Christmases past

I picked this at random, from one of the 27 Christmases we have spent in this house. This one, our 28th, will be the last. Who knows what next Christmas will be like? We really hope that our house will be built, and we will be settled in it. But given all the delays we have experienced so far, we are not certain!
Last Sunday we held an open house, to say goodbye to our friends in Caddington. It was a very good day, with people dropping in as they found time, and we were able to chat with everyone. This has been a lovely place for us as a family.

Our planning conditions are not yet discharged ( although they should have been, last week). However, we are a tiny step forward, as the foundations are now designed, and have been approved by Anglian Water (whose permission we needed because of a sewer that passes through the site).

A very happy Christmas to all of you who are reading this, we hope that you will be able to come to the house-warming sometime in 2011!

This photo was taken in May, Jacky's father Derick, with his 7 grandchildren. As those of you who have read our early blogs know, he used to be a builder in East Northants. We discussed buying the plot and designing the house with him. Sadly he died on October 21st, before he could see out house built or enjoy having us living nearer.
He throroughly enjoyed 3 family celebrations this year: the two weddings, and a barbecue held for his 85th birthday.
We held his funeral reception at Stanwick Lakes so we could look over the countryside he had loved his whole life.

soon it will be goodbye

Looks like our house is sold, and in the New Year we shall say goodbye to a house we have loved for 27 years and a village we have loved for 33.
The table will come to Denford with us - we hope there will be many more gatherings around it - old friends & new.
We hope we'll look after the new garden rather better ( but this picture was taken after poor rainfall!)
We are also hoping that this scheme - an ambition of ours for 30+ years, and which we have been planning for the last 5 - succeeds.
Tomorrow we are off to the Grand Designs show - first time we have been to one, and it will be interesting to compare to the Homebuilding & Renovating shows of which we are 5 year veterans!

Slowly we move on...

This is Duncan & Katie, who were married on August 29th, and begin a new life together. We too are thinking of our new life together. After a very slow period during the summer, planning conditions are about to be discharged, and we have sent samples of our buff bricks, red decorative bricks and dark red roof tiles for approval.
We have chosen Solar Partner, from Newport Pagnell to provide the photovoltaic cells. We had planned to insert the panels into the roof, so saving on roof tiles. However, the way the flashing works meant that we could have only inserted 6 panels. If we have an "on roof" installation, like most retro-fits, we can have 12 panels. It seemed best to double our output, so that's what we shall do.
We went for an "experience day" at Miele headquarters in Abingdon, to help us choose new ovens & hob. We had a very interesting day, which was recommended by Peter Bews. His family firm have provided a lot of our appliances over the years. We thought that Northamptonshire would be too far for them to continue to look after us, but it is just within their area. We're thinking about a steam oven, so if any of you have any experience of them, please let us know, because we don't know anyone who has one.
Keith has been designing the kitchen layout, and we think we'll have a central island. he will build that higher than the other work surfaces, then both of us will be able to work at the correct height!
John Ciccone from Palladio Design in Woburn Abbey has been liaising with Potton, and helping us order the correct windows.
We are very grateful for his advice, and to our neighbour Leslie for putting us in contact and negotiating a very good price; also Jacky's ex-colleague Cathy, who let us try out her windows so that we knew what we were getting!
One of our next tasks is to source a wood-burning stove. We hope to look at them at the Grand Designs Exhibition at the NEC on the 8th October

slowly we're getting there!

Not that our house - wonderful as it will be - will look like this! This is another timber frame building - The Globe Theatre, taken when we did the "Heaven & Hell" tour.

Since our last post we have received planning permission for the new design.
We have made a number of decisions, although all of them have yet to be implemented - we have to wait until the planning conditions are discharged, which we are now doing.

Our bricks will be "buff" - the colour echoing the local stone. There will be a small amount of decorative brickwork - the quoins & a side waistband in red brick. The clay tiles on the roof will be a dark red, we're still deciding exactly which one.
We don't have to worry about fitting in to the local design - one of our neighbours' homes is red brick, the other pink render, and we are opposite an old stone cottage.

We have chosen our under-floor heating: Nu-Heat who impressed us at the house building shows. They will also install 2 solar thermal collectors on the South East (facing the High St) roof. These will provide some of our hot water.
We are hoping to cover the South West roof with photovoltaic cells, but we have yet to choose a provider. There will also be a couple of sunpipes that bring daylight down to the landing.

Our main heating will be a wood burning stove that we have yet to select, and the heat will be circulated by a mechanical heat recovery pump. We've ordered one from Villavent, and they will also install a central vacuuming system.

We've also been sorting out insurance & warranties and learning a lot as we go.

Still no firm date for breaking ground - but our own house is now on the market.
Last weekend at Duncan's & Katie's wedding, there were so many guests who had known each other, and Duncan & Katie, since early childhood. We are so glad to have brought our children up here, and loved our family home - but now, time to move on.

Planning permission

This is a photo of Keith' practice, taken at his retirement party, at Stockwood Park. The day before, we heard that planning permission had been granted for our new house.

That kicks off a whole lot of new meetings and decisions, which we have more time for now!

We have to submit a landscaping plan for our plot. This has to include proposals about the height of our leylandii ( see previous posts!) the one downside of this lovely plot.

We are making technical decisions, that Potton have to factor in when designing the frame.
We have chosen Villavent for our Mechanical Ventilation & Heat Recovery System. It has a summer bypass. I am learning to bargain, and managed to get a central vacuum system as part of the deal.

We aim to have 2 solar hot water collectors, and Nu-Heat are working out the best siting for these. Then we'll have as many photo-voltaic cells as we can fit on the SW & SE facing roofs.

We have to decide on the colour of bricks & tiles as these have to be submitted for planning. Denford is a very mixed village - we shall be situated between a red-brick & a pink render, and opposite an old stone cottage.

Today we have a meeting at which the very technical issue of foundations will be discussed. However, there's another implication - when the first footing is dug, we shall apply for a real address, and that means naming the house ( no numbers in Denford High St. ). It is narrowed down to:
The Bright House, which is a picture by August Macke ( and also, so Google tells me, a pub in Birmingham)

Gwenver (which means "beautiful" as in Guinevere) and is a beach in Cornwall that our family have loved over many years.

Hazeldene - for the hazels in the garden, and the dene (wooded valley) that gives Denford its name.

It's moving along!

With the impeccable timing normally shown by our family & friends, we have been busy! A trip to France, to buy wine for Duncan's & Katie's wedding, and to catch up with old friends. Before we went, we were privileged to be at the wedding of Simon Bowles & Hannah Pardon, at Whipsnade Zoo, including a trip on the train; it has all been lovely.

So was our visit to the Wolseley Sustainable Building Centre ( above) where we had plenty of time to discuss our particular issues, and see the latest green technology; some of this will be relevant to us; some is more relevant to larger scale projects. It was especially helpful to get calculations on the energy generated by solar thermal heating & photovoltaic cellso help us make decisions.
We also met Mike Wingrove of aca-apex at Leighton Buzzard, to talk about Smart Home technology, and were very impressed by his down-to-earth attitude.

Finally, Adrian, the planning advisor at Potton, has submitted our planning application. The link won't load here, but if you want to see the plans, you can go to: www.east-northamptonshire.gov.uk/PublicAccess and look for Application no: 10/00920/FUL. We should have a decision by early July

The blog has been neglected for a long time as we have been busy. We have been emailing plans backwards & forwards to Claire at Potton and now we are quite happy with them, Adrian has to submit them for planning permission.
I love the brick designs that characterise North Bedfordshire, and have succeeded in persuading Keith that we should have quoins ( contrasting bricks at the corners) and a diamond waistband down the side.
We have been to building exhibitions and asked for quotes for things like underfloor heating, ventilation systems, and central vacuums.
We have also been to Shona's & Phil's wedding, where we built a tower of cheeses ( to get into practice!)
More soon I hope!

Visiting the plot last week, the snowdrops were out round the base of the hazel trees, and were beautiful. 2 pairs of swans came to look at us, and a lot of ducks.
This is a lovely spot, and we are looking forward to having our house here.
We are meeting Claire, Andy & Steve later this week, to finalise designs.
The house will be simple: the main feature will be a full-width living room with glass doors looking down the garden.

Designs

This is the view from the bottom of our new garden at the end of January, with all the geese foraging.

We have spent a lot of January thinking about designs and sending e-mails to Claire at Potton. Finally we realised that our ideas were running away with our budget (this happens a lot apparently!)
We knew that we wanted a house roughly the size of our present one, but designed to work well for us. It has to be pleasant and efficient for 2 people, and open up for guests. Our present house is about 170 square metres (without the garage) so we knew that when we'd drawn up plans at 200 square metres that it made no sense!
We do want a house that is as friendly to the environment as possible and the first 2 rules of green house building are: keep it small and keep it simple!

We are due to meet next week with Potton and with Steve, our project manager, and we think now we have a good idea of what the house will look like, but who knows what other ideas may emerge in the next few days!

We were sorry to miss the annual Denford play. Our new neighbour, Peter, is one of the "resident playwrites" and has written The Ballad of Moonshine Malone with Will Adams. We hope to be able to enjoy their offerings next year.

More in a couple of weeks.