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I (Desi) am an Architect and a Passivhaus Designer and my husband Nik has been very supportive although he has no construction background. We have a son Christopher who was born about a year ago in the middle of our renovation, which has made this project so much more exciting
I couldn’t believe when we first viewed the property that we could be that lucky – it was a detached three bedroom house with a single garage on a corner plot. It had great potential to be extended and because it was in quite poor condition – no heating, old kitchen and very old bathroom, stained carpets – it was cheap. However that is what we wanted a property that we can decorate and renovate ourselves – so we bought it with the idea that we will turn it into a Passivhaus.
Since it needed complete renovation I decided to go the extra mile and prepared a project for extension and of course amended the existing layout so the extension feels like part of the house and not addition to the house. We shortly received planning but we decided to separate the project in two phases:
Phase one – renovate the existing house so we could move in an give up the flat we were renting
Phase two – extend the house
When renovating I planned temporary separating walls between the house and the extension so the disturbance from the building works was minimised.
We have done a great deal ourselves with help from family members especially my father-in-law who works in construction to minimise cost
The house was built in the 1980s. It is detached house. It only had one owner and it seemed that the only improvement the previous owners had made was the cavity fill insulation
Full details of measures installed
Great comfort of living.
Lower energy bills.
House that feels ours.
MVHR – the ventilation supplies fresh air throughout the house and extracts moisture from the bathrooms and kitchen but it is completely undetectable. You cannot hear it, or feel it – no draughts , no background noise. However I know it is there especially when I tried to steam up the bathroom one time and I couldn’t , because when the sensors in the MVHR detect moisture it goes into boost mode to keep up.
And the other thing I love about the house – no radiators – they waste space and are hot surfaces potentially dangerous for the baby – and I love the fact that we don’t have any.