I've been completely slack updating this website, so sidetracked by the actual overseeing of the renovation have I been. But on Thursday 20th March 2008 I finally moved back in!

It's looking amazing, and as I sank into the bath on that first night I burst out laughing, I was so delighted to be back home. The converatory-wallpapered bathroom is my favourite room in the whole house, I imagine many happy hours reading bathing and lounging in front of the fire in there.

Close runner up is my bedroom and then the shower room and the kitchen and the big room and my study... I am like a little kid playing with new toys, feeling incredibly privileged. As indeed I am.

A few things remain to be sorted - the heat exchange unit is so noisy as to be unuseable, and I'm still waiting for a few glass and lighting items... oh and I want to add gels to the eco-ceiling lights to soften the tone a bit; it rather resembles an operating theat ...

In the last couple of weeks I've been approached to host a 30 year relationship celebration, and a 25 year wedding anniversary, and Oxfringe, the fringe festival of the Oxford Literature Festival. I won't be back in in time for the latter, but I am getting very excited about what it will be possible to do in the house. And trying to take future plans into account when choosing carpets (ie the wildness of the parties vs a cool sophisticated pale wool carpet). I love the idea of celebrating lasting, wonderful relationships. Perhaps it will even rub off on me!

On Wednesday I also went to see the superb Masque of the Red Death in London. Punchdrunk theatre had made the whole of  Battersea Arts Centre into a gothic mansion. The audience all had to wear identical white masks, be silent, and wander around coming across various theatrical happenings. No two people had the same experience. It was wildly mysterious, erotic and just a little creepy.... not a bad description of Grov ...

Well, over 200 people came to have a look at Grove House between 1 and 4 pm on Sunday. Chaos! But despite the freezing weather my fantastic helpers Mum, Clawz and Richard made everyone feel at home, and hopefully educated (despite helpers only having been tutored half an hour before!). I was particularly thrilled that both Colin the builder-boss (who may have a few new health-and-safety related grey hairs as a result) and Marion the architect were kind enough to attend and explain to people all about this amazing house we are busy creating.

My fears of nerve-wracking interrogation at the hands of eco-experts went unfounded, and I actually found I was very proud of the decisions we have taken.

One thing that generated considerable attention was the trace heating system, which sends a low-voltage electrical pulse through the hot water pipes, keeping them hot and meaning that when you turn on a hot water pump a) it doesn't have to ki ...

In preparation for Sunday's eco-renovation open day I learnt more than I ever thought I would want to know about insulation. So I thought I would post it up here, too.

On Sunday I went to a fantastic auction (see www.lotsroad.co.uk), where I managed to pick up a leopard print chaise longue sofa and two Bishop Chairs (aka thrones). And managed to avoid buying loads of tat (very tempting because the bidding is so fun). And not increasing my bid just because I wanted to win.

This Sunday Grove House is part of an Eco-Renovations Open Weekend, so I've been thinking about all things eco and decided that buying second hand furniture definitely is. Of course buying in general is never going to help the planet, but buying things that were already made  is one small way to reduce what raw materials are used. I do it on clothes, too. Leopard print fabric though is far from being a natural material, I think :-)

Suddenly this week Grove House has seemed not an adventure but a big and overwhelming responsibility. The garden needs an army of workers, the trees constant attention, and the new next door development is enormous. Inside, great progress is being made, which is fantastic - and brings its own demands. I never knew so many paint colours existed, and seem to be finding it hard getting my head around relative merits of eco paint versus dulux slap-it-on, which the builders definitely favour. Also getting ready for the Oxford Ecohouses open day, and feel quite nervous about that - will someone fall over on the half-done kitchen floor, or interrogate me hard about why I chose wood pellets (answer: mostly intuition, and I'm starting to wonder if it was a good idea), will too many people come or hardly any, will my kind volunteers be warm enough, how can I make them tea without any facilities, will a thief use the day as an excuse to case the joint, etc etc.

Wr ...