First, thanks! To all of you who took the time to email me directly via this site, The response to the first Stuff article has been great. 
There are plenty of you who have built before or are in the dreaming stage. If you missed it, you can catch up here, and this week's piece is up now.  If you have images of inspirational builds or technologies you think other #newbuildlovers will enjoy seeing, do post them up on Facebook.  And I'm very chuffed that so many of you have been emailing me direct. As this process goes on I might get behind in replying to you all, but I'll do my best.
In the mean time, given that we're in planting season, I thought I'd share this great idea for building the world that will support any home. Gardens. Especially vege gardens! Did you know if you plant out seeds in egg cartons you can just pop them into your garden beds when they've sprouted? The cardboard will break down and you don't damage the fragile roots of your little seedlings. Genius. 
Things are starting to heat up at Building Boxes and pretty soon I'll be introducing you to some of the people and products we'll be using in our build. But until then, thanks for stopping by and happy planting!

It'd be nice if some large piece of machinery were really getting stuck in on the section, but till we upgrade from Tonka to tractor, I'll settle for talking about the process of simply getting started. If you've popped over from stuff.co.nz, hi! This blog will go into more detail about the products and services we use in the build. It'll also showcase how things are installed and why in more detail and you can check out the plans and eco leanings of our build.
You can follow us on facebook, check out more photos on instagram and from time to time I'll tweet about this process too if that's how you like to get your New Build Love news. 
Next week on stuff I'll be heading right back to the beginning and talking about the section - services, orientations, things to look for (that we didn't). I'm definitely no expert, but I'm a fan of not reinventing the wheel so hopefully our mistakes can become your...non mistakes. Hope to see you soon.

I’ve talked a fair bit about our hopes of building a green-thinking home and now we’ve got some serious skin in the game. Our house is going to be a TV star!

The Living Green Show will be filming over summer and screening 2015 on The Living Channel. With all our talk of passive technology and uber insulation, the producers thought it would be a good showcase for these technologies -- I better get me a new pair of TV friendly gumboots!

When people hear that we’re building a new house, one of the first questions they ask is if it will be an eco house. We like green and sustainable thinking, we believe passive technology works and with the world's resources clearly finite, it makes sense to us to use sustainable products where we can. However, we just don't have the cash to build a fully passive or solar house, or use the best and most beautiful eco products. Nor do we have the will or time to go full Grand Designs and build this whole house ourselves. Our project is also further complicated by being on a south facing site. So we need to be extra smart about how and where we orient and build our house.

 We're looking for some sort of middle ground. We want to use products and services that are as smart as we can manage. Everything has to work as hard as it possibly can for us, be it ventilation, insulation or windows. So we're planning a smart green thinking house. One that is sensitive to the environment, built with smart design and systems, but that doesn't break the bank. And that’s what will make this house a TV star! Or at least that’s what we’re all hoping!

From Eco-Tourism, to greener cities and rural sustainable agricultural practices, as well as eco inventions and new build homes, The Living Green Show will travel New Zealand telling the stories of how Kiwis are trying to make the clean, green difference.