We’ll be documenting the refurbishment of our house from shed to finished article here.

At this stage of the project (before anything has happened) it’s time to think about major alternatives and question some of the obvious choices one makes… for example we’d like to make the house energy efficient…
(from the Energy Saving Trust)

There are some grants and subsidies for doing good energy-saving stuff with your home.
So we should go for lots of insulation (between the floors and in the roof)
We should wrap our hotwater tank carefully

Could we consider a sustainable heat pump or will that be too expensive?
Should we go for underfloor heating so we don’t have to use radiators throughout?
How should we arrange our plumbing to get the best water pressure and hot water?
We should definitely renovate the sash windows
Should we have long-drop toilets with compost outflow (joke)
Lots of choices.