Technical stuff

Our plot is about 14m. wide and 55m. long,total about 0.17acres or 0.7 hectares. It has detailed planning permission for a house of about 1700 square feet / 170 square metres.
We need to make some changes to the house as it is designed, both to comply with Building Regulations Part M (disabled access) and a few minor things.

We want to keep the upper floor as main living area, and a balcony running the width of the house (about 8m.) overlooking the river.
We shall be building a Potton timber framed house, and have been to their factory in Great Gransden where the panels are built - it is quite a sight!

We have "riparian rights" which means we can fish, and have to take responsibility for anything that happens up to the middle of the river. The river is a tributary of the River Nene which can just be seen in our photo below, about 200 yards away. The neighbours tell us we can get a small boat down to join up with the main river, and make a jaunt to a riverside pub.
There is a nice pub in the village, where I think we may be spending a lot of time!

We have had to get permission from the Environment Agency to build the boundary fence, and that will go up in the next month or so.

Now we are getting interested in the heating and lighting of the building, and making sure that it is as energy efficient as possible (Keith says that if Jacky learned to switch off lights it would be helpful!)
Our friend Nigel, who works for The Energy Saving Trust has helped us with information about ground source heat pumps (not worthwhile if you can use gas). Now to consider solar panels.