Pic of our house

[DaveBrigg]

Great pictures; that's some project you've got on your hands. Loved the fireplaces. Presumably the more ornate ones were for the owner's family, and the simple designs would have been in the servants' rooms?
(we also have Dr Who posters on the walls :wink: )

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Great Pics Pford75. Thanks.

I would dream of rebuilding that greenhouse now. Question is what to top the walls with - plain aluminium frame or green painted aluminium? :roll:

 

[biffvernon]

Regarding the painting in your bedroom, I don't recognize the artist. Something from the dark minimalism school?

 

[Pford75]

I would dream of rebuilding that greenhouse now. Question is what to top the walls with - plain aluminium frame or green painted aluminium?

The greenhouse was obviously amazing in it's day. It has a solid fuel boiler, which heated water pipes which still run through the floor underneath the greenhouse (no idea if they still work). The floor has a series of perforated terracotta tiles to allow warm air to come up into the greenhouse. It even has it's own drainage and well.

I think if I were to rebuild it, I would look to have it done in timber. The walls which are still standing are flint panels with some quite intricate designs (can't remember the name for creating patterns with flint ) In the far end wall the flint has been used to create a date of 1832. We do have a greenhouse currently, but it's a much more modern design created by the previous owners. It's on the wrong side of the garden (which is a pain given that it's apx 4 acres).

Presumably the more ornate ones were for the owner's family, and the simple designs would have been in the servants' rooms?

Not sure to be honest. We had been advised that often when the upstairs fireplaces were no longer used, they were often boarded up and forgotten about. All of the fireplaces upstairs had been boarded for some time (newspapers reporting on the battle of Tobruk had been used to stuff the chimneys!)

The family which sold to us (was in fact the family which built the house), had probably had some considerable money during the early 20th Century, since there was a lot of work done to the house at that time (and this is also when most rooms were redecorated). I think in some cases, the fashion of this era was simply less ornate and they probably chucked out some lovely original fireplaces

Glad you like the photos...I shall redouble my efforts.

 

[kaz]

What a beautiful and interesting house. Looking through your photos has been both an inspiration and a pleasure (you couldn't have posted them at a better time as I'm 'almost' at the stage of 'give me a new build - now' (totally fed up with the constant jobs that need doing)... but seeing your property emphasises just how unique and full of character the old ones are!

 

[skier-hughes]

You want inspiration, take a look at some of mine here, it'll surely make you want a new build, 21/2 years without a kitchen............
Before and just after purchase in March 2005
http://www.myvideoproblems.com/testfiles/personal/index2.htm
Ever since then..........
http://www.myvideoproblems.com/testfiles/personal/kitchen/kitchenhole.htm

Nearly there, just painting doors to go in the bedroom to the balcony, then we can replace floor, build en-suite, put in fireplace, plaster up and downstairs, build kitchen units and finish electrics........ I reckon at my pace sometime just before Xmas...... but which one I'm not saying

Graham

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I would dream of rebuilding that greenhouse now. Question is what to top the walls with - plain aluminium frame or green painted aluminium?

I think if I were to rebuild it, I would look to have it done in timber.

My comment about aluminium frames was tongue in cheek!

I'll leave the jokes to Penners in future!

I would love such a well organised and equipped (and beautiful) greenhouse as you describe. The Victorians/early 20thC really knew how to do them.

 

[Schoolmarm]

What are the rectangular things on the rear elevation roof pictures?

Are they solar panels or roof lights?

 

[biffvernon]

I should hope they are solar panels. Much better than all those CO2-belching chimney stacks that are such a visual intrusion on the roofline, despite the architect's crude attempt to arrange them symmetrically and add a little ornament. The sleek, low profile solar panels represent faith in a clean green future.

 

[Pford75]

They were solar panels......they were the old kind and not very effective. Coupled with that, there was a persistant leak in the roof under the panels (and the previous owners never had LBC to install them). When that roof elevation was re-roofed earlier this year, the solar panels were removed.

I agree with Biff that they make sense.....but they were ugly and spoiled the elevation.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Thank you for showing us your house. It is a great project of which you are justifiably proud.
It's not often that you see the 'updating' through each era so clearly in any one property, the house is actually almost talking to you!

Enjoy, for many years to come.

 

[biffvernon]

Gosh, you don't often hear of folk removing solar panels. What do you heat your water with now?

 

[Pford75]

Well, the old panels weren't really effective at heating the water anyway. Bear in mind that the house has 6 bathrooms & 4 cylinders....and the old panels just didn't cut it (even on the sunniest of days).

When we had our plumbing done, we did have the groundworks laid for a groundsource....but we haven't gone ahead with that at the moment. What would you recommend? (assuming that I don't want a carbuncle on the house...but that I will probably live here for 30+ years so am prepared to take a long view)

 

[biffvernon]

Recommend? Well I should do something more useful with at least five of the bathrooms. There's only so much washing a fella can do.

Solar thermal is the most cost-effective water heating, especially if you can find some old second hand panels lying about so you don't need to pay for them. The modern evacuated tubes have the advantage of being able to provide more heat of dull days than flat plates but they are more expensive to buy. GSHP is expensive to install and you still need to buy electricity to run it. It ends up like electric heating but at a third the running cost. Better in a new build where you can do the groundworks and install under floor heating with construction rather than retro-fitting into an old place. Solar pv will be good once the government gets its act together on feed-in tarrifs.

And of course go for the low-hanging fruit first: loft insulation, draught-proofing, block up all those fireplaces except the two rooms you actually live in where you put wood-burners, thermal underwear and woolly jumpers.

Most important, change your electricity supplier to Ecotricity

Turn your electricity bill...into a windmill. That's what happens when you switch to Ecotricity. Because for every pound our customers spend on their Ecotricity bills, we spend a pound building new sources of green electricity.

And that's not a promise, it's a fact.

 

[Flyfisher]

Where does Ecotricity get its operating revenue from if it spends all its income on new windmills?

 

[MdB]

Where does Ecotricity get its operating revenue from if it spends all its income on new windmills?

Backers and probably banks. In a rapidly growing market this a common ploy to get market share. You run at a loss with the hope of making bigger profits later. Its fine until the money runs out. Amazon made it work others have not.

 

[Flyfisher]

Or float the company to recover the original investment many times over perhaps?

While I applaud their apparent aims, I thought it a bit naughty to use 'investment per customer' to create their "which green" league table considering they have far less customers than many of the others on the list. The total investment figures are surely more relevant and all the other big suppliers invest far more than Ecotricity (according to their own figures: http://www.whichgreen.org/compare_green_energy_suppliers/green_gauge_energy_league_table/).

 

[biffvernon]

Yes, Mdb, for example the capital cost of the Mablethorpe windfarm near where I live was provided by the Co-op Bank.

Of course Ecotricity are much smaller than, say, Centrica, who are building the windfarm off my bit of the Lincolnshire coast (54 turbines so far and growing). But wind is only a small part of Centrica's business so when you buy energy from Centrica you are contributing to building their fossil fuel projects. Ecotricity only invest in renewables so when you pay your bill you know your money is not being used to build coal fired power stations but will be used to build more wind farms.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

What is the construction carbon footprint for a wind farm, and over what lifespan/total energy generation is it paid back?

Intuitively wind has to be greener than other forms of generation - but they do sit on whacking great concrete plinths and have concrete/tarmac roads built to each turbine. I thought I read of an acre of concrete per turbine?

And doesn't concrete have a large carbon footprint in terms of being very energy consumptious to produce?

 

[biffvernon]

No problem. The Ecotricity windfarm near me, which has 800kw Enercon turbines, has an emboddied energy that was paid back in about eight months. It's a complete non-issue. The concrete footprint is only about 5 metres across. You can see some pictures of the windfarm near me at http://www.ecotricity.co.uk/wind-parks/ Click on the turbine marked Fen Farm and then Construction Gallery. A bit of a mess during construction but the grass soon grows and the sheep now have something to lean against. And they didn't build concrete/tarmac roads to each turbine, just a bit of extra hardcore on the farm track that was already there.