Elspeth Thompson: To build our own home from recycled and renewable materials, and running on solar and biomass energy, is a long-held dream whose day has finally come

Elspeth Thompson: There comes a time in any eco-building project when the question of lavatories has to be addressed

Elspeth Thompson: I am clearing the house prior to building work starting

Elspeth Thompson: When choosing the main material for our eco-house, wood was always going to win. Apart from the fact that the railway carriages we are incorporating are also made from wood, it's clearly the greenest choice

Elspeth Thompson A slight snag. It looks as if we're going to have to raise the front, seaward-facing railway carriage as well as the rear one, to construct our eco-house

Mysterious figures arrive to carry out a topographical survey of our house

Our visit from the chaps from the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society was a great success

Elspeth Thompson: One area in which I've found it easiest to live a greener life is that of clothes shopping. For whatever reason - the dread of baring all in communal changing rooms figuring as highly as waste, pollution and three-year-olds in developing world sweatshops - I hardly ever do it.

Elspeth Thompson: The rotting hull of a boat, a box of broken drinking glasses, some chunks of driftwood, a tiny toy baby, 54 plastic plant pots, a sack of seashells and a large pile of wood: this is the loot from my latest round of clearing at the seaside garden.

Elspeth Thompson: Aesthetics and eco-building don't always go hand in hand, but they do in the case of underfloor heating.

Elspeth Thompson: Little did we suspect, when we hit on the idea of raising one of the railway carriages on to the roof of our eco house, that we might be in the vanguard of an architectural trend.

Elspeth Thompson: Mention that you are involved in any major building project at the moment, and within minutes the name Kevin McCloud will come up.

Elspeth Thompson: There are many annoying things about building regulations, but one of the most frustrating is being obliged to install electric extractor fans in new bathrooms.

Elspeth Thompson: The new parts of our eco-conversion project include a wall of french windows opening on to the garden.