To those people who have been reading this blog, apologies for the long delay since our last post. The reason is that the build (and a few other things) have quite simply overwhelmed us.

You’ll be pleased to hear that everything is back on track and we can bring you all up to date with the huge number of things that have changed, progress that has been made and obstacles that have been overcome.

First, a quick explanation of why and how the build has been so time-consuming to stop us squeezing even this most pleasurable of things – writing a blog – into our timetable:

IT’S SERIOUSLY DIFFICULT TURNING A VICTORIAN TERRACE INTO A PASSIVHAUS

Of course, any less ridiculous family would have realised this long ago, and ruled the project out accordingly. Had we accepted it, we may have done that too, which is why we chose to pretend it would be easy and press on regardless. The good news is that, after much financial wizadry (no, nothing dodgy) and perspiration, we’ve come through the nervous-breakdown stage and are now remarkably close to having a house to live in. Well, sort of – the last statement assumes that we:

1)       successfully build 10 triple-glazed, sash-lookalike windows

2)      Take delivery of two sets of triple glazed French doors from Latvia sometime before the middle of next year

3)      Somehow carry a 250 kg unit the size of a tank down the stairs into our cellar;

4)      Manage to integrate our solar thermal tank with our MVHR/heat pump/hot water combi unit

5)      Build a passivhaus standard front door

6)      Close off all remaining thermal bridges

7)      Achieve 0.6 airtightness

8)      Manage to penetrate the zinc roof with metal bolts for the solar PV system 20 times without ending up with a single leak; and, most challengingly of all,

9)      Work out how the hell to build a house that doesn’t overheat in this scorching weather…

So, those are just a few of the things we will be writing about in the coming weeks, along with special features from guest writers on such fascinating topics as:

1)      Paint – unravelling the puzzle of “eco paint”.

2)      Embodied energy – so, what’s the final footprint and how quickly will it pay itself back?

3)      Finishing – what wonderful things are there out there to create a beautiful house within an environmental framework?

4)      Lighting – without the help of a rocket scientist, is it possible to light the house beautifully, affordably and within energy constraints?

5)      Materials – what are some of the other environmental considerations (i.e. non-energy) that need to be borne in mind when selecting materials?

So, fasten your seatbelts everybody and get ready for some serious low energy retrofit excitement!