soot which reduces the heat transfer efficiency from the firebox into the hot water. So I decided it was important to revisit the cleaning and get out the soot brush.

When the boiler was delivered the plumber was very quick to give me the brush for the boiler. It's a square wire brush on a 3 foot handle. Re reading the detail of the manual it refers to a short and long brush - weird, we only have one brush.....

Turns out that two brushes are needed to clean the boiler soot tubes - a short one for the square tubes and a long one, almost 5 foot long, for the round tubes. 6 months after taking delivery of the boiler, and with no idea where the original long brush went (if we ever received it), I decided it was easier to buy a new one direct from Nuway which was delivered this week. So this weekend I was able to remove a significant amount of soot from both the square and round tubes using the two brushes. The long brush almost got stuck a couple of times which was slightly unnerving. With the arrival of much milder weather (At last!) it may be that the boiler is finally going to be in far less demand and it'll be difficult to see how much the efficiency improves after using the brushes. Even if this is the case, I'm sure brushing out the soot will have helped heat transfer within the boiler and made it more efficient as a result.

All of this is another illustration of the additional time and effort it takes to heat with biomass - so it's not something to take on lightly.

Scrubbed

2010-02-28T14:36:00.000-08:00

Since my post on Sofa's last month we've eventually become the owners of 25 year old Chesterfield, acquired via friends of friends who are also in the midst of a renovation project, albeit one that has taken more than four years and they've still got a way to go.

The sofa arrived in a trailer looking a very dark brown but we thought we ought to give it a wipe down before using it....

Four washes later, including saddle soap as we were concerned the effect that washing up liquid and water were having on the leather, it looks a lot better and a fair bit lighter. The leather is still a nice dark brown, maybe slightly more tan than dark chocolate. To counter potential damage that the washing has done to the leather, removing the natural oils and drying it out, we've applied a leather oil comprising beeswax and lanolin. Bought from the local tack shop this is used to keep saddles and tack in top condition by feeding them and keeping them waterproof. The latter isn't an issue for the Chesterfield but it certainly needed feeding after the washes we've given it. (I say 'we', but it was mostly C who scrubbed it down.)

So, we're now the proud owners of another great bit of recycled furniture, which with a little more care and attention should last plenty more years yet. After our fruitless searching for new sofas and other chairs that are comfortable, affordable, well made and meet our ethical/environmental choices, it's great to have additional seating that has, with the exception of a few miles, some water, soap and elbow grease, made very little recent impact on the environment.

Service

2010-02-07T15:16:00.000-08:00

One of the disadvantages of technological progress is that you need an expert to maintain and repair things - take a look under the bonnet of any car made in the past few years and you'll know exactly what I mean. This also applies to many domestics appliances. Add in a gas supply, as you would for a boiler, and you have to be Corgi or (as it's now known) Gas Safe registered. This isn't the case for solid fuel appliances.

Our Ecoflex pellet boiler has been running for 4 months now, and thanks to the bitterly cold weather it's been running at full load for much of the last 2! A few fault messages combined with the manual stating that it needs cleaning a couple of times per year prompted me to try dismantling it and giving it a clean/service last weekend.

I was pleased to find that it's pretty straightforward, with cleaning mostly comprising the removal of the burner and emptying ash and other deposits from the burner hearth. We've had some sintering (build up of gravel like particles) due to the ash becoming super heated, but this isn't unusual and as long as it's cleaned out regularly isn't expected to become a problem.

One of the two fault messages were 'check gate', which turns out to be a bad translation from the original Swedish and relates to an LED sensor in the pellet feed. A quick wipe with a cloth removed a build up of wood dust that was affecting this. The other was 'flame detector'; within the burner housing is a glass enclosed thermocouple and the glass had become blackened by ash and smoke. Another quick wipe with a cloth removed this and solved the problem.

I was relieved to get the boiler back together, and even more relieved that it fired up without any problems. So, okay,it needs more maintenance than a regular gas or oil boiler, but other than my time it doesn't cost anything to service. Long may that be the case!

Sofa, so good?

2010-01-20T14:33:00.000-08:00

With the ground floor complete, except reinstating the reused skirting, our thoughts have moved on to additional furniture.

Our two existing sofas have done sterling service over the past 8 years and we have no plans to get rid of them as they're still in good shape, quite literally. Not bad considering they're covered in a cream cotton fabric. Goes to show that it was worth paying slightly more for good build quality from the Sofa Workshop.

That said, with the extra space we now have we'd like some additional seating so we've spent some time looking for another sofa. Not as easy as it sounds, even with the temptation of the New Year Sales.

Our existing sofas still look good partly due to build quality, partly due to simple modern design. We've been able to rule out a vast array of the sofas on the market due to fussy and over detailed design, especially most of what DFS sell. In other stores where the furniture initially looked attractive, such as Next, we ruled out their sofas as they were upholstered in either artificial fabrics or leather with excessive numbers of seams. (We've still not decided on leather or fabric - if it's fabric it'll have to be natural, ensuring it's sustainable and limiting our exposure to toxins. And we recognise that leather production can be a very polluting process even if the hides are a by product of the meat industry, so it's not an easy decision to make)

Sofas from other stores have been tempting, especially with some of the deals that are available, but there's always been something to stop us reaching for our wallet. Usually this has been build quality, as not only is it not financial sense to buy cheap and have to replace it in a few years, it's a poor use of resources.

We've even looked in our local second-hand shop but there's nothing there that suits us - after all we want to be eco and chic at the same time, albeit maybe not quite to Oliver Heath's standard (http://www.ecohomeideas.co.uk)

So three options remain:

1. Find a cool secondhand sofa, and with a friend of a friend getting rid of a Chesterfield this may happen.

2. Return to Sofa Workshop and dig deep into the bank account - we know we'll be happy with the UK made quality product, but it comes at a cost.

3. Find another supplier of UK made and sustainable furniture - Green Woods in Clifton http://www.greenwoodsfurniture.co.uk/ seem to fit the bill so we'll have to pay them a visit.

Alternatively we could just sit on the floor. Not sure all our visitors would be keen on that though.

Level

2010-01-10T14:59:00.000-08:00

We finally completed the laying of the oak flooring in the hallway today. My very sore fingers, partly due to the cold weather but mostly due to cuts from the oak floorboards, are testament to the job of putting the floor down. But, and even without being oiled or finished with skirting, the floor looks great so the minor discomfort is a small price to pay.

What probably took as long as laying the last lot of boards was deciding on what to do with the fireplace that is in the hall, and what used to be the dining room. Old deeds of the house refer to a Parkray stove being in that room, but unfortunately that was long gone when we bought the house. Instead we inherited a bare hole of a fireplace with a raised hearth of anonymous grey ceramic tiles. Combined with the very uneven bare concrete floor, this made the dining room a not particularly pleasant space!

So we've been researching a replacement to the Parkray that will do justice to the house, and that is in keeping with it's age and the style of the original Edwardian cast iron fire places in the bedrooms. A visit to Period Fireplaces in Montpelier, Bristol was helpful but they didn't have quite what we wanted in stock. However, they did give us enough info and inspiration to allow us to fix on a approximate fireplace size and, more importantly, hearth size. This has enabled us to finish the oak flooring knowing exactly where we'll put the hearth, and how big it needs to be. To avoid having a wood trim around the hearth we'll put in a sub-hearth of self-levelling screed and float the final hearth (possibly localish Welsh slate) ove the oak.

And whilst we've not really had chance to appreciate it, at long last the floor in the hall is now fully level, with the drab grey concrete gone from view and replaced by the warm tones of solid oak. Offcuts of which have been doing sterling service keeping us warm in the stove!

Deep freeze

2010-01-07T14:51:00.000-08:00

Work on the house has taken a back seat over the last few weeks. After getting the oak floor layed and oiled in time for Christmas, and with the essential doors hung for privacy, it's been time to have a bit of a break.

The record breaking freezing weather we're having is taking up more time, be it ensuring we have enough wood for the stove or topping up the boiler pellets and emptying the ash at a faster rate than we ought to be. That's one of the downsides of biomass, higher maintenance especially when it's colder than is normal for the UK.

In the brief moments I've had to enjoy the snow that surrounds Hillside, when I've not been at work, it's been interesting to see signs of the nocturnal wildlife, especially the deer tracks outside the front of the garage.

Last month I mentioned that we'd survived -6C without the harvested rainwater pipework freezing where it runs above ground for a couple of metres. Unfortunately last nights -8C and a full day of sub-zero temperatures finally caused the system to freeze up so we can't use it for flushing the WCs. Hopefully no damage has been done, and at least we still have mains water so can top-up the cisterns manually, although I suppose we really ought to be out collecting snow to fill the cisterns. Maybe not tonight...

Winning Bronze

2009-12-27T08:23:00.000-08:00

We've had our first Christmas at the new Hillside. Not as full a house as we'd envisaged months ago, but with the house not quite complete it's probably just as well.

Even though there were only four of us for Christmas dinner we decided to stick with the UK tradition of turkey. This hasn't been my favourite meal of Christmases past. So to avoid the all too often bland, dry and white supermarket variety we've splashed out on a bronze Copas turkey from our favourite Chipping Sodbury butcher.

Aside from the ethics - all Copas turkeys are traditional breeds that are free range and slow grown without growth promoters ( 5 months versus intensive 2 months) - there's a lot to recommend them as the end result is fantastic. I never eaten such tasty turkey. Nodoubt a result of the breed of bird, the non intensive rearing and the fact that they are hung for two weeks prior to delivery. And on top of all this the bird is supplied in greaseproof paper in a cardboard box with a simple set of instructions and recipe ideas - no excess plastic packaging in sight.

So the bronze turkey is a hit, and could well be set for a return next year. Meanwhile the stripped carcass is simmering on the hob to give us a tasty supply of turkey stock for the new year. There's no way we're wasting any of this!

Doors

2009-12-22T05:02:00.000-08:00

The time has finally come to start hanging doors! We've managed without for a good few weeks, and with only the two of us in the house most of the time privacy hasn't been much of an issue. However, the in-laws arrive on Wednesday (weather permitting), so it's about time we got a few doors in place.

We've been able to reuse several of the old internal doors, some in their original locations. Solid pine doors stained orange aren't the look we're going for, so we've sanded them back and the plan is to stain them to match the oak flooring. This is something we've done on one door as a test, using clear Osmo oil and a mixture of natural earth pigments, but time has run out on us to get all the staining done in time for Christmas (along with a few other things), so it'll have to wait till next year. We've also bought a few new pine doors of the same style which we'll treat in the same way to provide a coherent look.

The old brass door furniture has gone and is being replaced with more contemporary stainless steel - todate this is only the hinges so we at least have doors hung inplace. Handles and latches are to follow, possibly before Christmas but I have my doubts! In the meantime people will have to whistle if they are in the bathroom - at least there's a door and not a curtain as has been the case todate!

Freezing

2009-12-21T05:02:00.001-08:00

The bitterly cold weather of the last few days has been a good test of the heating system. Designed for a worst case outside temperature of -4C, as is standard practice for the Bristol area, the system seems to be coping. This is despite a power cut on Friday night when a local high voltage cable failed plunging us into a 'brown out' when we all we had was enough voltage to keep some of the lights in the house glowing, but nothing else worked. The fact it was -6C outside at the time didn't help either. Makes you realise how much we rely on electricity - even the toilets won't flush if we lose power!

The combined effect of underfloor heating and a pellet boiler mean that the heating isn't as fast to respond as a conventional gas fired boiler with radiators, but once you get used to setting the boiler to start earlier to cope for the longer warm-up time it's not a problem. Ideally we would also be using the 5kW woodburner to supplement the 20kW provided by the boiler, but it was out of action last night as we were oiling the living room floor, giving the oak it's first of two coats of Osmo Polyx oil to seal and protect it.

The extreme cold (by UK standards) hasn't caused any problems yet, although I am keeping an eye on the harvested rainwater as the pipe from the tank to the house isn't yet buried below ground so is at risk of freezing. This hasn't happened yet despite several days of freezing weather.

On our knees

2009-12-11T14:34:00.000-08:00

That's where we'll be for most of tomorrow as the time has come, after several weeks of acclimatising, for us to start laying the oak flooring.

The flooring in the 'wet' rooms was completed way back in August/September with tiles and limestone to allow the plumber to complete his work. With it being less of a priority, the new flooring in the remainder of the downstairs, the upstairs landing and the master bedroom have been left till now. A combination of a delay in getting all the oak planks delievered and various busy weekends have meant tomorrow is the first chance we've had of tackling the floor laying.

As the 1970s' concrete floors downstairs have a suspect dpc, with a risk of moisture ingress, we've put down a layer of bitumen impregnated building paper as a first line of defence before laying a plastic membrane on top. This should give us all the protection we need to prevent damp coming up through the concrete and causing the oak to 'cup', warp and lift. We're not using underlay in all areas as there is existing parquet and chipboard that will act as a level subfloor. Where this isn't the case we'll be using a fibreboard underlay to provide levelling along with acoutic and thermal insulation.

We've chosen oak as a renewable material from maintained woodlands that is also in keeping with the cottage and the floors that it once had, before they were ripped out in the '70s. Properly laid and looked after, with a few coats of Osmo oil, they should provide a hardwearing surface that will last for years.

If all goes well tomorrow we should have somewhere to put the Christmas tree just in time!

CO2 cube

2009-12-03T14:23:00.000-08:00

It seems we now live in a world where carbon and CO2 are becoming part of our everyday language, and that's not just because the UN's COP15 is currently happening in Copenhagen. It's about time.

Cutting our carbon footprint is something we've been trying to do for the past few years and we've taken it a lot further as part of our renovation project. But unlike the imprint my foot makes in the sand, CO2 isn't something I can see.

On the other hand (no pun intended), the amount of treated water we've saved is tangible. Not only do we have a level gauge that shows us how much is left, but you can stick your head in the tank and see what we've collected. Coincidentally our latest water bill turned up today - must do a comparison on the last couple of years.

Anyway, back to carbon - I thought I'd work out what CO2 we're saving and try to visualise it. Using standard factors published by the Carbon Trust I've calculated that since we first fired the boiler in late September we've saved approximately 1500 kg of CO2, that's a huge 1.5 tonnes!

By strange coincidence I've just seen that COP15 is doing just that - helping people to visualise a tonne of CO2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjswDzTKV34

I also like this image of a tonne of CO2 produced by a school in the USA - http://www.energyrace.com/commentary/what_does_a_ton_of_co2_look_like/

It's great to think that we're already saving significant amounts of CO2, but I wonder what we're still creating in the areas of the house where we're not as efficient? And as for travel, which I know is a big source of CO2...I think I better do the maths.

I give in!

2009-11-27T14:31:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again. Yet another birthday has passed, just, so it's time to start thinking about Christmas. Not just a matter of where we'll be to celebrate it, but who do we invite to the not quite complete house, who (if anybody) do we go to see over the holiday and, most difficult of all, what presents do we buy?

The latter has been the greatest challenge over the past few years as we've become increasingly conscious of the ethics of what we buy along with their environmental impact. As I mentioned in my previous post, we are trying to avoid plastics wherever we can, but this can be more of a challenge when buying presents. For example, last year we were told our nephew would like a Ben 10 watch, but when we saw what a huge battery powered lump of plastic it was we decided against it. He still received one, not from us, and probably still enjoys playing with it, but we weren't keen on buying it. We opted for some classic books instead, sustainable and hopefully more mentally stimulating.

Other Christmas gifts are easier to find eco/ethical alternatives for, with Lush and Body shop great places to get the obligatory smellies, and bamboo socks from BAM http://www.bambooclothing.co.uk/ were well received last year from various members of the family.

This year we're looking for a few extra things for the house, and it's good to see more and more new sustainable products arriving. Along with the various eco gadgets and products sold on sites such as Ethical Shopper it's good to see the high street stores getting in on the act. For example we recently saw this chopping board http://www.johnlewis.com/12453/Product.aspx , a hygienic and sustainble alternative to the usual polycarb boards, this is made from 'Richlite', a paper based fibre board from the US which is also used to make worktops.

What would be really good to do would be make homemade presents, such as chocolates or sweets packaged in nice glass jars, homebrew, or even something crafted from one of our many bits of wood! But with all the work we're still doing on the house this is something that'll have to wait till next year. Maybe.....

Not so fantastic plastic

2009-11-17T15:00:00.000-08:00

My childhood coincided with the discovery of North Sea oil and the plastics revolution that it spawned. I can still recall a primary school project where we looked at the 'fantastic' products this newly found oil could be used to manufacture in the bright new world of the 1970s.

Fortunately such things didn't surround us then, and we grew up with wooden furniture, linoleum and parquet floors and carpets made from wool and other natural fibres. Not to mention draughty houses and plenty of playing outside in the fresh air! As a result my childhood didn't see me being exposed to lots of plastics and the phthalates they contain, with their 'gender bending' potential - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8361863.stm

It's very different today with an amazing array of plastics in products you wouldn't think were synthetic. Only last week we bought a couple of coir door mats, a natural product made from coconut shells. The carpet shop offered to sell us another mat that was easier to clean. When we asked if it was natural or manmade the answer was a resounding 'natural'. So we looked at the label only to find that they were made from polypropylene, a chemical derived from oil. So not only it is an unsustainable material (unless recycled from waste polypropylene), but it has also been found to leak biocides (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polypropylene) causing health concerns. Slightly worrying if you consider how many rugs and carpets, and even clothes, are made from this material.

Hence our constant drive to limit the amount of plastic items we buy and use, with the bulk of the materials we've selected for the house being natural, e.g. limestone and oak flooring with any rugs made from wool. This has proven to be a real hassle at times, not only as this can result in us having to pay a premium for such things, but they are often more difficult to find. However, it's worth the extra effort to live in a home environment free from the toxins and chemical residues from many synthetic products.

Think it's about time I went to chop some logs....

Ghosts in the machine?

2009-11-10T14:13:00.000-08:00

With various new bits of technology in the house it's taking a while to get used to a few new noises, albeit quiet ones, that they have introduced. These include a range of hums, clicks and gurgles from the induction hob, fridge freezer, and the loft ventilator (but not in that order).

The most obvious ones, especially as we haven't managed to install any doors yet, are the hums from the underfloor heating (UFH) pumps along with the clicking on and off of the UFH control valves. As the set that is in the airing cupboard is only a few feet away from my head at night it can be particularly obvious, especially when it switches on at 3am, and this is what is puzzling me.

The UFH system is controlled by Polyplumb controllers which act much like a conventional boiler controller, except that they only control one UFH zone. So we've got one controlling the kitchen/diner, and two for the two upstairs zones. They come with a range of preset time settings to suit typical heating on/off times. As somebody who likes to optimise such things I've used the 'User' programme to create our own timeschedule for each zone. Needless to say none of the zones are set to provide heating at 3am, unless they drop below the 'setback' temperature of 11C. Hence being puzzled when I've been woken up by the sound of the UFH working when it shouldn't. What is more peculiar is that the controllers (it's not just one that does this) indicate the hand symbol when this happens, something that is supposed to indicate manual override. So who is it overriding the UFH at 3am and other times....or is it some sort of ghost or gremlin in the controllers? Our plumber can't see why it's happening, so looks like I'll have to do some more testing before talking to Polyplumb to see if they've come across this before.

Pellet hiccup

2009-11-08T14:45:00.000-08:00

I had the day off work on Friday to lay the last lot of limestone flooring, this time in the utility room. Coincidentally the Ecoflex boiler decided to have a slight hiccup that day.

As you may have read previously, we've had to make a slightly 'heath robinson' amendment to the flexible hose that feeds pellets from the auger to the boiler, to ensure that it is straight to prevent pellets from collecting partway down it and therefore causing the boiler to lock out on 'pellets missing'. This has been working fine for the last two months.

So I was slightly suprised when I was greeted by a flashing red light on the room 'stat on Friday morning. When I checked the boiler it was due to 'pellets missing' with a slug of pellets stuck in the flexible hose. A quick shake and they were free, but this was repeated several times during the morning while I was supposed to be sorting out the limestone. Eventually a rearrangement of the fixing of the hose, with it secured on a slightly greater slope this time, resulted in success and a constant flow of pellets.

As nothing had been altered in the first place I wonder why this happened. It may be that a build up of dust from the pellets had collected in the hose, making them flow less freely. Or maybe it was due to a batch of pellets with higher moisture content, again flowing less freely. Whatever it was I'll probably not find out why this strange anomaly occured. But it does reiterate the fact that biomass isn't as straightforward as more conventional gas or oil fired heating. This is further illustrated by the fact that I've just ordered our second tonne of pellets, but unlike oil or gas I need to arrange delivery on a day when I can be here to offload them. Great for my exercise regime but not all that convenient!

Dick Strawbridge is right, it's not easy!

Thermal mass

2009-11-05T14:47:00.000-08:00

A few friends have observed that our kitchen/diner looks like a small church hall, but it's not that kind of mass I'm writing about.

The last week or so has seen autumn finally arrive, with the pellet boiler being well used after a mild October. As a result the underfloor heating in the kitchen/diner has been in operation for it's first full week, and it shows. The floor comprises a concrete slab foundation, a layer of thermal insulation, the underfloor heating pipework, concrete screed and then limestone tiles as the finished floor. Hence the floor contains a lot of mass. The net result of this is that it has taken several days for the cold concrete and limestone to warm up once the heating system has started pumping warm water (At a temperature of 40 C) through it. However, once warm the mass of the floor retains this heat so that once the boiler stops firing it acts as a heat sink, slowly releasing heat into the house, much like a giant storage heater. So despite being a large open plan space, with plenty of glazing, the kitchen/diner is proving to be one of the warmest rooms.

The warm floor is also very comfortable to walk on. Human physiology is such that we are at our most comfortable with warm feet and a cooler head, yet in the UK and other cooler climates we've developed homes that are heated by hot panels mounted on the walls. Not only do these fail to warm our feet but they rely on high temperature hot water which is less efficient to produce. It's far more efficient to produce more warm water at a lower temperature and spread it over a larger area, such as the floor. This satisfies our need for warm feet, uses the concrete floors that so many homes have and keeps our walls free from the clutter of radiators.

Makes you wonder why we didn't think of this years ago...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypocaust

Harvesting

2009-11-01T13:57:00.000-08:00

The rainwater tank has been inplace for months now, and we've been using the 1500 litres of mains water that was put into it when it was first installed to flush the toilets. However, with the recent priority being getting back into the house, and therefore sorting out bathrooms and the kitchen, completion of the rainwater system has dropped off the critical list.

So last weekend I did a temporary lash-up of drainage pipework to connect the downpipes from the house guttering to the rainwater tank inlet filter. This is the WISY filter that is supposed to keep leaves etc out of the harvested water tank. After a dry week I've not had the opportunity to see if it has worked, but several heavy rain showers today have obliged and a quick check of the water level in the tank this evening indicates that we are now collecting rainwater, hurrah!

I need to sort out the pipework properly next weekend, but in the meantime it's good to know that we are flushing 'free' water down the WCs (cost of the tank etc excluded obviously) and not water that's good enough to drink. It'll be interesting to see how we get on with water quality, as the harvested rainwater system in our new office produces brown silty water when it's collecting rain, and crysal clear water when it's off the mains. Time will tell if we have the same issue to contend with.

Ash

2009-10-26T15:58:00.000-07:00

The second hopper load of pellets has almost all been used by the boiler. It's just as well that I therefore had a sudden flash of inspiration to check out the ash drawer at the base of the boiler. Sure enough, after two hoppers of pellets the ash pan was brim fill. Any more and it would've been backing up into the burner chamber - not sure what that would do but I'm sure it wouldn't be a good thing!

So what do you do with a pile of warm ash? After googling the use of ash in the garden on a range of websites I decided the new compost heap was the place to put it. It was easy to get the ash out from the boiler - undoing two thumbturn screws releases the ash pan/drawer which can easily be lifted out by one person when it's full.

Mixed with the usual veg peelings etc from the house, the ash should help to improve the structure of the compost and will introduce potassium and other nutrients into the mix. I'll have to make sure that I don't use too much as potash will increase soil pH, making the soil more alkaline.

Home

2009-10-21T14:05:00.000-07:00

Following on from the electrician completing his work last thursday, the plumber finished off his work on friday when he plumbed in the kitchen sink, dishwasher and washing machine. He also had a few leaks to sort on the heating system, which were completed on monday. With all these finished it marks the end of the builder and the other trades working on the house - what's left is all down to us now!

What it also means is that we have all the services up and running, so we moved back to Hillside on monday, reclaiming it as our home. There's still a load to do, and we're making do with limited flooring as we've only just ordered the oak that will go in many of the rooms, so it's a challenge to keep parts of the house clean.

Now that we are back in the house we can start to put it and the various technologies we've installed to the test. So far everything is working well, and I've only had to refill the boiler hopper once in two weeks, which bodes well. But as it's been a mild start to autumn I guess I shouldn't be suprised. Plus the heating has only been ticking over on a very low setting. I'm now starting to adjust the various control settings, using the underfloor heating in most areas to build up the heat stored in the house's thermal mass. This is already working in the kitchen which seems to easily be maintained at a steady temperature thanks to the low grade heat stored within the concrete and limestone floor.

As the winter sets in and we get used to how the building performs I'll try to ensure I record what open plan living is like, and hope we don't have to retreat to the snug living room and the woodburner too much!

Induction

2009-10-17T14:48:00.000-07:00

As part of the new kitchen we've bought an electric ceramic hob. With our green electricity from Ecotricity this is far more environmentally friendly than using gas (And it would have to be bottled gas as there's no mains gas in the village). But it's not an ordinary ceramic hob, we've decided to splash out on an induction hob, albeit courtesy of a John Lewis special offer.

Induction hobs are supposed to be extremely efficient, as the electromagnetic current they create in ferrous pans heats the contents up directly, rather than the pan, resulting in a very efficient and controllable heat source.

We finally had chance to give our De Dietrich hob it's first use yesterday it proved to be a resounding success, once we'd tracked down the right pans to use - not only is it very efficient, boiling water faster than a kettle, but the heat is amazingly controllable without any of the delay in dissipating heat I've experienced on conventional ceramic hobs. Okay, so it looks like we can't use our old frying pan as it is made from some non-ferrous alloys, but that's a small price to pay for an amazingly responsive and energy efficient means of cooking.

Extract

2009-10-11T14:24:00.000-07:00

You wouldn't think putting in an kitchen island extractor would be so dificult would you?

We bought the island extractor hood a couple of months ago but this is the first chance we've had of installing it. With a bit of forward thinking we made sure the builders put in a power supply and some flexible ducting to outside in approximately the right place. Now that we have the island unit and the hood sorted it turns out it wasn't quite the right place. So I've spent today cutting out plasterboard and roof insulation so that I can install the extractor mounting bracket. It seems to be designed for installation on a flat ceiling, but as the kitchen diner is at a 15 degree pitch this doesn't work, so I've had to cut out some of the roof lining so the bracket can be recessed. This gives the illusion of the ducting disappearing into the ceiling.

Fortunately I managed to find a batten to fix half the bracket to, and for the other half was able to find space to install a new batten. The true test will come when I connect the extractor canopy, which due to a commitment tomorrow night, wont be until Tuesday evening. Time will tell!

Oiled

2009-10-10T14:38:00.000-07:00

The oak worktops arrived last friday. Thankfully the guys at Burbage Joinery delivered them as the one for the kitchen island is rather heavy. With wide staves, 100mm or so, and no joints along the length, they make a great looking worktop.

Last weekend I cut out the hole for the sink. with a little trepidation as I didn't want to make a mess of it. No way we we're getting replacement worktops if I did! Thankfully with a little help from a borrowed Makita circular saw that could through cut the 40mm oak it wasn't difficult, but did take a fair bit of time and care. Each cut took several attempts to cut all the way through with the blade running very hot, so much so it was charring some of the sawdust as it came out!

Did a similar job with the island worktop yesterday, with the cutout for the induction hob. So we can now oil the island worktop - we oiled the sink section earlier this week using Osmo oil, a translucent, natural and solvent free oil that should both protect the wood from water and also helps to emphasise the natural grain.

We've also applied the oil to the original floorboards in the front bedrooms. With one, where the boards had been sanded back to the original honeyed pine, we applied clear oil. On the other, where the floorboards are darker through a combination of various stains and paints, we've used some of the Nutshell pigments to make a darker oil which has given the floor the look of old oak. Looks a bit rustic, but it fits in well with our approach of keeping the style of the two original bedrooms more in keeping with the 100 year old cottage, to contrast with the modern extensions.

Zero carbon

2009-10-01T14:20:00.000-07:00

By pure coincidence on 'central heating day' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8283796.stm) we fired up the wood pellet boiler, so with our electricity supplied via renewable sources and now our heating from burning wood, Hillside can safely be classed as Zero Carbon!(okay, so there is embedded energy in the various materials, but from a heating & hot water perspective it is minimal so the house can be classed as zero carbon).

My initial concerns about being an early adopter of domestic biomass heating have largely been put to rest. Time will tell if maintenance proves to be an issue.

The Ecoflex boiler was very easy to commission. The first challenge was to convert the controls menu on the boiler into English from the factory set German, but this didn't take long. A few minor tweaks on the controls options and we were off, hitting the start button on the boiler. The screw feed auger then started turning to transport the pellets from the hopper to the boiler, but as it was the first fill of the auger it kept timing out as the boiler wasn't sensing any pellets arriving. 20 minutes or so, and several overrides later, and the pellets started dropping into the boiler, and a few minutes after that we finally got ignition. A problem with an airlock in the hot water circuit meant some work by the plumber to get the circulation working, but once that was resolved we had hot water and heating being delivered to the house.

A couple of minor teething issues have cropped up though that I need to resolve:

The auger feeds a ribbed piece of hose that directs the pellets into the boiler burner. Whilst it's a a fairly steep angle it was originally installed with a slight sag in it. This, and the internal ribs in the hose, resulted in pellets collecting partway down the tube causing the boiler to lock out due to no fuel. We'll have to modify the auger/hose arrangement to ensure the hose is as straight and steep as possible, in the meantime we've tied it inplace and this seems to be doing the trick.
The boiler setup provides hot water as a priority and only supplies heating once the hot water demand is satisfied. I can see this could be annoying at times so need to see if there is a way to have the hot water and heating circuits running at the same time - it may be I have to call the technical guys at Nuway.

Other than that though we're really impressed with the boiler and it's controls. It'll take a while getting used to the advanced system, with weather compensation (i.e. the heating temperature is linked to the external temperature) and night setback, plus the separate controls for the underfloor heating circuits, but should give us a very efficient and controllable heating system.

And best of all we've cut our use of fossil fuels - bring on the rise in oil prices!

Blind ignorance

2009-09-29T14:29:00.000-07:00

When we first moved into Hillside we bought a couple of wooden venetian blinds for the front windows. We made a point of not buying the (cheaper) plastic version.

To help with privacy, and maintain the impression that we were still in the house during the build, we left the blinds in place despite the dust and muck that the builders were throwing about. In hindsight we should've taken them down much sooner as we were planning on reusing them, after all part of our eco-ethos is to minimise what we throw 'away' into landfill. (To quote Bridget Strawbridge 'there is no such thing as 'away''!)

Now that we're at the stage of starting to re-dress the windows we've dug out the rather filthy blinds to see what we can salvage. With some soapy hot water the slats have cleaned relatively easily, as has most of the cord. Even on the blind most soiled by brick dust, we've been able to wash the cords back to the original white. The only thing that has so far eluded us is getting replacement box brackets as the builders managed to discard them somewhere when they removed the blinds.

You'd think getting replacement brackets was easy. Alas it isn't. Even Google has failed us as it seems that our disposable culture even extends to blinds - if a bit is missing or broken you replace the whole thing and buy a new one. We don't want to do this, so are still looking for white (ideally) brackets so that we can reuse what are perfectly good venetian blinds. So if you have any spare brackets lying around in a drawer, or shed etc, let me know.

Kitchen

2009-09-21T14:31:00.000-07:00

Now that the bathrooms are all up and running (just the small matter of boxing in to complete) we've been able to start sorting out the kitchen.

You may recall from one of my posts back in March that we've bought new cabinets for 1/3 of the kitchen, the island is second hand and we'd planned on reusing some of the old cabinets for the rest. This weekend was the first opportunity we've had to start putting the cabinets in place, prior to the electrician wiring up the appliances. The quality of the new cabinets is very evident, especially with the various trims etc that have been supplied to finish off around the built-in oven. Certainly isn't like installing flimsy flat-pack!

We've also sanded down the old pine kitchen units and started undercoating them. We thought long and hard as to whether they should be restained or painted. Paint won, even though it's more work it should give a more consistent look, especially with the oak worktop. For the past few weeks I've been sceptical as to whether the old, and rather dirty, cupboards would be any good to reuse. But with a clean down, sand, and the first lick of paint, they already look vastly improved and very unlike the greasy units that we inherited in the old kitchen.

Spurred on by the rest of the kitchen I've attacked the reclaimed island unit again with the sander. We've used some eco paint stripper to get the worst of the old paint off so this time the sanding has worked well. Previously the sandpaper clogged up rapdily with gooey lumps of old yellow paint. Not this time, so the parts that we want stripped back to bare wood are almost there and the remainder is ready to undercoat.

Before we buy the top coat paint, for all the units, we've got to decide what the final colour will be. Not proving to be an easy decision....!

Time to light?

2009-09-16T14:16:00.000-07:00

Progress has been good this week.

With the exception of one radiator, thanks to the supplier not sending the correct brackets, the heating system is now complete and ready to be filled and pressure tested tomorrow.

Plumbing in the ensuite is also complete and should be finished in the bathroom tomorrow. All that remains is the kitchen and utility, which is waiting for us to sort out the cabinets, just one of many jobs...

Once the heating system is complete and tested we can fire up the boiler, which should be interesting with the pellets! So much so that our plumber, who hasn't included for commissioning the boiler, is keen to get involved as it's something new and (presumably) could give him valuable experince/knowledge for future jobs. It'll also be a lot less expensive than Nuway who have quoted £500. There was a slim chance this would happen today but it didn't as we ran out of time - it'll hopefully get fired up next week instead, once the final rad is inplace and once we have the UFH controllers installed.

Exciting times!

28 weeks?

2009-09-14T14:55:00.000-07:00

That's what the builder stated in his quote for the work, a programme of 28 weeks. He started onsite a year ago today, and with the exception of a few snags, he only finished 3 weeks ago. I make that more like 49.

Okay, so Christmas was 2 weeks lost, and the freezing cold in February meant that there were a couple of weeks when the brickie could do very little as it was too cold to lay mortar. It seems like an age since he constructed a makeshift 'oven' to thaw his bags of sand! On top of that the builder lost the plot at the start of the year when he had problems with floods in his house, taking his focus off our build. This combined with a chippie and plasterer who were part-time, one due to a serious illness in the family, the other due to having taken on a milk-round to combat the effect of the recession on the construction industry, have all helped to extend the programme way beyond what we were expecting. It's just as well that extending our stay in our temporary accomodation hasn't proven to be a problem.

Arriving at the anniversary whilst still not being back at Hillside is frustrating, but is made far less of an issue now that the plumbers are back onsite doing the second fix. Most of the radiators have been hung and work on the bathrooms is due to be completed this week. With the electrician also back tomorrow to coordinate what he's been doing with the plumber it could mean we can fire the boiler up before the week is out.

There's been light at the end of the tunnel for a while now, but living in a tunnel isn't much fun. At long last we are in the last few feet of the tunnel entrance it seems. We can't wait to get out into the light!

Sickness

2009-09-13T14:08:00.000-07:00

Finally, after months of being bug free, illness has arrived at Hillside. Not that we're ill, thank goodness, as it it would seriously limit the work we could do to finish the build and get us back into the house.

When C mentioned yesterday that she got within a few feet of one of the rabbits that venture into the garden I wondered if it was really that she caught it by suprise or something more sinister. Today I saw first hand, and it confirmed my suspicion, when I found a rabbit up by the veg patch that could only just see me from a few feet away through it's infected eyes. Yes, myxomatosis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myxomatosis) has arrived.

I remember telling my mother, during a summer holiday back in the '80s, about a rabbit that I'd been able to stalk to within a few feet. I got so close I was able to take a half-decent photo with my old SLR and it's small zoom lens - http://www.flickr.com/photos/danrandom-archive/2269603542/ . It was only when asked how the rabbit looked, and I had to admit it had weird, almost closed and swollen eyes, that my mother pointed out that it was almost certainly very sick with myxomatosis. On the one hand I feel sorry for the rabbits as it looks like such a horrible illness, and a nasty way to die, but with some very obvious damage being incurred to the garden plants recently, with tops taken off geraniums, strawberries and sweet peas to name a few, I'm quite happy to see some of the culprits removed. Sounds harsh I know, but then nature is after all!

I'll miss seeing the rabbits playing at the top of the garden and in the horse paddock for a while, but rabbits being rabbits you can be sure the population will recover and they'll be back!

Worktop

2009-09-08T14:51:00.000-07:00

With all our efforts focused on getting the bathrooms ready for the plumbers we've missed a few things off the work schedule. One of these is sourcing the kitchen worktops.

We had hoped to be able to recondition and reuse use the pine plank worktop that came with the island unit, but after sanding it down at the weekend it doesn't look in good enough condition. The burn marks from an iron and saucepan (judging by the shapes of the marks) give it character but aren't really what we want on the island. It may prove good enough for the utility though, we certainly don't expect it to end up in the wood burner! So it's time to source an alternative.

We want to stick with wooden worktops for their obvious sustainability credentials, so granite etc and laminates are out of the question. We did consider recycled glass but the budget can't cope! On the wood front Norfolk Oak do some very nice large plank worktops (we'd like to avoid really small staves)...but their prices are suitably large so that's a non-starter. So C has done some investigating and a local joiner can (it seems) supply a very similar sounding oak worktop for considerably less than Norfolk. So we'll be calling in to see them tomorrow to see what the product looks like. Let's hope they're good as they sound.

Convenient

2009-09-07T14:27:00.000-07:00

I switched the submersible pump on yesterday....and nothing happened. Rather wierdly the pump controller (a pressure switch that operates the pump if the pipework system pressure is less than 3 bar) came wired with a 2 pin Euro plug. Also in the box with the rainwater kit was an adaptor, so I plugged the controller into the mains using this. But with it not working I thought I better reread the instructions.

They quite clearly state that the loose 3 pin plug that was supplied with the kit should be used for the controller...but as it came pre-wired I ignored this. So yesterday I snipped the cable and wired the 3 pin plug on - not really expecting a result as both 2 and 3 pin plugs have live, neutral and earth wires. But rather strangely this did the trick, and the pump works, pressurising the pipework system to almost 4 bar before switching off again.

So today the plumbers have been in and installed the first of the WCs along with the washbasin, giving Hillside it's first ever downstairs WC (unless you count the privvy that was demolished back in the 70s) and running water has returned to the house, we're no longer limited to the tap in the garage. Convenience indeed!

Flushing

2009-09-05T14:59:00.000-07:00

The plumbers return briefly on Monday whilst inbetween jobs. They'll be returning to do most of the second fix in a week's time, but Monday should see them get one of the WCs up and running.

To enable this to happen the rainwater harvesting system needs to be functioning, as it supplies all the harvested water to fill the WC cisterns rather than using costly treated drinking water from the mains. So I've spent much of today sorting out the rainwater harvesting system - this involved connecting the submersible pump in the rainwater tank to the pipework system in the house and doing more work on connecting the guttering to the tank. The latter isn't complete as I don't yet have the necessay bits to connect the galvanised downpipes to the below groud pipework that feed the tank. But the pump is now fully connected, so the water in the tank can, in theory, be used for flushing but I need to test the system and check there are no leaks. A job for tomorrow I think.

One thing I was able to test was the level gauge - the rainwater system comes complete with a remote gauge that I've located in the garage, which allows us to check the level of water in the tank which is currently around 70%.

If all goes well we may have a flushable WC on Monday, even if there won't be a door on the cloakroom....

Floors

2009-08-27T14:53:00.000-07:00

One of the constant challenges with the renovation and extension of Hillside is balancing contemporary design with our environmentally sustainable and ethical ethos. Our choice of flooring materials is one of the many areas where we have had to spend considerable time researching what is the most appropriate as a result.

For the bulk of the house we have opted for UK sourced oak flooring. Timber, sustainably and locally sourced, is by far the most environmental choice with the hard wearing properties of oak making it eminently suitable. But timber in a bathroom is not such a good idea, and for the ensuite wetroom it would be a complete disaster. So for these areas we've selected porcelain tiles. Okay, so there's some embedded energy in their production but they are made from natural materials without a petrochemical in sight, more than could be said for vinyl etc. which is banned from Hillside!

The other major floor material we've chosen, and just installed, is limestone. Used in the kitchen/diner and cloakroom this will give us a hard wearing surface in areas that get damp and/or need cleaning down regularly. We could've used oak, even in the kitchen where there is underfloor heating, but it wouldn't be ideal. The limestone, obviously a natural product, has the benefit of adding to the thermal mass of the floor such that it will help retain the heat from the underfloor heating, whereas oak is a natural insulator and would not have the same effect. Okay, so the limestone has taken thousands of years to be produced only to be used in a house for it's (relatively short) lifespan. So maybe this is one area where aesthetics wins over the environment, but only just. After all timber hasn't got such good thermal characteristics and porcelain tiles have significant embedded energy, neither of which are issues for limestone.

If nothing else this shows one of the many dilemma's we've faced, trying to balance the various pros and cons of our material choices whilst designing a house that shows sustainable design can also be contemporary.

Over the top

2009-08-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

Ever since we moved into Hillside we've been aware of a damp problem in one of the bedroom walls and ceiling. Traced to missing mortar and lead flashing on one of the chimneys, this should've been sorted by the builder at the start of the build...but he had other priorities. Finally this is being addressed.

He has now repointed the top of the chimney and replaced the missing bits of lead flashing. Hopefully that'll stop the water coming in. It's now a matter of replacing the damaged plaster which has 'blown', the salts have washed out of it and it is coming away from the wall.

Sorting out the wall isn't too much of an issue but the ceiling is. Both the original bedroom ceilings are 100 year old lath and plaster, and both are sagging and cracking, so much so that any trips into the loft create more hairline cracks. It's probably only a matter of time before they fall. And so it's time for the last package of work - to sort out the damp and the two ceilings.

We've decided not to trash the two ceilings, especially as the timber structure above is so lightweight and bowing that it would also need replacing which is a massive job. Instead we've decided to install new joists in the loft and suspend a new plasterboard ceiling from these, but below the lath and plaster, to provide a sound and flat ceiling in each bedroom. On top of the joists will be a new loft floor, making it a much sturdier storage space, and with the depth of the new joists we can fill it with surplus non-itch insulation to make the insulation up to the recommended 270mm. This should help significantly in reducing heat loss from the oldest, and least thermally efficient, part of the house.

Glass

2009-08-16T15:06:00.000-07:00

The glass balustrade has arrived and been installed. Not only is this great to see in place, it has also meant one of the last bits of plastering can be completed as the glass 'dissappears' into the wall so the plastering couldn't be finished without the glass.

It could've been seen as more sustainable to use conventional timber balustrading instead of glass, after all think of all the embedded energy used to form and toughen the glass. However, aesthetics aside (with wood in plenty of other places yet more would probably have been too much), the glass plays an important role in letting light into the stairwell whilst meeting the safety requirements of the building regulations. Timber balustrading would've blocked out a significant amount of natural light, making the stairwell a dark space that would need far more artificial light.

As with many things we've done on this project it's been interesting to see how much the builder thinks he knows, when in fact he doesn't. A classic case in point is with the balustrade glass, and the glass in the sliding/folding doors. None of this glass has a kitemark etched onto it. As it should all be safety glass due to it's proximity to the floor the builder's view is that it should be kitemarked - that's what he's told us Building Control will look for before they sign it off. Many other people would be panicking as a result, but not us.

A quick Google and subsequent check with Architectural colleagues tells us that safety glass is required to be marked with the appropriate BS EN number and classification, in this case 12150 Class 1 - the kitemark applied to the previous British standard so no longer applies. So there was no need to panic as this number is exactly what is on the glass, but our builder, probably like many others, assumes he knows all there is to know about the trade when often we are as well if not better informed.

Pellets 2

2009-08-09T14:21:00.000-07:00

In anticipation of getting the 2nd fix plumbing sorted very soon, and firing up the boiler as a result, we've got our first load of pellets. David from Treenergy delivered 1 tonne of pellets to us on friday - they arrived on two pallets that coudn't be off loaded from the Luton van due to our lack of driveway, so we had to carry the 15kg bags into the garage. With three of us on site that day it wasn't too big a job.

We went for the paper bag option in the end - slightly more expensive that plastic bags but far more sustainable.

Will let you know how we get on with these pellets and the boiler very soon I hope!

On the tiles

2009-08-04T13:55:00.000-07:00

We started work on the tiling at the weekend. Nothing particularly eco to note other than the fact that the tiles are perfectly suited to the underfloor heating as they will provide some 'thermal mass'.

The bathroom floor tiles have been laid in an adhesive containing latex to allow some movement, as is necessary partly as they're on a suspended wooden floor but also to accomodate thermal expansion due to the heating. It should've been a straightforward job, but I think our tiredness, and leaving it till fairly late on Sunday got the better of us. Think the end result (minus grout) is good though.

We've now moved on to the ensuite wetroom and have just installed the waterproof membrane . The plumber had installed the Impey wetdeck so all we had to do was install the membrane - after all it looks easy on the video! Whilst it wasn't quite as easy as Impey imply, with a few abortive attempts at the corner detail due to the membrane getting stuck to itself, we soon got the knack and the membrane is now inplace. Tomorrow's job is sorting out the floor tiling which is slightly more challenging than the bathroom as it must be installed on a slope to ensure that the wetroom drains correctly. Our plumber thinks such things are wrong and that showers should include trays but we beg to differ!

2nd fix

2009-07-28T14:52:00.001-07:00

Those of you who visit my Flickr pages will probably have seen that the electricians have retruned and started 'second fix'. This is great as it means the end of the project must be in sight, and it also means that some of the finishing touches are being installed.

For those of you who don't know what 'second fix' is, it's the electricians second (and final) work of installing the surface mounted fittings once the plastering is complete. This means installing sockets, switches and light fittings, testing all the circuits and finally and powering everything up.
So where the plasterers have finished we now have electrical fittings, including the fabulous looking downlights in the kitchen and the LED lights on the external timber clad walls. I can't wait to get power on to see what they look like when illuminated. And if you think external lighting may not seem very eco, we've used LEDs to ensure that they are low energy lighting in the sunken courtyard (see photo). Wherever possible inside the house we'll be using low energy fittings, and while the kitchen downlights come with energy hungry halogen GU10 bulbs we'll be changing these to LEDs soon as well.

LED lighting

The last light fittings we need to source are for over the front and back doors. You'd think it was easy to find a contemporary (but not too high-tech) stainless/galvanised external downlighter with an integral PIR sensor, but it's not. I sometimes wonder if our desire to buy quality products that are stylish as well as functional makes life too hard! Anyway, after too many trips to B&Q and far too much Googleing I think we've found what we're after, Lighting Direct's Luxembourg fitting which I think fits the remit of contemporary but not modern. I'll reserve final judgement until I open the box.

Hopefully another decision made at long last. All we need now is some power...

More emulsion

2009-07-26T14:55:00.000-07:00

Progress has slowed down this week as the plasterer has succumbed to swine flu! Due to the credit crunch he's taken a second job as a milkman which has meant his site hours are limited, but piggy flu is an unwelcome reason for him not to be on site.

Meanwhile, and with some help from Steve & Lesley, we've made progress with more whitewash and emulsion. Ceilings in the landing, bathroom and kitchen are now painted in preparation for the electricians starting second fix on Monday. Without the kitchen inplace second fix will have to be limited in extent but nevertheless they should be able to make good progress.

Plastering seems to be on the critical path....

Emulsion

2009-07-21T14:52:00.000-07:00

Finally, after what seems like an age, we've been able to open the pots of emulsion and start painting! Hurrah!

We're using Auro's 320 white emulsion to start with. This is their budget eco-emulsion and so far is proving to be a good buy. The fresh plaster in the master bedroom has all been whitewashed with slightly watered down paint and we've given the ceiling two additional coats of it undiluted. And the end result looks good. Tonight we also managed to get the kitchen ceiling whitewashed.

Whilst we want to go for a largely neutral paint palette using white everywhere will probably be too much. We're toying with Auros' 'Nimbus' for the bedroom walls.

Still a long way to go, especially as the plasterer has plenty more to skim and sand down before we can paint, but at least we've been able to start with an internal finish.

Veg

2009-07-17T14:57:00.001-07:00

After what has seemed like weeks of warm dry weather, when we've had to make sure the new veg plot has been regularly watered, rain has returned this week. The upside has been that I've not had to visit the plot since last weekend.

So it was a pleasant suprise to see just how much things have grown since last weekend:
The mange tout (sugar snap peas) are continuing to crop well with enough for a few meals each week.
The first runner beans have set with plenty more flowers on the plants so looks like we'll have the first crop soon.
The two courgette plants have suddenly gone mad - last week we had a few very small courgettes on the plants which were (just) fighting off the slugs. Today I found two good sized courgettes to pick with several more following closely on behind.
The broccoli plants are getting to a good size so I must net them to prevent the birds picking the tips. I also disposed of a few slugs that had found the plants.
C's rocket has germinated well, just hope we can keep the slugs away.
A lone lollo rosso seems to have avoided the predators for now...

All in all good progress. Just think what we can do next year when we should have more time for the garden!

Thunderbugs

2009-07-15T15:03:00.000-07:00

The western red cedar cladding has it's own natural oils that give it a 60 year lifespan, but the ultra voilet component of sunlight will degrade the colour of the wood. This is fine for the roof shingles, and it will turn a silvery colour which will help the structure settle in to it's surroundings. We don't want this to happen to the wall cladding though, especially as the north facing wall and those parts protected by overhangs will not discolour resulting in a mishmash of silver and red wood. So we've bought Osmo's natural UV protection oil to shield the cladding from the effects of ultra violet light and help maintain it's colour.

We decided to try out the UV protection oil at the weekend. Maybe it was the high humidity, or maybe it was the smell of a lovely natural oil, but very soon after starting to paint the oil onto the cladding we noticed little black flecks on the parts we'd just oiled. Weird, no sign of black flecks in the oil...and it was then we saw all the thunderbugs landing on the wet cladding, getting thoroughly stuck in the setting oil like a whole wall of prehistoric bugs in amber. There wasn't much we could do about it so we're resigned to having to sand that section of wall back and give it another coat.

We used the same oil on the front door so reckon it must've been the humid weather that brought the bugs out, so we'll just have to be careful of when we choose to oil the rest. With the final batch of cladding delivered to site today (we had a slight shortfall), we'll be leaving the oiling until it is all fixed inplace.

Guttering

2009-07-11T15:11:00.000-07:00

With the rainharvesting system now installed there's one missing link, the guttering. This is obviously needed to collect the rainwater from the roof to supply the tank.

We've endeavoured to use natural materials wherever possible at Hillside, and in particular have tried to avoid plastics, particularly uPVC, due to their environmentally damaging nature. This is best illustrated in our sourcing of timber window frames. But there are some things, such as electrical cable, that you can't currently supply without a plastic element. Our builder thinks this is the same for guttering, with uPVC being the norm as far as he's concerned. However, we've stuck our ground and have specified Lindab galvanised steel guttering to avoid the use of plastics. Steel has the benefits of being recyclable (unlike uPVC) and is lighter and less expensive than aluminium.

On the aesthetic front, galvanised steel also adds to the contemporary look that we're after, rather than boring old black (or white, yuk!) uPVC.

With the Lindab materials now onsite all we now need is for the builder to install them so that we can start filling up the rainwater tank.

Pellets

2009-07-08T14:37:00.000-07:00

Once the Ecoflex boiler arrived in May it was plumbed in and the shiny stainless steel flue was installed. Other than that it's sat at the back of the garage partially hidden behind piles of insulation, spare timber and random bits of unused scaffolding.

With the plastering progressing it's getting to the time of making sure we have a fuel supply setup so that we can get the boiler commissioned as soon as the radiators and other 2nd fix plumbing is complete. So I've been trying to find the 'best' suppliers.

The South West is reportedly one of the best parts of the UK to source wood pellets, with the industry taking off particularly well in Wales. I know from projects I've been involved in at work that the Welsh Assembly have made a big commitment to renewable energy, as we've designed several biomass boiler heating systems for Welsh schools. So I've not expected the sourcing to be a problem.

The key decisions that need to be balanced are ; where are the pellets sourced as we don't want large 'pellet miles', how are they delivered (not in plastic bags please!), and how much do they cost.

Thankfully we seem to have found one good supplier who ticks all these boxes. Treenergy, based in Monmouth so not too far away, can supply in either paper bags or large bulk bags that they will take reuse, and they can supply at the best price we can find. On top of this their ethical stance, and commitment to further renewables such as a CHP plant for Monmouth, is just what we want from a supplier. Sounds like it's time to get some pellets ordered.

Week off?

2009-07-05T13:47:00.000-07:00

We've just had a week off work so chance to get a mixture of jobs done. We had hoped to be painting eco-emulsion by now but the plastering is taking longer than expected, not helped by the heatwave this week which meant it was drying out too fast.

Instead we got a range of things done including:

We collected a load of block paviours for the drive from a friend's parents who have had a new patio laid. This helps with our use of recyced materials and is equally good for the budget!
I installed the ducting and external pipework for the rainwater tank, and the irony of doing it during a heatwave wasn't lost on me. Still need to pull the cables for the pump and controller through, but hopefully the drawcord I've put in won't break!
Sanded more internal doors, getting rid of the orange stain, and started stripping the island unit. We tried sanding it but decided we needed to resort to other means so have bought eco-paint stripper from the Greenshop. It has done a reasonable job so far, but with several layers of paint and varnish on the island unit it's not been straightforward and has required a lot of effort. At least we've not been asphixiated by fumes, but who knows how toxic the old paint is that we've been stripping off!
More render painting - this time to the front of Hillside which makes it look a lot nicer!

Clad

2009-06-27T14:21:00.000-07:00

We bought the cedar cladding for the timber frame several months ago, but the chippie has always had more important jobs to do. However, he's finally started putting the cladding on this week and has made good progress, hampered slightly by a torrential downpour yesterday.

It already looks great, and is good to see the black breather membrane that is on the outside of the timber frame, finally dissapearing after 6 months! We didn't think we'd be waiting that long for the cladding.

Along with looking good (we made sure we bought a square edged profile rather than conventional shiplap to give it a cleaner and more contemporary look), the cedar is another sustainable material and adds a little extra thermal and acoustic insulation to the outside of the walls.

There seems to be an obsession with masonry in the UK, and timber frames are still frowned upon for some odd reason. And it can't be anything to do with a cold or wet climate, after all timber frames are the construction method of choice for housing in the USA and Sacndinavia. Many UK timber frames are therefore clad in brick or blockwork so that they look like a 'conventional' masonry building. We could've done this for the timber frame extension, rendering it so that it looked just like the rest of the house. Instead we thought it would not only enhance the design of the house to introduce a different external finish, but by using timber it offers sustainability benefits. And what's really amazing is that the 20mm thick cladding has better thermal performance than a standard brick.

Cautionary tale

2009-06-26T10:46:00.000-07:00

I've always been a little sceptical of stories of how rife internet fraud is, but now we've become victims it makes you think a little more about who you entrust your credit card details to.

We ordered some euro cylinder locks, keyed alike so we don't end up with lots of keys for the different external doors, from a web based company Direct Locks. Their website looks pretty normal, and I have spoken to people at the company to check a few details of the locks. When the locks were taking longer than expected I phoned them, and after getting their voicemail a couple of times, finally got through and talked to somebody who said they'd check progress. They did, and emailed me to let me know there was a delay with their supplier and advised a new delivery date. This has long since gone past.

Since then any calls to Direct Locks have been diverted to voicemail and the emails have stopped. So I thought I'd see if anybody else has had problems...and wish I'd done this sooner as I soon came across 'net posts of very similar stories. It turns out that they may have been a ligitimate company, but have gone insolvent and are still taking peoples' cash. Okay, so I've only lost a few pounds but if they've got my credit card details....

So I phoned the bank, and before I knew it they'd stopped my credit card. 'You'll get your new one in 5 working days' I was told. Fantastic, just what I need when in the middle of a building project with various purchases to make!

When you consider what we've spent on Hillside the scale of the apparent fraud is thankfully minor, but it's frustrating to lose the credit card and will make me think a little harder about who I entrust my card details to in future.

Sand

2009-06-20T14:28:00.000-07:00

No, we haven't been to the beach even though it's the weekend of the summer solstice and long summer evenings. But sand features in a few of places at Hillside:

We've bought several new pine doors for internal doorways but will be reusing the old orange stained pine doors where possible, but not in their orange state! Instead we're sanding them back and then restaining them with the Nutshell Earth Pigments we used on the front door frame to give them the look of oak, at a fraction of the price.

The builders have started to render the retaining wall, hiding the blockwork that has been staring at us since last autumn. Instead, thanks to the sand, lime and cement mix, we now have several panels of lovely smooth render to look at and give a sense of the Italian style courtyard we want to create. It has a way to go yet though!

The builders tend to leave their mugs lying around in various places on site. Whilst we have water onsite, and they have their kettles to boil hot water, it seems that their preferred method on washing their mugs is by using sand! I've not seen them do it, but they've told C that sand is the best way to clean their tea stained mugs. I'm glad we take a flask with us.

Sash

2009-06-17T14:27:00.000-07:00

After trying to get the semi-rotten sill out on Saturday, with limited success, we fared better on Sunday.

I borrowed a set of auger drill bits and peppered the decent wood with holes making it much easier to remove. The only really awkward bits were either side where the sill projects under the sash box. Some careful use of a chisel, and a fair bit of patience, meant I could lever out the wood. Now all I have to do is find a couple of pieces of wood to fill in the side holes and another to replace the sill, and then get them inplace. Hopefully it won't be too difficult.

The rest of the sash looks to be in good condition. The paint needs a good overhaul - the topcoat has come off in thick sheets in places showing that there is virually no key for it on the rather nasty 70s woodstain beneath. Another sanding job awaits I think.

Wild flowers

2009-06-15T14:59:00.000-07:00

With the old garden having been thoroughly trashed over the last 9 months it's no suprise that it's quite literally gone to seed. When the garden temporarily turned into something resembling a quarry to allow the builders to construct the retaining walls, the topsoil was piled up safely on one side. Once they'd backfilled the clay etc the builders then spread the topsoil, mixed up with turf and a collection of the old weeds that used to pass as a 'lawn'.

While concentrating on the house, with the odd foray onto the veg patch, we've not been able to do much with the garden so the grass and much increased weeds are flourishing. We have a great collection of poppies yet didn't have any before, in true Flanders-style now the trenches are gone! Thistles, bindweed and a myriad of other weeds that have been dormant in the soil have now sprouted up and are making the most of the neglected garden.

Along with the poppies it's good to see a range of native flowers appearing to compensate for the mess, even the buttercups despite them technically being weeds. The best find so far, which was narrowly missed by the digger judging by the tracks a few inches away, is the clump of orchids. Okay so they're only Common Spotted, but they're still a protected species and are spectacular flowers. Finds like this help to offset the annoyance at the amount of weeds that have appeared.

Deliveries

2009-06-13T13:49:00.000-07:00

This week has seen two major deliveries at Hillside. Early in the week we were expecting the oak stairs to be delivered. We've made a point of delaying delivery of these till as late as possible to avoid them getting damage by builder foot-traffic. With the plasterboard going in this week it's important that they have the stairs installed so they can do the plasterboard in the stairwell.

No sign of the stairs though till then end of the week, but when they did turn up the chippie had them installed and wrapped up to protect them in no time. So whilst the stairs are in we can't enjoy them just yet - but it does beat having to climb a ladder to get upstairs.

The other major delivery of the week was the garage door, allowing us to replace the temporary boarding at the front of the garage, or boiler room as the builders call it. Unfortunately the budget couldn't stretch to the eco-option of a wooden door but we have at least got an insulated one, which will help to keep in the heat from the boiler and mean there is less heatloss from the old part of the cottage alongside and the new bedroom above.

I've not had time to 'play' with the door yet but I'm sure there'll be time soon. Instead we've been doing other important jobs such as trying to renovate the only original sash window that is left in the house. The sill is mostly rotten and I dug the bulk of the crumbly old wood out today. Working out how to get the remaining wood out, and replacement wood back in looks like it could be a challenge.

We also sowed a few lollo rosso and beetroot in the veg plot - it'll be interesting to see how they get on with the heavy clay soil lacking a great deal of organic matter!

Ditched

2009-06-06T14:38:00.000-07:00

If you were reading this blog back in 2007 you may recall our problems with drainage. Over the past couple of years we've learnt, with some rather dramatic examples as in this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKYyKWMeIiM), that there's a land drain at the top of the garden that tends to overflow after periods of heavy rain, sending torrents of water straight down the hill to the rear of the house.

We've managed this situation temporarily with a range of impromptu dams and trenches, often causing me to be outside with my wellies and a shovel at unearthly hours thanks to the whims of Mother Nature.

The last few months have been dry thankfully, and we've not seen much in the way of overflowing so have not had to worry about the poor drainage, even if the builder keeps reminding us of how wet the place is! However, at long last the builder has done what we've been asking for him to do for months and has dug a ditch from the land drain, along the hedgerow and down to the road, providing a route for the water that keeps it away from the garden. And thanks to the heavy rain overnight we were able to see that it worked this morning. Result!

So hopefully we can now rest in the knowledge that the Hillside 'stream' is a thing of the past and I'll not be spending any more nights in the garden digging trenches.

Progress on all fronts

2009-06-03T14:34:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy few days at Hillside. Over the weekend we completed installation of the recycled insulation. We also found time to dig over the first bit of the veg plot and setup hazel sticks to grow the runner beans and mangetout up.

Ths builder and plumber have been busy installing plasterboard, the new double glazed timber windows, the boiler and yesterday they finally dropped the rainwater tank into place. With quite a few guys onsite it's great to see things coming together.

And even though it's a little premature, the kitchen island was delivered yesterday, but that gives us time to sand it down and give it the restoration it needs.

Busy all round...hence the brief general update!

Nutshell success

2009-05-30T14:59:00.000-07:00

After experimenting with different quantities of the Nutshell natural pigments we finally got around to applying them today. We've protected the front door with Osmo UV protection oil which has also enhanced the natural grain and colour in the wood. For the softwood frame we've applied the same oil with a mix of black and ochre brown Nutshell pigments and, with some suprise I must admit, the result is great and looks almost indistinguishable from the oak door. When you consider it only took half a hour of playing with the pigments to arrive at the right colour mix I think this is what you call a result. Very satisfying as well, certainly beats choosing the right colour off a paint chart in B&Q!

Work installing the insulation carried on today, but with a new secret weapon. A friend mentioned in passing that he'd used an electric carving knife to cut foam in the past...so we've borrowed the carving knife and it has made light work of cutting the Non-itch slabs. Bear this in mind if you want to install Non-itch and make sure you have an electric carving knife to hand, after all who uses them to carve up meat anyway!?

Insulation

2009-05-29T14:16:00.000-07:00

With the plasterboard finally starting to be installed the time has arrived for us to insulate the timber frame. We considered using thermafleece and warmcell but ruled both out on cost. Instead we're using Non-itch batts (http://www.greenspec.co.uk/html/product-pages/ybsnonitchcavity.php) made from recycled plastic bottles. Unlike glass-fibre the Non-itch is totally non-toxic or irritant and can be installed without the use of gloves or facemasks which has proven a big bonus now that the warm weather has arrived.

With 150mm thick timber frame walls this insulation, which has similar thermal properties to mineral wool, gives us a U-value better than that required by Building Regulations. It also gives us a good opportunity to a by-product of the recycling industry, after all why put your plastic bottles etc in the recycling bins if you're not prepared to buy a few recycled products?

The downside - the Non-itch has proven difficult to cut. A long Stanley knife has performed best but even that has resulted in a fair bit of embedded energy and a few blisters, largely down to my normally sedentary occupation nodoubt! However, we've installed almost half of it over the last two days whilst also sorting out the veg patch, testing the woodstain, deciding on doors and meeting the builder, along with the usual tidying up of site etc.

Woodstain

2009-05-27T15:20:00.000-07:00

The new front door is white oak which we'll protect using Osmo's UV protection oil, a natural product that we picked up on our last visit to the GreenShop. We couldn't afford a white oak frame to go with the door, neither could we afford a hardwood backdoor. Both are softwood as a result. Rather than have a huge palette of wood on display we want to ensure that the softwood door frame and backdoor look as similar as possible to the oak front door. So we've been looking at woodstains.

We thought B&Q and other DIY stores may have suitable water based and naturally made products but it's no big suprise to find they don't. Instead they stock Ronseal and Colron 'extremely damaging to the environment' products. We didn't bother buying them even though being evironmentally friendly has (once again) made life more awkward for us.

Instead we've visited Footprint building in Bristol, as they stock eco-fiendly wood stains and treatment. We've bought two glass jars of Nutshell pigment that Footprint reckon is perfect for mixing with the Auro oil to create the shade of stain we require for the softwood. So we'll try a little eco-paint alchemy tomorrow.

How's your Swedish?

2009-05-27T00:18:00.001-07:00

We took delivery of the pellet boiler yesterday - it's big and very heavy! Turns out that the boiler, auger and hopper are all made in Sweden. As with a well known Swedish furniture superstore, we shouldn't have been suprised to find that there was an element of 'flat-pack' in the delivery!

Fortunately the boiler and auger were fully built in 3D, it was just the galvanised hopper that came flat-packed with a box of rivets, a rivet gun and a set of instructions. Unfortunately, and unlike the Swedish furniture, the instructions hadn't been translated from Swedish. But they did came with a reasonable number of photos, so with some of common sense and engineering know-how we managed to work out what goes where.

Now that the hopper is assembled we've left the plumbers to get on with the job of connecting up the pipework and installing the flue.

Biomass boiler

2009-05-20T12:49:00.000-07:00

The boiler is almost here! We ordered it from the builders merchant a couple of days ago and it's just arrived in their local depot ready for delivery to the house next week.

We decided very early on in the project that we wanted to use renewables to heat the house, and as a ground source heat pump was ruled out due to problems with the slope (and cost!) a biomass boiler was the obvious choice.

Biomass boilers burn wood or other 'energy crops' (see http://www.nef.org.uk/aboutus/energycrops.htm) instead of oil, gas or coal, using a renewable product (after all it grows on trees!) instead of a hydrocarbon that has taken thousands of years to produce. This makes them a great low-carbon heat source.

There are a range of boilers available including some very hitech ones from Scandanavia, with suitably big price tags to go with all the whistles and bells. At the bottom of the price range are UK made boilers that look like they've been made by a few well meaning bearded men in oily boilersuits in a shed somewhere.

As for the wood fuel, some biomass boilers will burn everything from logs down to woodchip. As a result these are manually fed, making them fairly labour intensive. To automate the wood fuel the simplest solution is to use wood pellets, uniform pellets made from compressed woodchip. This allows the fuel to be stored in a hopper and then transferred to the boiler from a bulk storage hopper via a screw-conveyor or blower.

To make life relatively simple we've gone for a mid-range NuWay Ecoflex boiler with a small 400kg hopper. This 'should' provide us with enough fuel for a week mid-winter so we won't be making too many trips to the boilerhouse to refill it - I hope! With a high level of control the boiler will run much the same as a conventional gas or oil boiler - so there's no need for us to manually light it.

It will be very interesting to see how the boiler performs, especially as the nature of using a solid fuel means you can't switch the fuel supply off in the same way you can gas or oil, so controllability of the heating could be fun!

Reuse, recycle

2009-05-16T15:31:00.000-07:00

Along with making Hillside a more pleasant and warmer place to live, we want to be wise in our use of resources, reusing and recycling as much as possible. This was always our intention, even before somebody had coined the phrase 'credit-crunch', and before every TV programme and magazine had latched on to being thrifty and making use of things that would otherwise be thrown away.

This weekend, thanks largely to Brian and his van, we were able to collect 40 paving slabs and a load of decking for reuse somewhere in the garden that would otherwise be thrown away. We haven't decided exactly where we'll use them, but as the slabs weigh 40kg each I'm not planning on taking them up the Hill!

We've also just installed the recycled glass bottle insulation into the 1st floor - funny how it looks so soft and fluffy yet is definitely not something you want to snuggle up into unless you want glass fibre stuck in your face.

Plumbing

2009-05-14T14:22:00.000-07:00

The plumber has been busy over the last 10 days, and his 'first fix' is almost complete. There's now an array of copper pipework weaving it's way through the floor void and walls at Hillside, with a combination of hot and cold water pipework, heating pipes and the pipes that will distribute the harvested rainwater to the WCs.

To allow the plumber to do this we've had to spend a few late nights finalising exactly what radiators and sanitaryware we're buying, and earlier this week we delivered the shower valves to site so they could be installed into the stud-work walls. Great to finally be buying something that's not a basic construction material. That said, we've still been buying some basics - this week it was insulation to put in the 1st floor below the underfloor heating pipework.

Without insulation the heat from the pipes will heat the floor void and the ceilings of the rooms below, which isn't the intention as the heat should be rising into the 1st floor rooms. We'd planned on getting loft-type recycled plastic bottle insulation from B&Q but baulked at the price. So when we saw that they're also selling 200mm thick glass fibre insulation made from recycled glass bottles equating to £1/m2 we thought it was too good an opportunity to miss. It's not as pleasant a material to work with, requiring gloves and dust masks, but as we've got these it's not a problem.

We are planning on using the recycled plastic bottle insulation for the walls of the timber frame, which we'll be buying once the underfloor heating and screed is installed, hopefully before the end of the week.

Shoots and leaves

2009-05-03T14:30:00.000-07:00

May has arrived, and along with it the first of the seedlings have sprouted. Infact only the lollo rosso haven't sprouted, but that may be due to the seeds being several years old! We may have to get some more.

Elsewhere in the garden it's looking distinctly green, despite the building site. Okay, so there are plenty of weeds adding to the green but at it makes a pleasant change to mud! The nettles and brambles are less welcome, and they are something that has had yet another thinning out session today as I slashed and burnt my way through yet more of the bramble patch. Nice to find several apple tree saplings and even candleabra primula growing up between the brambles.

Meanwhile there's been some progress in the house this week with the arrival of the plumber, so we now have some pipework installed. There's a load more yet to be fitted but at the rate at which he's worked over the first 3 days of being on site things should move on very quickly. Let's hope so!

Freecycle

2009-04-25T15:13:00.000-07:00

I've been registered with Freecycle, the website where you can give stuff away for free, and obviously also collect things for free, for a while. Todate I've not got around to using it, as anything I've wanted to get rid of has either ended up on Ebay or hasn't been worth trying to pass on other than via the dump.

If you read early Hillside posts you'll know that we had to buy a replacement oil tank. We went for a second-hand steel one as we thought it was the more environmentally friendly option. Now that the oil fired boiler has gone, and with the wood pellet boiler due to be ordered, we've been trying to get rid of the tank. It turns out that nobody wants to buy a second-hand steel tank, they'd rather have plastic ones. And with the scrap metal market having collapsed recently due to the crash in metal prices we've not been able to give it away. It looked like we were going to have to pay someone to get rid of it, especially as the oil contamination limits how such a tank can be disposed.

A couple of Irish guys turned up last weekend and, after asking, took away some of our scrap metal for free but they wanted £20 to get rid of the tank. We didn't pay them - who knows if the tank would've ended up in a hedge somewhere!

Hence Freecycle. As a last ditch attempt I posted the tank on Freecycle, and was pleased that we got an almost immediate response from somebody who wanted it for their biodiesel manufacture, but it turned out to be the wrong size for them. Another post on Freecycle and I got a reply from Garry who said he could take it off our hands, which he did this morning.

And after spending a few attempts trying to get rid of the tank on Freecycle I'm hooked - with the build budget getting more challenging every day freebies are looking more appealing. Just put a request in for 100 paving slabs!

Sowing

2009-04-19T14:31:00.000-07:00

The garden is still very much a work in progress, and will be for some time with the focus being on the build. However, we set some time aside today to sow some seeds in anticipation of having a garden (of sorts) later this summer.

So we have runner beans (courtesy of Rose the receptionist at work), Basil and cherry tomatoes (Gardener's Delight) and lollo rosso lettuce seeds planted out in seed trays in various places. We've brought the lettuce and tomato seeds back to the annexe in propogators to see if that gives them a good start. The beans and basil will have to germinate without the added protection of being indoors, but I have put them in a very crude cold-frame to help get them going. It should also stop the rabbits eating any young green shoots!

Last weeks bonfire in the bramble patch has done a great job of clearing the ground and provided a load of potash to enrich the soil. Digging it over yesterday it doesn't seem to have too many roots in it so it may yet prove the place to plant to beans if/when they sprout.

We just need to get the digger back to do the drainage ditch before we plant anything out as I don't want that trashing any plants. It did enough of that last year.

Beating the traffic

2009-04-13T14:22:00.000-07:00

Unlike many others we didn't go out for the day today, to make the most of the fantastically sunny Bank Holiday. We did go to Hillside, but I don't count that as 'going out'.

Amongst other things, we (or rather C) finished undercoating the window frames with more Auro paint and primed the new front and back door frames. I finished one of Friday's jobs, which was the removal of a rather nasty 70s hearth in the old dining room. It has now been stripped back to the original brick and flagstone. Most satisfying of all, I spent a couple of hours in the sun cutting back half the bramble patch, burning the cuttings on a bonfire as I went. Not very carbon neutral I know, but proved to be a very effective way of clearing the most overgrown part of the garden.

As we returned back to the annexe after our busy, but rewarding, day we couldn't help seeing the 3 lanes of stationary cars on the east-bound M4. Happy Easter!

Scaffold

2009-04-12T14:54:00.000-07:00

More progress this week, with the scaffold that has shrouded the bedroom extension finally taken down. It's amazing how much the appearance of the new part of the cottage has changed now that it's fully exposed.

We had hoped that the removal of the scaffold would mean the return of the mini-digger this week, but looks like that'll not be for another week due to other commitments. When it returns the mini-digger has a few jobs lined up - finally re-introducing the dry ditch at the top of the hill, levelling off the topsoil, and excavating the hole for the rainwater harvesting tank. The 1500 litre tank arrived this week so we could do with getting it into the ground in advance of the plumber starting first fix.

One thing we didn't need the digger for was removal of yet another body from the garden! While replanting the hedge on Good Friday we found a half buried old blanket which, rather aptly for the time of year, turned out to be a shroud. It was only as we dug the rest of the balnket out from it's shallow grave and were greeted by the death snarl of a canine skull that we realised we'd found yet another of Hillside's previous four-legged residents. Unlike the goat bones which still adorn the top of the hill, which I must collect and give a proper burial, the dog-in-a-blanket has been rather unceremonioulsy dumped in the builders skip. I'm sure it wont mind!

Sliding Folding

2009-04-07T14:31:00.000-07:00

They have arrived at long last.

Back in 2008 we ordered the aluminium framed glazing and sliding/folding doors for the kitchen/diner. They finally arrived and were installed yesterday. I've only had chance to make a quick site visit today, but they look good.

We considered going for a timber system for these windows as well, but decided that aluminium was the most economic even if it isn't quite as sustainable due to the energy used in aluminium processing. At least the frames will be fully recyclable at the end of their useful life, which ought to be a lot longer than that of timber.

Hopefully we'll now get some decent summers, unlike the last two, where it'll be worthwhile being able to open up the side of the house for 'outside-in' living.

Lime and green

2009-04-02T14:45:00.000-07:00

With the final smooth coat of render being to the the bedroom extension this week we've followed the builders advice and started painting the external walls before the scaffold is removed.

We've considered two external masonry paint options, both from the Greenshop. Silicate paint was our initial choice as it's a long-life solvent free and breathable paint. But after discussing the nature of Hillside,and in particular the problems we've had with damp in the original cottage, we've been advised to use a lime-based paint.

So we've bought a load of Stuart Furby's lime earth paint. The paint comes as a two-part system comprising a bucket of lime slurry, which requires a good mix before using, and bags of non-hydraulic lime with the chosen natural pigment. We've opted for 'Pale yellow ochre' which is not dissimilar to the existing cottage colour, albeit much cleaner!

On the new render we've used the white lime slurry as a primer to avoid having to use excessive coats of the more expensive finish colour. As this only requires a good stir before using it's not that unlike conventional paints, albeit rather watery. The caustic nature of lime does mean you have to wear rubber gloves to protect your skin from splashes, along with safety specs for eye protection, but it's good there are no VOCs or other petrochem products to breathe in.

For the second coat we've mixed in the colour which is more of a challenge. We used a spatula that we found in the shed but the manufacturer recommends a whisk which we'll use for the next pot, as it's a challenge stirring the bags of non-hydraulic lime into the slurry. Coverage has proven to be about what they claim on the tin, 1 litre for 5m2, but we do need to do a second coat in most places. Hopefully the old render won't need as much except where it's badly discoloured.

We applied the paint by brush, as recommended, and not by roller. This has undoubtedly made the job more effort but we don't think a roller would apply the lime paint as well as a 'conventional' paint.

We've only done two walls so far but they're looking good.

A lot going on

2009-03-29T15:18:00.000-07:00

The blog has taken a back seat lately as it's getting busy on site - no bad thing! A quick summary of where we are is:

The American White Oak front door and the back door have arrived. They can't be installed just yet as there's too much muck around. But they look good.

First fix electrics have started, and the plumber is due to start anytime soon. The inside of the house is a mess with the changes to the internal layout almost complete, but it's resulted in brick dust and debris everywhere!

The lead valley gutter is inplace so the rest of the kitchen/diner roof can now be covered in shingles and clay tiles.

Meanwhile, the final smooth coat of render has started outside and we've even painted the fascias ready for the guttering to be installed.

There are now loads of questions from the various trades for us so we're juggling being on site with scouring the 'net for materials and visiting suppliers to check that we like what they're offering. So the next couple of days off work, using up my annual leave, will be spent trying to finally source the best cedar cladding along with lime based render paint.

Good to see so much happening!

Restricting the wildlife

2009-03-13T15:25:00.000-07:00

Feel a bit guilty today as we've had a negative impact on wildlife habitat.

Firstly, we've just installed caps onto the three chimneys that we don't use. The caps are made from aluminium, so they're recyclable, and are clamped onto the existing chimney pots. They'll prevent the Jackdaws from nesting, hopefully! As it is the pair of Jackdaws that seem to have adopted the front bedroom chinmey as their likely nest site for this spring didn't look too impressed today when they found their entrance blocked off. The other benefit of the caps is that they will prevent rain ingress into the unused chimneys, and should help in solving the damp problem in the stacks. With the last two years being very wet, and with the chimneys not used, they have seen a lot of damp ingress which has affected the house.

The other habitat that has been destroyed is a huge wasps nest. Last summer it was obvious that a load of wasps were living in the porch roof, but they didn't affect us so we left them to it. This week Paul the brickie demolished the porch roof and exposed the huge, and thankfully dormant, nest. It was full of dead wasps so may have been unlikely to be reused, but not being an expert on wasp habitats I wouldn't like to say. All I hope is that they don't come back this summer looking for a home as they could be disappointed, and a little annoyed. And I'm no big fan of annoyed wasps!

Eco kitchen

2009-03-11T14:59:00.000-07:00

We finally seem to be getting somewhere with sourcing a sustainable kitchen.

The UK high street has proven very willing to sell us plastic wrapped flat-pack units but finding something more sustainable has proven difficult. We've been looking for solid wood kitchens as a result, but unfortunately these tend to be at the top of the price bracket from companies like Crabtree. Don't get me wrong, they're fantastic kitchens made by true craftsmen. It's just that our budget can't cope with the price tag.

But we think we've found an acceptable compromise. We've ordered 1/3 of the kitchen from Harvey Jones, not quite in Crabtree's league but very nice wooden kitchen units nevertheless. All the timber is FSC and they're made in the UK. They even deliver the units pre-assembled and wrapped in blankets to cut down on packaging.

The island will be recycled. We've found an old piece of furniture at the Ministry of Pine http://www.ministryofpine.com/images/kitchens/kitchen_islands/c153front.JPG that, with a little heigh adjustment, will make a gread island unit. We may renovate the existing pine worktop and reuse that in the short-term, depends what it's like once we sand it back. Otherwise we'll be installing a new timber worktop onto it.

The only other units that remain to be sourced are the sink run - we have considered making do with free-standing IKEA units but we'll probably do the ultimate in recycling and re-use the old Hillside kitchen units. Once sanded down, with the ironmongery replaced, and the cupboards possibly repainted, they'll hopefully look great.

So we may not end up with the sleekest kitchen ever,but it should come in within budget and will be inline with our sustainable ethos.