Tuesday, 16 September 2008
8.30pm

When you are settled down in your 70s, building a brand new house might not be at the top of your agenda. But Bill and Jean Letley are not only building a new bungalow in their back garden, but are embracing cutting edge technologies to create a super efficient, highly contemporary, easy to live in single storey home. This is especially important for Bill, who is disabled and wants to maintain as much independence as possible.

Bill and Jean aren't hiring a builder, instead they're entrusting the whole project to their daughter Jo, and son-in-law Paul, who with little building experience, have to get to grips with numerous technologies that would faze the most experienced of builders.

Everything about this build is inventive. The ground source heating system is incorporated into the concrete piles of the building. The foundations are made from super prototype steel, polystyrene and concrete with integrated under-floor heating. There's a moulded composite curved roof with embedded solar gain pipe work and integrated insulation. This is no ordinary build and it will be no ordinary bungalow.

But for all the technologies, the biggest challenge for Jo, who has given up her PR job in the city to build the house, will be to keep her 'clients' happy.