Wealden Times | WT261 | February 2024 | Education Supplement inside

Top: The formal lounge Left: The boot room
a piece of flat pack furniture,
which Steve explains, “It’s a
Kingspan SIP system and it has
the highest levels of insulation
that you can build with.” It
stands for Structurally Insulated
Panels and it’s a system built
in Scotland that has been used
in the U.S. for years. The great
thing about it is the panels
are extremely lightweight but
incredibly dense, which means
a very well insulated house can
be erected very quickly. Steve
explains the benefit, saying,
“The house across the street
which is a third of the size uses
double the amount of energy.”
To make sure the house retains
the heat they also had to make
sure that no air escaped. Steve
clarifies, “You can’t even have
a letterbox in the front door.”
Once the house was habitable
Sian, Steve and family moved
in, but there were still some
teething problems to work
through. Sian says, “When we
moved in there was no drinking
water. So I had to walk out to
the street to fill up the kettle!”
They also didn’t have a drive or
a garden which made it hard
to keep the house clean, Sian
says laughing, “Every time you
went outside you got covered
in mud.” When we visited
you could see there were still
some unfinished parts, with
workmen busily finishing off,
but it was very nearly there.
Entering the house for
the first time was a bit of a
surprise. As lurking behind the
quaint Victorian exterior isn’t
quite what you’d expect.
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