I’ve wanted my own place for years and I can’t believe that I’m about to get the chance to build our first home from scratch.
Up until now I’ve been lucky to live in houses where I’ve been given free rein to fix them up and try out new ideas, especially in the garden. All have been rentals, but I put so much work into them, that they actually felt like mine. Inevitably I’d have to move on, leaving all of my work behind. The excitement of starting a new project always helped me overcome the initial disappointment, as creating something new is half the buzz for me. Having said that, times have changed. I’ve got a family now and a demanding business to run, so and it’s time for our own place and we’re going to do it properly.
To me, choosing to build a home that’s thermally comfortable, energy and water efficient, as well as healthy to live in just makes sense. Furthermore, there are no reasons why a home that performs well should cost more, or be more difficult to build. Unfortunately most homes aren’t designed this way and end up end up being expensive to run and resource drains for decades. This is madness and needs to change. I hope this project helps facilitate this change, through demonstration, information and inspiration. We’re going to share our journey and our ideas in the hope that it helps others build resource efficient homes too. Over the coming months we’re going to produce regular online videos that follow the ups and downs of our build, we will also prepare factsheets on the key features of the project and hold open day events so people can see what we’ve done first hand. To keep up to date with what’s happening, sign up for our eNews and follow the conversations on Facebook and Twitter.