I'm doing fiddly bits at the moment, and so are my builders - which is why my posts are kind of all over the place. And I've been ill :(

But in the last 24 hours, the carpenter has done the architraves and the lock for the new toilet, other workmen have put the soil stack in, the electrician has been round to quote for repair to the damage to wiring in the loft, caused by mice. Did you know that mice have no bladders, so that they wee constantly? Nope, nor did I!

My jobs in the last 24 hours have been a little less impressive than theirs, because I'm very virus-y at the moment - I haven't sawn the wood for those kitchen shelves, for instance.... but I did have a tiny little Eureka moment, and at about 10pm last night, I used some rawlplugs already fixed in a kitchen wall - used one for a hook for a teatowel, and another for a spice rack, one of those silvery magnetic jobs, very cool :)

And of course this fitted in with one of my pet issues - use your time! Especially if you've got the energy!

I need some soundproofing too, and I'm slowly getting ideas on that. And waiting for the electrician's quote - of course, I also need to know whether the mice are gone or not - I have some electronic repellents on the go, but don't really know how effective they are. And if I rely on them totally, I'm betting on them for the house not to burn down. Yet more research ....

Recharging. Oh, and Researching.

This has caused me some thought over the past few weeks. We're all told not to charge *anything* longer than it needs - and okay, my mobile has a little signal on the screen that says when its had enough, so I can unplug it comparatively quickly.

But nothing else that I own has that! My handy little mains gadget for recharging AA and AAA batteries doesn't, my cordless screwdriver that has its own charger doesn't, all sorts of things - why not? Is it just that the versions I've got are comparatively old, and they do nowadays? I bet it isn't just that ... but because of this, we're wasting who knows how much electricity in unnecessary recharging. I'm not happy about it, but I can't see an individual solution, apart from doing complicated mathematical equations about current and wattage and amperage and so on, and while I know those words, I have no real concept of what they mean or how to do anything useful, sadly.

In fact, thats something else that stands out - how much research is needed if you're going to go green - its a full time job, no wonder on those property programmes everyone is up till 2am writing letters and whatnot. I've just had the plastering done in and around the 2nd toilet, the upstairs one. And the labourer was laughing and telling me how toxic the dust was..... I have no idea what's in wall plaster, and this is something I should have known, if I'd wanted to have as green a house as possible.

Making the best use out of what you've got ....

I'm in the middle of fiddling about in the kitchen .... there's a chimney breast in there with floor-based cupboards that are mostly, but not entirely fake. The cupboards are entirely empty of shelves, because there's a gap of only 7.5" before the chimney breast starts. But the insides of the cupboards have those little holes for pegs at a couple of points, so I've bought the little pegs (£1.49 on ebay!) and banged them gently into the holes. Now all I need to do is saw some shelving wood I have, glue some readymade cork strips I have onto the back edges to stop stuff falling off the other end, and hey presto, lots more storage - well, the equivalent of one big cupboard, anyway - but *much* more accessible than one big cupboard.

I'm really pleased with this - I want quality in my kitchen, in my whole house, I really want to get over "make do and mend" - but this is a setup thats irresistible. The holes are already there, the pegs are purpose made, I already had the cork strips (a couple of them were used as a minimalist notice board), I have some pva glue thats to be used as plasticiser for mortaring work, the shelving wood was in the loft and brought down when my own insulation was added to what's already up there - it just feels like using what I've got to the max :)

The first political flyer I've received in the new house

Well, the heading says it all. Or most of it, anyway. Its from the Conservatives, telling us of their triumphs of course, though there's nothing directly related to a green renovator.

Two items are of some interest tho:

- in Burgess Hill, some new allotments have been released.

- in Haywards Heath, councillors are "looking at plans for tree planting schemes ... following the lead of London Mayor Boris Johnson. Cllr Margaret Baker says: 'Street trees are a low cost way of improving our environment, reducing pollution and making our town more attractive'. "

I have mixed feelings about the tree planting - obviously trees are good! But they can also be seen as window dressing, pure and simple. And on the other (third?) hand, Haywards Heath is fairly rich as towns go, so why not?

The National Home Improvement Show

This was on at Earl's Court on the 1st - 3rd of this month, and it had a huge emphasis on being green. Some of the free seminars, for example, were titled:

- Greenfurbish Your Home - by Charlie Luxton - I'd not seen any of his work before, and I really liked his approach, practical, down to earth, and willing to literally put his money where his mouth is, in creating a retrofitted house full of best practice.

- An Introduction To Renewable Energy Technologies - I didn't see this one, but it certainly sounds good....

- Rainwater Harvesting Techniques - again, I didn't see this one, I think it clashed (with lunch ... I was pretty tired by then :) ) but I must follow up on that firm at some stage.

- The Clean Energy Cashback Scheme - I have to say, the number of firms offering to give me quotes made it feel like a 1970s double glazing convention.... I was hunting manufacturers, having my own agenda, so it wasn't too bad, but really, without that I'd have been completely lost.

- How To Reduce The Energy In Buildings - I only saw about 60% of this talk, by Mike Hillard, I believe - a real enthusiast, but seemed to be very sweeping and very detailed in his condemnations of various accepted practices without showing very much of the scientific backup - while I was there, anyway. However, I completely support his main point, that implementation of the basics first is what can make most difference: insulation, insulation, insulation, in other words. I like it!

- Period Home to Low Carbon Home. Since my new house was built in 1939 (and I have the date scratched in the mortar of the chimneys in the loft!) I didn't attend this, but I'm putting it here just to show that such a concept exists :)

- Using Technology - to reduce your bills and manage your carbon footprint. I did manage to attend this one, and I'm staggered that they couldn't find a snazzier title than this! Some really good concepts.

I'll transcribe my notes of the best seminars, and the best firms and technologies, at another time, but I have to say, it was well worth going - I might be a little prejudiced, as I got a free ticket and was on the lookout for specific technologies, but I enjoyed it, I met some really enthusiastic people, and I really had a ball.

The other thing that occurs to me about time saving is layers of paint. Sounds odd, I know. But the kitchen I now have has deep dark red over every wall, and its appalling, frankly - when I switch the light on at night, it doesn't make any difference really :(

My sister gave me some kitchen paint - excellent! Brilliant white too, so thats fine. But it needs a minimum of 3 coats, and could actually do with a fourth. And in contrast, a friend came round and swore that the One Coat paint would cover even this dismal crimson in one coat, as long as I did it with a roller. Is she exaggerating? Whats in it that it will give such coverage? I know that oil based paints are not only bad for the environment they make me feel sick for at least two days afterwards.... is One Coat paint as bad? And is *any* kitchen paint bad - why is it more stain resistant, why is it wipeable?

And another green issue in all of this - this kitchen paint, I've been given it. Is it more green to throw it away unused because its not green, or at least use it now that I have it, use the resources that have been taken out of the earth and give them meaning, rather than discarding them uselessly?

Using our time

I've been thinking about this quite a lot recently, both before and after the move. And I'm convinced that good use of our time is extremely green - deep, dark luscious green, actually :)

Of course, permaculture theory said it first, with zones in the garden according to how often you visit each one, and planting to go with ease and accessibility - herbs by the kitchen door, wildlife area furthest away from it, and so on. And they have taken it into the house as well.

But its more than that, its across everything - like the old time management studies, but in a green way - the less energy goes into doing something, the more energy is conserved - either to do other things, or to be left where it is. In relation to time, that means that either we can fit something in (like, going into town and visiting half a dozen shops or banks or charities or whatever) or have the time free (to sit in our green gardens and admire the flowers, or read a book).

The point is liberation!

Getting back on track

Last weekend, I went to one of the eco house Open House events, run by The Sustainable Energy Academy, which is a charity with the following aims:

"finding new SuperHomes, assessing their carbon savings and coordinating Open House events. We also feed into reports on energy efficient refurbishment and offer advice to organisations promoting energy efficiency and renewable technologies."

Sounds good to me. This is the one I went to visit:

http://www.sustainable-energyacademy.org.uk/get-inspired/superhome-locator

It was beautiful. And energy efficient. And light, airy, easy to clean, All Good Things.

I've had lots more paid work than usual this week, so working on my own house has been difficult, but I did combine the visit to the Superhome with a trip to Burgess Hill, to the Wilkinsons there - a very different level of quality, but still, not bad. A steel shower curtain rail, a brushed steel curtain pole for the front door and the associated windows, plus bogstandard, very cheap lampshades to take the glare of some of the bulbs here .... about £37, not bad at all.

And I was working hard on the garden - I'm getting the buddleias back into shape, so they don't fall against the spiffy new fence over the winter. I'm keeping and shaping the beautiful hazel tree, which is home to lots of birds and squirrels. I'm definitely getting rid of most of the rhodendrons - most! in a garden this size, fifty feet long, they're ridiculous, as well as no good for native wildlife.

I plan to widen the southern facing border to plant things that I love - more of that later - and some foodcrops too - but that will have to wait till we've found the drains so the second toilet can be installed, and till the fence is weatherproofed, and we've finished tramping all over the border.

Its a juggling act.

Isn't life strange

Well, was I ever unprepared to move! I thought I'd prepared so carefully - been decluttering, because this move was a downsize - this included selling stuff on Amazon and Ebay, giving to charity shops and via freecycle, and dumping things at the recycling tip, as well as the landfill bin being stuffed to the gills every week. Contacted builders beforehand about the work I wanted done. Printed out Building Control forms from the new District Authority. I even used up food I didn't want to take with me, and used T shirts and whatnot to pack some electrical goods I don't use very much. I thought I was *so* ready....

Turns out I wasn't. And one thing I crucially didn't take care of properly was my telecoms: I told Virgin Phone people I was moving, but I didn't tell Virgin Broadband. The result was that I waited almost 3 weeks longer than I should have to get my phone and broadband connected up - which was wasteful financially, if not in resources.

And because I didn't do enough planning and preparation beforehand, a lot of things that could have been recycled, weren't. They went to landfill. And it turns out I *didn't* use one of the removals firms that use green materials or collect the boxes back or anything like that, because there wasn't time to contact them - there was only two weeks between exchange and completion.

Its been a chastening experience.

Been on holiday ....

And its made me think. Loved it, of course, but I was thinking about this blog on the way back.

There was a microwave in the self catering cottage we rented, of course. And there was an induction hob, which I think is the most efficient form of cooking: but it was a weird one - there was no indicator on the switch to tell you which way the thing was pointing! How mad is that? With the result that we were constantly switching the it on and off to check whether or not it was on. It was a bit mad.

How do we know how long to charge rechargeable batteries? We're always being moaned at for leaving them on for too long, but how long is long enough?

There were no energy saving lights at all, zilch. And the cistern on both toilets was huge! *And* the taps were practically flooding the basins, they let through so much water. I appreciate that people don't want to feel so careful when they're on holiday, but I'm sure there are some issues there for landlords - things can be done that would make no difference at all to the experience for the holidaymakers, but would make a fairly substantial difference to their own bills. And I'm equally sure some of that could be applied to us as homeowners.

Water saving tips

This isn't about either renovation or DIY, so much as about our behaviour. Some of these are taken from other websites, some are from my own experience.... check out if any of them are relevant to you ......

- get a water butt! Get another water butt!
- use a bucket and sponge to wash the car, if you have one.
- cistern displacement devices - hippos! A clean jamjar with the lid screwed on tightly, full of water, used to do the job perfectly well, and give rise to no extra production costs.
- nearly everyone has to run the hot tap for a bit before they get the hot water.... I let a little bit of that water down the drain, to help keep it fresh, but 90% of it I capture in a jug, which either contributes to a big bowl that flushes the toilet every now and then, or to watering the plants, or even soaking pans before I wash them.
- don't use a toilet as a waste bin! If you flush it, you're wasting water (and potential compostables). Even if you don't flush, you might be helping to create a blockage in 5 years time, especially if there isn't much of a drop in the soil pipe. This point was inspired by my mother, who goes into the garden every morning to brush her hair, so the birds can have it for nesting materials (and then she didn't have to clean it off the floor, of course - talk about multiple outcomes!) but in the winter, she flushed it down the toilet, and created an expensive, embarrassing problem for herself, with a good-sized toilet blockage.
- if you like drinking cold water, fill a jug and put it in the fridge ready - don't just run the tap till its cold enough.
- remember this mnemonic about flushing the toilet: "if its brown, flush it down; if its yellow, let it mellow". On one memorable occasion, we had a toilet that got bunged up with toilet paper by following this too well, so we give ourselves some leeway these days...
- fix dripping taps, it really is important.
- replace even one bath each week with a shower - saves lots, all at once!
- make sure dishwashers and washing machines are full before you put them on. And if you need to replace them, even if you have to buy second hand, buy the most energy efficient you can.
- re-use water if you can - half empty glasses of water, for example, can be put into the saucer of a houseplant.
- another way of reusing water might be to take a bucket into the shower! It would have to be a clean bucket, of course :)
- is anyone into siphoning off bathwater and lugging it out into the garden, or running a hose from the bathroom window to a water butt? Its theoretically possible, and I've seen it done on a farm in Africa - they didn't bother with the water butt, the hose was so long there was no heat transfer by the time the water got to the garden :)
- don't let the tap run when you're washing the dishes, or peeling veg, or cleaning your teeth, for that matter! It has a handle, turn it on and off!
- only boil as much water as you need - thats the kettle.
- when you only have the hot water on, and not the central heating, you probably don't need to have the boiler switched on for as long as you think you do. I have a modern hot water tank and an old boiler, and even so 20 minutes was absolutely fine, for more than a day's hot water.
- don't lose the bung for the water butt - the inside will promptly become slimy and algae-ridden, definitely unpleasant.

Energy Saving Trust website on water

Under the "At Home" section, Water is one of the seven main areas. The fun bit there is the energy calculator, which takes you through each room in your house, but it wildly overestimated my costs, and so probably my useage too - by a factor of over 100%

It said I should be paying £280 for 48,800 litres of water, and I actually pay £120, with £50 credit having built up on that basis. The savings suggested were watering my garden morning or evening, to avoid evaporation - I already do this; to save £10/4000 litres a year, to use a shower rather than a bath, to save £11/2,900 litres a year - a bath is a treat for me, not a regular thing, so I've discounted this suggestion; and to fit a trigger nozzle on the garden hosepipe instead of having a continuous flow. This would save £11/4,500 litres a year. And thats a really great suggestion, but out of place in this report, as I'd told it I didn't use a hosepipe!

So the calculator is quite fun, but not particularly intelligent.

There's a guide to how to instal a water butt - excellent! There's currently no videos on youtube about it that I can find, so this is helpful, even as simple photos.

There are water saving tips - basic, but there doesn't seem to be as many ways to save water as there to save fuel, for instance, so I'll take what I can get. Some day, I'll write up *all* the tips :)

Water efficient products - now, this is the real deal! Shower heads, appliances, insulation, toilets, taps, butts, hoses and labelling. Fantastic! This gives me a really great idea of where to start in my new house.

Quite a bit for the garden, including more tips - I think the garden is going to need a separate blog :)

Hmmm.... Water Saving Week was in June, just a few weeks ago as I'm writing this. I certainly never noticed. As the school reports used to say, Could Do Better.

Some good links - including Water Wise, the Consumer Council for Water, the Environment Agency, and the Bathroom Manufacturers Association's Water Efficient Product Labelling Scheme. I've already taken note of quite a few organisations around water - how many does the UK need, exactly? I bet they all have their own tips pages, as well.

There's a video! It says its on youtube, hmmm...and its Kate Humble. With water saving tips. Damn, I'm *definitely* going to make a page of tips.

Green features of plumbing

As my first project is an additional toilet, I tried to make a list of all the points I'd need to consider just for that. It didn't work out that way! I ended up starting a list about everything to do with plumbing, and although each of these will have their very own little blogpost eventually, this is it so far:

Policies and Design
- siting of all plumbing uses as close as possible to water sources, whether this means the water main or the tank. This minimizes "dead legs".
- integrating active and passive solar heating into the main system, including using a combi boiler.
- examining the treatment and re-use of black and grey water.
- materials used - plastic, ceramics, stainless steel, brass, titanium, granite, chrome, graphite. Are any of them greener than any other?
- knowing about the stop cock.
- the pros and cons of water meters.

Micro and macro, a miscellany
- energy efficient appliances.
- water butts.
- filtered water.
- waste disposal units. Oh dear...
- a strainer - basket strainer? - over all plugholes, to help prevent blockages, whether from human hair or kitchen waste.
- underground water tanks for rainwater storage.

Toilets
- a urinal at home!
- smaller cistern for toilets when refitting.
- using a hippo in larger, existing cisterns.
- dual flush.

Taps
- mixer or pillar taps? Monobloc? Disabled useage.
- aerating taps and showerheads.
- press taps or sensor taps, that switch off after a set number of seconds.
- pull-out spray and swivel spout.
- what type of valve inside the tap? Magnetic springs!
- inbuilt or add-on filtering and softening.

Installing a second toilet

The ethics of putting in a second toilet in a home that only has one occupant are problematic ... except that work people visit me at home, and to use the single toilet currently there, they'd have to go through my living room and see my kitchen, which loses me my privacy. So a second toilet it is....

I want it as small as possible, to be as efficient as possible space-wise, so I'm looking at compact ranges. I also want the washbasin to be one of those corner ones, they look very space saving. Add a hook on the door for a towel, and thats that - I'm not interested in looking at hand driers, for such a low traffic area they're not necessary, and paper towels are ecologically horrendous.

Personal quirks: yep, I have them! I want a washbasin thats hung on the wall, not a pedestal one. That may be my only option if I have a corner basin, in any case, but I loathe pedestals - to me, with the hidey-hole inside them that can't really be reached by anyone except a contortionist, they're heaven sent for spiders. And I want the inside of the toilet to be smooth - the design of the toilet I currently have (sorry to be gross) is not good, it has what amount to corners on the inside, which are extremely difficult to clean. Ease of maintenance implies all sorts of things. Who wants to be cleaning a toilet when they could be sitting in the garden?

Oh, and I really like the sound of a "soft close toilet seat" :)

Equipment once its being used also has to be as green as possible, of course, which means using toilet paper made from recycled materials, and green cleaning materials - not necessarily branded goods, either. I'm going to investigate what people have been writing about white vinegar, for instance. But in case the thing is up and running before I've done that, then yes, branded eco goods it is.

Projects

I've always just moved in before, and got on with it the way it was, but this time I want to make sure the house is the way I want it right from the start.

The first thing is to get the outbuilding re-roofed, since asbestos is currently being used there: cue lots of research.

Next, as the bathroom is downstairs, and there's a trek through the living room to get to it as well, I want a toilet upstairs.

And the other, which I'm more ambivalent about, is having the present multifuel stove taken out, and replaced by a gas fire. I'm sad about it, but I grew up with one, and what I remember is emptying out the ashes early in the morning, and having to go out to the coal shed late at night - not that I ever did it, that was my brother's job. But I have no intention of starting now!

Those are the main ones; others are suggested by the surveyor on the fairly comprehensive survey I had done, and some are my own idea. For instance, the house itself is cavity walled, but the porch is single skin. So putting cavity wall insulation in is going to help, if its the *right* sort, but the porch will always let it down, so I have to research efficient and green ways of insulating that.

This is going to be a great adventure, I'm really looking forward to all of this! The property as a whole is slightly smaller than I have now, so I need to get rid of some stuff, which is very freeing in its own right. And I want to use what I have first, of course, even if it isn't the green option if I was buying it new. I already have it, so it might as well be used. I'm pretty sure that applies to a lot of the loft insulation I have - we'll see.

Found one!

After looking at quite a few - tiny little over-designed ones, big decrepit ones, shabby newish ones - I've found the perfect mix for me. Its a three bed semi with a porch built on, but the porch actually extends the hallway to provide a lovely open space when you go in. There's a wooden fence at the side to ensure privacy round the back, which is fully fenced in itself: and there's an outbuilding and a wooden shed back there too, as well as a really good size patio.

The garden is 50'long - big enough for me, with mature planting all around the edges - bliss. Its been kept in shape, and doesn't look too weedy, though there's a volunteer ash tree about four feet from the house at the side that will sadly have to go. It can, however, become my Christmas tree for many a year, once its dried out and painted gold - I've done that before, and its very successful :) And its the ultimate in doing Christmas the green way, though I'll have to put a bit of research into paint if its to be totally green.

The area is lovely and quiet - right by a recreation field, and 50 yards from a pathway to a wood. Some houses about a hundred yards away are scheduled to be demolished and rebuilt, but I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

And its definitely the straight up and down, easy to maintain outline that I wanted, apart from the porch, which is ground level anyway, thats easy enough to maintain, using my super-bendy aluminium ladder that goes into three different shapes.

Does it appeal to me - yes it does! Its lovely, a gorgeous little thing to me. Its 15 minutes from everywhere, the main shops and the railway and the touristy bit on the edge of town, oh and 20 minutes from the big supermarket. I'm chuffed :)

What do I want this new house to be like, anyway?

I want it to have a garden, for somewhere to sit and somewhere to grow my own veg and fruit and flowers. I want decent storage - I have a lot at the moment, and while I'm decluttering like crazy, some is necessary - pots of paint, the bike, spare plantpots, the stepladder, all that sort of thing. I want it to be near some greenery, so that when I go a walk at lunchtime to stretch my legs, I have somewhere to walk that isn't just streets. I want it to be quiet - I've lived opposite a pub, thanks, and I'm done with that. I want it to be a semi, to minimise neighbour noise. I want it to be easy to maintain - no weird little ridges sticking out everywhere, no flat roof, straight up and down as much as possible (you can tell what I'm moving from, lol). Although I still want it to have character (don't we all!) and I still want it to appeal to my heart. And I want 3 bedrooms - one for me, one for an office/guest bedroom, one to see clients in.

I want it to be safe, of course, but everyone I've spoken to in my chosen town, Haywards Heath, has commented on how safe it is, how little crime there is. I don't know if thats rose-tinted specs or not, but it *feels* safe, certainly.

Do I want a project? I want somewhere that has the potential for a project, but not the immediate necessity for one - I've spent years living in a house thats nothing *but* projects, and I really need a bit of time out. There are bound to be things that need doing after I move in, that'll do for now.

The Renewable Energy Handbook

This is maybe not the very best book to start off my reading list, seeing as its an import from Canada, but its an amazing book, about everything really. It goes from a quick overview of climate change to details about what electricity is, to a discussion of appliances, types of solar energy, and biofuels. Happily, it also has a couple of chapters on real life installations, including a luxury resort by Fairmont Hotels, and one on ecological swimming pools and hot tubs :)

Further down the buying process....

To me, one really important part of being green is a kind of behavioural permaculture - if I minimise my inputs, and maximise my outputs, surely thats a good thing for everyone, not just for me? I want my life to be as low maintenance as possible in the routine things, so my house purchase should be too - no trekking to the new town every other day for months, no sitting in a solicitor's office waiting to hand in a document, no (or not much) walking up and down to view the whole neighbourhood on the off chance of finding a for sale board - they're all on the web!

So these are some random thoughts on greenery a bit further down the buying process.

- in some ways, I'm quite an average person - though of course I am completely unique :) :). I'm going to be living in a town, not in a rural utopia, and I want to know about the policies of the local council. What's their recycling record like? Are there any local initiatives already on becoming carbon neutral, for instance? What impression does the official town website give? Are there any local grants to help with the costs of green installations? Walking around, whats it like? Yep, there is some walking.

- what comes next is, what did my heart say? It said, after much to-ing and fro-ing, Haywards Heath. It was also more practical for my existing business, which was a huge plus, but not the deciding factor. This step alone, by the way, took weeks of agonising and journalling, but I'm really happy I did that - I'm very confident in my decision that the town I've chosen is the right town for me, because I took my time over it.

- my first port of call in finding out about the above, has been rightmove.co.uk - bless them for their map view showing houses within a chosen area and a chosen price range. Changing over between the map view and the satellite view also became second nature. Other websites do a map view too - globrix.com for instance, but I always found rightmove easiest and biggest. The street view button, showing the views up and down the street, is also great - it means you make many fewer fruitless journeys, you can see that industrial estate, you can see where the bus stops are, all sorts of things.

- otherwise, whats struck me as being very green in the house purchase lark has been the use of email attachments and scans. I put my own house on the market just before HIPs came to an end - and I never got a hard copy, it was a simple pdf document, thankfully. And it arrived very, very speedily because of that. And I could send it on to my conveyancer and estate agent equally speedily, just press the forward button and bingo. The survey on the house I'm purchasing, and the confirmation I'd paid for it, were also sent in this way. Its cheaper too, of course - packages of the size I'm talking about cost about a fiver to send securely through the post. Those fivers add up, so the saving was quite a nice little bonus.

- and of course, in such a big legal contract, the biggest most of us will ever make, when I correspond by email, I have a record of who said what to who, and when. Of course, if its my mistake, thats a big oops, but in general, it works in my favour :)

Finding a house - the research.

I'm in the middle of moving house, and I realised I needed to write about the whole process, for my own sanity, and to work on getting the whole process to be as green as possible. So here it is! Moving house, the green way.

I've always been concerned about green issues - I remember reading about polluting oil spills in the library when I was fifteen, mumble-mumble years ago. Time to bring it home, literally - and doing it from the ground up.

It can be done bit by bit, of course - it has to be, in lots of ways, I just wanted to think about greening the whole process of buying a home, in all sorts of ways.

I last moved home 12 years ago, and in that time, the whole process has become completely different: getting and assessing information, even. The internet! Well, we have it, its not going away, and personally I'd be lost without it.

Flashbang news: the internet is green! My research about what town to live in was almost entirely done on the net, and these are the questions I was looking at:
- can I get to London easily? Can I get to Brighton easily? These are my two bases, but I don't want to live in either one of them.
- can I walk to the main shopping centre and the railway station? Can I walk everywhere, basically?
- what facilities does the town have? - shopping, banking, sports, community groups, cinema, even hospitals and dentists, you know the sort of stuff.
- whats the atmosphere like? How safe is it to walk around late at night?

Even this last one, there was some startup research I could do on the web. I came across a great little site about Haywards Heath, very ironic and understated, and I thought to myself, if a town has a bloke like that living in it, chances are there are others like him, so its probably the town for me.

Looking at these issues meant that the only two serious contenders were Haywards Heath and Crawley, because of their transport links between Brighton and London. Only then did I go for a wander about each of them. I did a lot of walking (very green!) and my sister and a couple of friends drove me about both places, looking at potential areas to purchase in. It was important, though, for me to do a lot of it by walking, because thats a really important part of it all, to have everything within walking distance.

And they both had that, more or less. And thats where personal choice came in: which place do I like best? Where am I most likely to find kindred spirits nearby? And although there was a tiny little crescent of housing between the two main stations in Crawley where I thought I *could* find my kindred, the answer had to be Haywards Heath for me: its an organic market town, thats grown over hundreds of years, its really quite tiny compared to most of the places I've lived but it feels vibrant and alive.

So, thats my first blog on the green way of moving house. I hope everyone that reads it will come back for more