I combine being an Architectural sustainability consultant with home-educating my kids.

The way the housing market is going at the moment I will have over-educated kids.

I know this is totally and completely off-topic, but may I ask why you've chosen to home-educate your children? I never really understood that.

That's a big question for a quick response, Biert.

because I believe it the best way way to equip them for life, would be the short answer.

[Keeker]

scores well on local sourcing of materials then. Perhaps less well on energy efficiency, LZC technology use, surface water runoff, potable water use, daylighting factors, toxicity, yadda yadda.
Oh and all that latex equipment you have in the cellar is probably sourced from Brazil.

Local flagstone, concrete (okay that's new, put in the 50s), the original squint local wood floors, no cellars, I don't know anybody around here that has one.. do people normally keep latex in their cellars and if so, what for? Padded walls for keeping mad relatives locked up?

Water runoff - yep it runs off all the time. This is Scotland! There's so much water here we sell the extra to other people daft enough to buy it in Highland Spring bottles. Walls are all traditional lathe and plaster with the horse hair in it. Don't think there's any lead paint, though I couldn't guarantee it, as far as toxicity goes. Although I don't trust modern paint or the crappy chemicals they put on carpets and sofas these days.

Judging by the bat, bee and bird colonies in the roof I'm fairly sure it won't be good on modern energy efficiency in winter since somebody decided to install plumbing, central heating and hydro electricity a long time ago, but in its day it was built to be entirely 'self sufficient'. Open fireplaces in each room which used wood grown on the farm itself (still do.) Water was sourced from a mill dam which was fed from a burn. From the dam it then ran down through the farm and worked a mill wheel in the barn that in turn worked a bruiser and other machinery. The water continued on down under the farm and through an orchard before running past the house where it was used as the house water supply, via chambermaid-with-a-bucket technology. There's also an old (now disused) water pump at the back door. It was, by all accounts, a pretty efficient system. I wish the mill wheel was still there, I'd like to have seen that work.

Sorry for rambling off topic. I just appreciate the acquired wisdom that went into making these old places work in concert with their surroundings and local conditions. Nothing much was wasted.

Walls are all traditional lathe and plaster with the horse hair in it. Don't think there's any lead paint, though I couldn't guarantee it, as far as toxicity goes.

anthrax risk, then.

[djskrimp]

Walls are all traditional lathe and plaster with the horse hair in it. Don't think there's any lead paint, though I couldn't guarantee it, as far as toxicity goes.

anthrax risk, then.

There be mad Scots and annoying puppies in that household.

I'm a massage therapist and I teach pathology and anatomy:) ..probably going to go to med school or nursing school though.

[Keeker]

Walls are all traditional lathe and plaster with the horse hair in it. Don't think there's any lead paint, though I couldn't guarantee it, as far as toxicity goes.

anthrax risk, then.

There be mad Scots and annoying puppies in that household.

I caught ringworm once! Does that count???

Keeker: PICS!

Freelance sound engineer. Hangin' out otherwise

Game Programmer/Software Engineer/Nerd

Game Programmer/Software Engineer/Nerd

Sounds good to me! I especially like the nerd part of that

Game Programmer/Software Engineer/Nerd

Sounds good to me! I especially like the nerd part of that

What can I say? When you program computers for a living, every sentence you make might as well be "Actually, in episode #F109 of Star Trek, Kregular uses the word 'indeed' 527 times, not 526!!!!!"

A good place to admit that you actually met Spock then?

(I did actually meet him though. )

I hug dolphins for a living, sort of. Well, cosmic hugs.

Ok, I am a marine chemist. I keep the seas clean using my fists and my brains. Arrr.

The underwater world is fascinating...

I remember visiting the Philippines earlier this year and seeing so many beautiful creatures... Lionfish, Parrotfish, Nudibranch etc etc ...It really hits home when this same ecosystem was sharing its reef with empty coke cans and car signs. It's not until I took up scuba that realised who fragile and beautiful this planet is. Most of it is "underneath the waves"

Anyway, I'm a photographer www.scotthogg.com

[djskrimp]

I hug dolphins for a living, sort of. Well, cosmic hugs.

Ok, I am a marine chemist. I keep the seas clean using my fists and my brains. Arrr.

The underwater world is fascinating...

I remember visiting the Philippines earlier this year and seeing so many beautiful creatures... Lionfish, Parrotfish, Nudibranch etc etc ...It really hits home when this same ecosystem was sharing its reef with empty coke cans and car signs. It's not until I took up scuba that realised who fragile and beautiful this planet is. Most of it is "underneath the waves"

Anyway, I'm a photographer http://www.scotthogg.com

You fucking lucky sod... The photos are brilliant, man!