A couple of months in, some reflections…
This blog was intended to tell the story of one house to (hopefully) help others who might be thinking of building their own home. A couple of months after moving in I wondered if it might be helpful to share some reflections. Here are a few of the things I think I have learned, just in case it is useful.
Get the biggest rainwater harvester you can afford / fit in.
I thought ours was enormous, but it turns out that watering new plants takes a huge amount of water and even 1400 litres gets used up really fast.
Don’t expect your MVHR (mechanical ventilation with heat recovery) to cool you down
Apparently this was made clear to us early on, but in my head the promise of a constant flow of filtered external air coming into the house was definitely going to help me stay cool. It doesn’t!
Air conditioning is a massive privilege and I am so glad it survived the value engineering
At one point we took air-con out of the spec in an effort to save money. We put it back in and thank goodness we did. It made a huge difference to those horribly hot days we had in July. I feel that it will help with future proofing too.
It’s a good idea to have a way of cooling your plant room
Ours gets very hot and we are currently looking into whether we can retro-fit some air conditioning. Much better to have done it upfront.
I feel okay about using the air con because we have solar panels
I think I would feel guilty about using it if we were drawing energy from the grid. But, because we only use it when the sun is shining, it is fed from our solar panels and I like that.
Solar panels are very satisfying and a bit obsession-making
I love looking at the app which tells us how much energy the panels are generating, how full the battery is and how much we are able to export. Best on sunny days, of course, but I am surprised to see how much they generate even on a relatively cloudy day.
The right curtains can really help with solar protection
Our double height window really is huge. The solar curtains help keep it cool without making it feel dark and gloomy in our central space.
Choosing the right contractor is key
We were lucky to end up working with GC Interiors.
Having the right architect is critical
I could only really choose one architect given that I am married to one. But, if you are not lucky (?) enough to be in that situation, it is important to trust whoever you go with and to be able to talk to them honestly about what you want. It is your house, not theirs. I’d say the best way to begin to find such an important person for your project is via word of mouth or personal recommendation. You can always ask to talk to previous clients to hear about their experience. A bit of a plug for Adrian James here – I had never seen his work so close up before and he really is very good at what he does!
Photos by Fisher Studios, Oxford.