April 29th, 2008 by Suw
Yes, it’s that time of year again, when self-builders and Grand Designs fans everywhere get all excited about the Grand Designs Home of the Year Awards. This year, the judges are:
George Ferguson (Chair) - architect, writer and broadcaster
Wayne Hemingway - former co-founder of Red or Dead, now specialises in affordable and social design in housing.
Ken [...]
April 27th, 2008 by Suw
Frankly, over my dead body:
Glass dining tables. We have one now, in our rented flat, and it’s a nightmare to keep clean.
Leather tables. We have one of those too, a little coffee table, and it’s also a nightmare to keep clean.
Slate place mats or work surfaces. Slate just sucks up grease and water [...]
April 27th, 2008 by Suw
Here we go with the first collection of Things We’d Like In Our House:
A secret door. Really, what’s the point of building your own house if you don’t build a secret door into it?
Oak beams. So beautiful they make me go all weak at the knees.
A library. Oh yes, definitely a library.
A cat. [...]
April 27th, 2008 by Suw
I’ve realised that, in the course of writing this blog, I am already forming opinions regarding what I would like our future house to have, and what will never, every, overmydeadbody, make any sort of an appearance in our future house.
So, I’ve created two new categories in order to collect these things together in simple [...]
April 26th, 2008 by Suw
I was watching Property Ladder the other day, the show where Sarah Beeny offers expert advice to a couple of property developers which they promptly ignore. The show I was watching included a lady who was renovating a flat in a huge old manor house where the layout was complicated by the fact that in [...]
April 23rd, 2008 by Suw
Here at Kits and Mortar, we’re not just interested in self-builds. We’re not just trying to figure out what ‘green’ really means. We’re not just drooling over episodes of Grand Designs. We’re drooling over I Can Has Cheezburger too, source of much kitteh-related hilarity.
Just remember, it’s important for cats to live in a stimulating environment, [...]
April 22nd, 2008 by Suw
It’s only 11 days until Grand Designs Live opens its doors, and work is well underway on the five houses that will make up the Grand Designs zero carbon village.
According to the press release, there will be an Eco Pod; a low carbon house from the London Development Agency; a sustainable, ready-to-go ‘GlassPod’”, whatever that [...]
April 22nd, 2008 by Suw
The Dilbert Blog: APR for Houses
I like the idea of a standard equation to calculate how attractive a house is in terms of cost, energy efficiency etc. We have eco standards in the UK, but I don’t think anyone really knows what they mean.
(tags: apr housing comparison green standards)
April 20th, 2008 by Suw
The office clown: Toby Young | Money | The Guardian
An abject lesson in how not to do it. Usually helps if you, y’know, plan ahead when thinking about putting up any kind of structure.
(tags: sheds self-build idiocy planning)
April 20th, 2008 by Suw
I’m not the least bit surprised to discover, via HomeMove, that recent research by Velux shows that self-builders use more energy saving technologies in their new houses than anyone else.
Kevin Brennan of Velux explained that the building industry is under increasing Government pressure to improve its carbon footprint and it is the self-builders which [...]
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