cloughapike

Hi We loved this house and its location in east Cumbria, so bought it and moved in - a week before storm Desmond (2015) laid waste to much of northern England. Near the top of the watershed, we thankfully avoided being flooded by digging a relief ditch from the garden and bailing the patio through the night - what a great way to meet the neighbours! After a year of getting a feel for our new home (damp) we decided to embark on a refurbishment - which has slowly morphed into a full-scale renovation & remodelling project. Ever since buying my first house in Oxfordshire in the mid '80s I've always been renovating and whilst I feel confident in my designs which I know to work well, and being familiar with the concepts of sustainable homes and eco-building, I still feel like a 'newbie' in so many areas of the build process, plus physically no longer can I cope with day-after-day hard labour. So I'm really pleased to have local (younger) neighbours who are builders, and I hope to draw on the expertise I've already seen on this site. We decided to move out whilst the work is done and are lucky enough to be able to stay in my wife's parents' old house - leaving one of the cottages just 'liveable' for me to stay during the working week. It's an amalgamation of two 1850s farm cottages plus 4(!) extensions in a sheltered spot just below the top of a small hill protecting us from cold easterly winter winds but also preventing a view of the Pennines (you can't have everything!). The idea we now have is to demolish the oldest smaller SW extension (little more than a shed yet with '70s planning permission!) and the rear conservatory and build a highly insulated timber-frame extension with an outshut roof to lean-to against the back of the two cottages thereby making their cold rear walls internal. We're retaining the other end extension - just improving its insulation markedly. We're keen to get a mix of modern and traditional by using sustainable methods and materials in the newer parts of the project, whilst reverting to traditional materials in the renovation of the cottages. Whilst applying some of the practices, we don't feel able to attain the standards rquired of EnerPHit but we'll get as close as possible in terms of energy efficiency - insulation and standards of airtightedness. To give you an idea here's a photo from back in 2007 - showing the SW extension and cottage and half of the NE cottage - the Leylandii have all been felled ...