Somewhere over the rainbow

A beautiful rainbow ending right at the bottom of my new garden....hope it brings us luck!!

Taken June 15th 2009 8pm...it's light til very late here in the summer.

A very busy week for me, kids broke up from school for their summer hols on Wednesday...yes 10th of June is REALLY early...and have been trying to get to grips with the mechanical (heating & plumbing to you and me) and electrical budget, which is causing me lots of stress especially as I thought I'd hired someone who would be "taking care" of all of this for me.

We hired a "Mech & Elec" consultant, mostly at my insistence I admit, to ensure that we get the most efficient system for the house and to make sure we weren't ripped off by some dodgy plumber or electrician, as we had had experience of this in the past (long story, long time ago, still bitter about it!).........mmmmm this is proving to be probably not one of my better decisions, jury is still out, sure his spec will work fine, it's the affordability bit thats the problem!

Anyway, have spent a good while 'tearing up' over the quotes which were returned, based on the said consultants specification. They were so far over the budgeted amount (am talking 60K over folks, and that's just the mech!) it was kind of funny, that is before the mild hysteria kicked in at the consequence of the budget over shoot!

The advice so far, as regards to getting the price down, has been to ditch the heat recovery & ventilation system and get trickle vents drilled into my triple glazed passive house spec aluclad windows.....not really an option I want to consider!! Oh and to omit solar panels too....basically dumb down the whole spec, again not something I want to consider, in the words of Sharpay Evans, "I want it all."

Ok, so I'm now feeling slightly like the Emperor, listening to the tailors telling him what a wonderful suit he was wearing and sending him down the street naked......the lesson here for me I guess is that it is ok to listen to the experts, but not essential that you act upon their every word.... and yes Mr C, I know that's one of your favourite lines!

Taking this on board I've spent the past week investigating alternative suppliers myself. So far it's looking very promising, there seems to be a good chance that we can get this whole "mech & elec" thing back on track, especially if the main components are sourced from UK suppliers. I just need to keep reminding myself that it is only shopping around after all, and I'm well qualified in that department, I'm imagining myself now as a cross between Carrie Bradshaw and Sarah Beeny.....oh my heating system will be fabulous sweetie and will work like a dream (fingers tightly crossed) x