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When we decided to rent I did have my concerns regarding how healthy and environmentally friendly the home we rented would be!

Our choice of properties turned out to be limited to one in Dawlish, a four bedroom family home laid out for very family friendly living but very un environmentally friendly and we soon discovered it had more than its fair share of maintainance problems.

With the more serious maintainence issue ( like the leaks and electrics) sorted, we set out to improve our new homes environmental credentials:-

• We got our OWL electrical energy uses monitor up and working - thank goodness for our own  A+ rated white goods
• Fitted low energy bulbs through out, we even found some energy saving bulbs for the old fashioned large spot lights
• Created a compost heap for garden waste and made good use of it  – the garden was very wild and full of wildlife which we continued to encourage
• We gardened organically
• Made very good use of Teignbridge Council’s door step recycling service for a wide range of waste and recycled other things locally art the recycling centres and charity shops
• Used the wonderful large south facing windows for solar gain, solar battery charging and solio charging
• As soon as the weather warmed up a bit we planted courgettes, tomatoes and squash seeds from Tamar Organics to complement the herbs we had brought with us
• We used public transport for work, lesiure and shopping – mainly the train but sometimes bus
• And as the house ate gas and was freezing due to many large north facing windows and had no insulation in the loft, we investigated free insulation through the Cosy Devon scheme

By now though alarm bells had started ringing very loud as the rental company refused to maintain the property or were very slow sorting out safety issues, they didn’t take up the free insulation and then we discovered they had been lying to us!!!

We did really enjoy the garden and all the wildlife, Dawlish beach, seeing the water foul and their young on on Dawlish water and exploring various locations along the coastal path though, as well as getting together with our new home education friends.

So we had to find a new home to rent very quickly and again there was a total lack of choice, but eventually found one in Livermead, Torquay.

And this house is lovely, a little smaller but with wonderful views towards Torquay and Berryhead and its own environmental features and challenges.

• A great family area which is south west facing, so gets lots of sunshine and had good thermal mass (and only a couple of very small north facing windows thank goodness!)
• An Aga – so we are learning to cook in a new way and making lots of lifestyle changes to make the most of the stored heat and enjoying it
• The house has mainly modern spot lights, so we’ll be looking at energy saving options for these
• The house has its own white goods and we’re not sure about the ratings – so we’ll be watching our OWL electrical energy uses monitor carefully
• We have three water butts which will be great for watering the garden when needed – the rain has been fairly torrential recently though!
• We’re making good use of Torbay Council’s door step recycling, which is undergoing massive changes and improvements – with weekly collections of waste for recycling and using the local charity shops
• We’ll be getting a compost bin (one thats easy to rotate), gardening organically and looking at ways to make the garden more wildlife friendly without changing its character.
• And we’ve got Cockington on our doorstep – for wonderful woodland walks, great events through the Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust and so much more, as well as Occombe Organic farm just a short bus ride away
• And again we’ll be using public transport for work, shopping and lesiure – probably more buses this time as they provide access to more local locations

So plenty to keep us busy, lots more coast line to explore and we live even closer to some of our Devon home education friends