29 Redland Hill (continued)

And last but definitely not least, we have been growing our own vegetables. This has been a mixed success – having lived in London most of my life, the most I had ever done was growing tomatoes in my back yard but when we moved to Bristol we had the opportunity of digging up some of the flower beds and making a productive garden out of them. After planting several sets of seeds at the wrong time and in inappropriate locations, I went on an organic gardening course and this year have high hopes of providing at least some of our vegetable needs this summer. We also have a veggie box from local company Better Foods which fills in the quite large gaps in our food production.

All in all, the project has been a fantastic learning experience for us as practicing architects and although I drive my family mad with all the geeky graphs and monitoring data I collect, they would all agree that the house is a very comfortable place to live. We give tours of the house through Old Home Super Homes– the next one is 11th September 2010 and bookings can be made through the OHSH website www.sustainable-energyacademy.org.uk

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