I’m Sam. I live in a slightly knackered 1930s semi with my partner, two kids, and a dog who hates ladders. We’re the family with a drill on the dining table and masking tape on the light switches because someone (me) keeps taking plates off to “check the gap behind.” This blog is me writing down what actually helped us make the house warmer, quieter, and cheaper to run—one small step at a time, no big speeches.

I grew up in draughty places: rattly sash windows, cold floorboards, that sweet-and-dusty smell you get when the boiler fires at 6 a.m. My grandad was an electrician and had one rule: look for the simple fault first. That’s how I approach the house. Not a grand plan. Just: find the leak, fix the leak, test again. Repeat until the numbers and the room both feel right.

When we moved in, the usual suspects were waiting—gaps at the skirting, air whooshing up the chimney, ice-box bedrooms with condensation lines behind wardrobes. One child has mild asthma, so air quality mattered as much as bills. We started small and boring. I taped the obvious junctions. I fitted grommets around cables and pipes. I blocked the cat flap on test days (he was furious, briefly). First blower-door test was ugly; a month later it was less ugly. Our n50 dropped from “oh dear” to “okay, carry on.” Flow temperatures came down after I balanced radiators properly instead of pretending they’d sort themselves. None of it is heroic. It adds up.

What you’ll find here is simple on purpose. Short posts. Plain language. Before/after readings in kWh and °C instead of vibes. Photos where the mastic missed. The part number I actually used. The thing I thought would be brilliant and wasn’t. If we try a product or a method, I’ll say what it did in our house, with our mess, on a Tuesday night after football practice when nobody has patience. If it flops, it gets a postmortem, not a ribbon.

Family life runs through it. Homework at the table while I’m prising up a floorboard. The dog sulking because the hallway is taped off for a smoke test. A neighbour texting a photo of mould behind their chest of drawers and asking if our “fan thing” would help. Some days the answer is “do nothing, sleep, start again.” That’s part of it too.

I’m not an architect or a contractor. I read the manuals, ask annoying questions, and keep records because forgetting is expensive. I believe in fabric-first because it’s boring and it works: seal what leaks, insulate where it counts, get fresh air in on purpose, and then decide how to heat. I believe quiet matters; a house that doesn’t hiss or thrum is easier to live in. I’ll always show my working—redacted invoices, cheap tools that punched above their weight, mistakes that taught more than the wins.

If you’re here for glossy reveals or a miracle product, you’ll hate it. If you want the next small thing that actually made a difference in a normal house with real people in it, that’s what this is. One post at a time, numbers on the page, ego left outside with the muddy boots.