I love my job with Green Homes Sheffield – I get to visit everyone’s home and see all the energy improvements. Sometime they are as plain as the nose on your face, cost thousands of pounds and take years of planning… but sometimes I find out about about a simple, low-cost innovation that can really help. A ‘rising portiere’ is a way of hanging a curtain on a door so that the curtain moves with the door instead of having to be drawn back each time – genius! See the photo below taken at Upper Valley Road.

This weekend 16th and 17th May we have 12 homes open, with so many features ranging from simple £20 gadgets , to full scale architect-designed extensions such as that at Fireside Housing Co-op – do have a look and book up for Ecclesall Road homes this afternoon, and Burngreave, Meersbrook and Crookes homes tomorrow.  (And here’s a quiz to amuse you – how many of our Meersbrook green homes can you see in the photo above?)