England may be out of the football, but WE are just kicking off!

Our initial sift of architects was obviously fairly effective as we felt we could have worked with any of them. Three scored higher than the rest on our weighted criteria list (nobody who knows me will be surprised by this) and so we followed up by speaking to customers of all three. This was at the same time reassuring and unhelpful, as everyone we spoke to was really pleased with their relationship and the result. So, that didn't really help with the selection but encouraged us to go for our first choice who had the most experience of the passivhaus type of modern highly insulated construction. He was very challenging - in a good way - in our first meeting, and innovation is something that really matters to us. While we're not expecting to end up with something whacky or modernist, we don't want someone who will just build what we ask regardless but will suggest things we'd never have thought of and challenge what we think we want. So! Our first proper meeting was on Tuesday afternoon, I was quite nervous going in - it's a big commitment, have we made the right decision? Happily the meeting went very well which was a great relief! We'd done some prep around a loose spec and a scrapbook of like/don't like pictures of houses, features, looks which formed the basis for a wide-ranging discussion about what we're looking for and some really interesting new ideas. Main worry remains - can we afford what we really want? Given that we don't yet actually know what we really want, we can't answer this right now! But it seems likely that all of the things on our wish-list would result in a design exceeding our budget. Peter the architect offered a number of suggestions as to cheaper routes to the same end, and he's off to do some initial concept work before we meet again next Thursday, when we're also going to view some houses he's built recently for ideas. Meanwhile our homework is to go back over our initial spec and decide what rooms we really want and what sizes we think we're after.

Water load of rubbish!!

So on the day we completed, I duly spoke to Southern Water to ask them to put the account into our name but telling them we hadn't moved in and needed to keep our existing account in Chilbolton open. No problem they said, keep the bill where you are, no bill due for the new place, tell us when you start renovations. If only... They then sent us a bill for it. I called them. They had apparently processed us as moved in, in spite of knowing we hadn't. They promised to put this right but didn't ever send us anything to suggest they had done so. Then this week, they sent us a dd cancellation/final bill for our current house. doh!! I've just called them to ask why they did this and had to spend another half hour on hold until they admit they've got it wrong but say - 'oh, we can't reinstate the payment because Alan set it up'... Exit Liz through the roof demanding to speak to someone more senior... at which point I somehow get cut off... Finally re-establishing contact and after another 10 minutes on the phone they do admit that as they cancelled it, they can reinstate the payment and they promise to sort it all out and give us £20 as a gesture of goodwill. I icily said thankyou and now wait to see whether they manage to get it right this time. Don't think the local bookies will give me evens though...

Trip to Swindon II

This time they'd found the door-key and the Self Build Centre was open. The aim of yesterday morning's visit was to have a look at and compare some of the bits of technology such as ventilation systems. Which we did. But, as you wander round, it reminds you of all the countless things you have to decide when building a house. Not just big things like construction method, heat pumps, roof type and tiling. But... Door handles! Mains points!! Floor coverings!!! Light switches!!!! (We went into the Potton Showhome and concluded that we will NOT be getting clever programmable light switches as most of theirs didn't seem capable of actually switching lights on.) I think I'm going to keep a list of all the things we have to decide in the house-building process. The worry of all those decisions was quickly smoothed away by a very long lunch with cousin/aunt/uncle which took up the rest of the day... So today we have been working it off first at [current] home mowing the lawn, trimming the hedge and weeding the veg plot, then back at the bungalow mowing the lawn and paddock and spraying glyphosate on the worst of the brambles that prevent us getting to the north-eastern boundary. There's a lot of hedge there that's looking in dire need of trimming - Alan's parents have just arranged to come down next weekend so I wonder... Here's the lawn looking short and tidy - bit different to last time!

And here's the corner of the stable block/jungle - less tidy. Coming back to decisions, we've decided which architect we want to build the house, I'm going to speak to him tomorrow so I'll leave you on tenterhooks to hear who it will be...

A Story about an Exciting Trip to Swindon...

...home of the National Self-Build Centre. We wanted to ask people about various bits of the technology - heat pumps, ventilation systems etc. So after an exciting morning doing my VAT return in the thunder and lightning, we headed over there. Only to be told by a woman stood outside that it was unexpectedly closed today due to the keys not having been received from the new landlord. Hmmmm! So we drove home again. The End

Ow my arms ache!

now done about 1/3 of the drive way.... and there's a patio out the back to do once I've done this bit oh no...

And this is the 'neigh'-bours

Like / Don't Like

Alan and I have been through all our house build mags, looked at architects' websites, taken pics of houses around here and scrapbooked some things that we like and don't like. Worryingly, there are far more we don't like than we do like... Encouragingly, of all the things that we have selected, there is one that we both selected and said we sort of liked a little bit... What could possibly go wrong???!