A Georgian grand design without Kevin...

Anyone who has seen an episode of Grand Designs will appreciate the challenges faced when renovating listed buildings; undeterred we decided to renovate five at the same time. 

It truly was an  epic challenge, from matching the pink sandstone for stone repairs, replacing the eighty individually made windows and doors, replacing roofs, upgrading electricity supplies, installing a biomass boiler or remodelling the garden, each stage presented its own unique frustrations!

Most old Listed buildings are at the very least interesting,  Arbour Hill goes a step further, now fully renovated, the Main House, Dove Cote, Summer House, East and West Barns are not only stunning Listed buildings, but have a full set of new green credentials and boast the latest internet technology.  

This was important to us when we embarked on our own "Grand Design" we wanted to ensure that all the renovations were sympathetic to the character of the setting but still took advantage of the latest technologies to ensure it also remains sustainable and useable well into the future.  

Biomass Boiler

All the heating and hot water is supplied by our very own Austrian Biomass boiler, which has a 1Kw capacity.  It uses small wood pellets and  means we don't have a need for gas or oil at Arbour Hill, ensuring as far as possible we can keep to our green ambitions. 

Photovoltaik Cells

We use Photovoltaic cells on the roof of the stable block to run the Biomass boiler and supply electricity to other buildings, any surplus is fed into the grid. We still use the national electricity supply, but this means we use less and harnesses the suns energy.

Community Broadband

We have fast, reliable broadband speeds of up to 30Mbits/s supplied to all the buildings at Arbour Hill through a community broadband provider.  Perfect for those cosy night in with a good streaming service through all our smart TV.s.  

Now we are towards the end of the renovation work it's good to look back at some of the pictures in the gallery below and remember the bad old days..! But also appreciate the result of our labours, which we now share with you.