Owning your own home

Yeah. We have made two sets of plans one with a basement one without. My preference is without as it will obviously limit the natural light coming in to what would be the kitchen/dining room.

Does anyone have any info on eco friendly building materials and/or how to make your home as efficent as possible. Ive got a few sources but I thought i'd ask just in case. Im really interested in building a home that uses as little energy as possible? Which will more importantly save me money on bills etc in the long run.

I hate to say this because I really do support any eco builds. However eco building materials and a tight budget don't work together. Concrete is just about the biggest environmental evil from contruction but building without it means you can afford a very ecofriendly, well insulated, small shed. Either you reduce your design and make compromises or look for longest built life of the building and lowest post construction impact.

Good thing with a new build is that you can incorporate a lot of things at the outset. Ground source heat pump underneath the property, dual solar and garden on top, optimum thermal efficiency and so on. All fairly dull stuff, but the important stuff is.