h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

After planning and negotiations this Spring, followed by long waits over the summer while everyone went on holiday, work finally started on our house a few weeks ago.

First, thick polystyrene blocks (16cm thick) were glued (!) to the outside of the house and then screwed on. The blocks were dark grey and the screws were orange. Very snazzy the house looked under its scaffolding.

Oh yes - the scaffolding. Good job we got the car out before they put it up or we wouldn't have had a car for the last two months. The scaffolding, going right round the house, also sticks out halfway across the drive, making access impossible for anything wider than a wheelbarrow.

While work was going on on the outside of the house, my husband was working away inside (the mess! ) insulating the roof of the cellar and bricking up one set of windows in the stairwell.

Various other people had to be contracted to do things like move the chimney. We had a fireplace put in about 16 years ago but it had to have this steel outside flue as there was no other means of installing a chimney. This was now too close to the house for comfort, with the outside walls expanding by 16 cm all round. Regulations called for it to be moved away from the outside of the house AND not to go through the edge of the roof, which it had done so far.

We had to have some new windows. When a house is brought up to energz-saving spec this is the most vulnerable point.

The weather was starting to get colder and we had the coldest November for ages, which meant that much of the work had to wait for warmer temperatures, as it involved plastering and temperature-sensitive substances. Like water.

The builders doing the main job have been really great, though. Once the insulation was on, the next step was to reinforce the outside skin and, finally, to render the whole lot.

Because of the wet and cold, they haven't managed everything but they have at least done most of the side where the driveway is, and have removed the scaffolding so that we can get the car in and out. By now, our hopes of ever seeing the end of it were so low, that we were utterly delighted at this - it was my husband's ultimate Christmas wish.

Unfortunately we can't put the car in the garage though, so we're still scraping ice off the windscreen. The garage, you see, is full of the new boiler and heating accoutrements. We are converting to a wood pellets heating system. The new system will not have to be as strong as the old one because, with its new insulation, the house won't need so much heating.

So at the moment we have a heating system that is too powerful for the well-insulated house. Outside it's near-freezing and at best unfriendly and wet. But with our fireplace and oversized heating, at least we're warm inside!

We've also plenty to burn in our fireplace, having removed several overgrown conifers from the front garden which were already higher than the gutters, so were blocking the light from the solar panels we had put on the roof.

You may wonder why we are doing all these big projects in one go. In Germany you can get a grant for making your house eco-friendlier and energy-saving, but you have to undertake at least 3 projects at once to qualify for the grant.

It's expensive, but with luck, we shall get the maximum back from the government for our efforts.

Wow, you must feel like building a new house.

Good it's improving. Hope you'll have a relaxed Christmas.

Fascinating stuff. I suppose photos would be out of the question. It sounds a bit like a TV programme here called Grand Designs.

Glad it's warmer, that's a real bonus.

Websailor

Happy warmness!

RF

p.s. ...and happy Hoovermas!

This sounds totally wonderful. Have a lovely, warm Christmas. Are you building a new garage in the new year?

Thanks everyone - no, WS -no new garage - we have spare room, should we get any visitors!!

The temperatures have dropped well below brass monkey level so nothing will happen for a good while yet. It is dry and occasionally sunny, but sooooo cooold .

The remainder of the heating system has still yet to be delivered because, apparently, there is a shortage of steel at the moment. We have the boiler, but the storage tank for the pellets has yet to turn up. We don't really want them replacing the heating at the moment anyway - I fear the house might freeze solid and crack up and disintegrate if they turn off the heating for a day! - Not to mention its inhabitants!

If the pellets(an option we considered before the heat exchangers)arw going in the garage, doesthis mean the car will be permanently out in the cold?

Thanks for worrying, WS - no, we'll be OK. The heating is in the cellar. The tank is just waiting in the garage at the moment to be installed, and for its mate to appear.

Which is a pain in the a*se at the moment because of it being so cold and our 16-year-old car isn't taking kindly to standing outside in the snow night and day.

It froze up well and truly yesterday morning as I was in a hurry to get to work. These VW's have a knack of freezing up in the door locks, so that, once you have finally got the door open, you can't shut it again.

My husband drove me to work with me sitting on the back seat (front passenger door wouldn't open), holding the door shut (back door opened but wouldn't shut again). As he could hardly sit on the back seat holding the door on the way back home, I borrowed some straps from our loading bay and tied the back doors together by the inside handles to hold them shut.

I did this sitting on the back seat, thus almost strapping myself in. Not a very bendy or agile person, I then had to get out of my "seat belt" and climb over to the driver's seat, and thence struggle into a position to be able to actually get out of the car, retaining what little dignity I had left.

It would have been quite funny if I didn't twist my elbow in the process. It's starting to hurt today.

Well - after the cold Autumn and the early onset of Winter 2008 (I think it started in October!), the plasterers finally called last night to say that the weather is - at last !!! - warm and dry enough for them to continue. At the same time, the storage tank for the pellets has turned up at they started work on that yesterday.

Today, three men were in the cellar, installing the new heating system and three were outside on the scaffolding, rendering the remaining three and a half outside walls. It looks like the scaffolding will come down tomorrow!!! Yoohoo!!

We've been ducking in and out under it all winter, simultaneously ducking and stepping over a low bar to get into the back door. The neighbours will also be delighted to be rid of the eyesore after all this time.

When they've finished, we shall have to spruce up the front garden - the wooden fence got all but demolished when we felled the tall conifers that darkened the kitchen window and blocked the sun off the solar panels on the roof.

At the weekend, we can start screwing all the stuff back on to the outside of the house - important things like lights (now the evenings are getting lighter ) - and a house number, a letter box, a doorbell.....