The garden is growing - the house is about to kick off

Karen has been busy planting out the bed in front of the house. After much deliberation and consulatation, she has plunged in with a virtually complete scheme. Just add a few Irish yews and a box border and be patient!

Meanwhile, I start on my Certified Passivhause Designer course tomorrow - I will definitely get to grips with the energy side of this house after that. We have found our builder and are planning for an August start on the house, so I need to get the planning application in soon, and then get our structural engineer into high gear to get the building regs approval in train. It's all happening now!

PS you can see my lawn growing faintly in these pictures. For someone who didn't own a lawnmower for 20 years, it is gratifying.

It looks great!

What a coat of paint does!

Update for Tom

We installed the ceiling in the studio this weekend - it's UdiSpeed woodfibre insulation board, which will be left as is. It provides thermal insulation under the joists, and is softer than plasterboard and will give some acoustic absorption, too.

The plastering and external render is complete, with a little bit of extra cleanup required.

And the garlic in the fruit bed is growing...

The boys pitch in

We felt we were getting bogged down with some garden jobs, so the boys got the call and responded enthusiastically.

Rob and Ali set the gravel board

Tom builds a custom extension to the fence

Chris came by and showed Ali how to install insulation

Ben begins his path to master fence builder

You can tell the brains from the brawn. Ali, can I have your Autograph?

Tom and I install the airtight intelligent vapour barrier - Intello - to the ceiling of the studio.

Corner detail of air sealing

 The studio has been a training ground for some of the skills needed for the house refurb. Once you reach a high level of insulation, then most of the heat loss is via infiltration, or unintentional ventilation. The Intello membrane is airtight to prevent precious heat from leaking out, but allows moisture to escape the structure in the summer. In winter it is vapour closed, and keeps the warm moisture in the room from travelling into the insulation layer and condensing. It has to be carefully sealed, though. The blue and white tape has a mesh that will be imbedded between the two layers of plaster, which will create an airtight barrier to the walls. On the right, the membrane will be glued to the timber lintel with a special adhesive, Orcon F. The Durisol is vapour permeable, and will let moisture escape in either direction. The Durisol insulation is plastic foam, and will not absorb moisture.

Click to enlarge

Now we get to the geeky bit... the sign of true Passivhaus afficionado is the use of Therm software. Achieving really good levels of wall and roof insulation is easy, but joining them together without a thermal bridge is not , especially in a refurb. Therm gives a contour map of how the temperature flows from inside to outside, and importantly gives the predicted temperatures so you can see if there will be condensation anywhere. Conventionally built houses in Britain with poor ventilation can get mould growing at the junction of the ceiling and wall because of thermal bridging (and too much moisture in the house). More about ventilation soon.

Growing

Karen planted two apples and two pears, and we filled the footpaths with wood chippings, so it's looking more a like a veg garden. K has started a compost trench for the beans, so we are making real progress!

Here's to a fruitful 2011

For our final act of 2010, Karen and I imported 7 trailer loads of quality horse manure from the other side of the hill. Claire, our donor, was delighted, and Karen was pretty impressed with my trailer-backing skills. Forget running a half-marathon or getting a degree, boys, can you reverse a trailer?

Spot the wheel

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The mother lode

We've only just begun

We marked our first year at Redlands by closing up the front of the studio. We got in a pro to frame the window and door. Ben and Amandine were home for an early Christmas and Ben helped me haul the double glazing unit up from the garage. Once installed the internal temperature soared to 18C (64F) which shows that the passive solar heating works! Now I need to finish the insulation and airtightness so we can store that heat.

Love the view - suitable for knitting or making music

The pallets make for an instant porch

All I need is a rocking chair