As regular visitors to the site will see immediately, we’ve transformed the home page to make it more informative and present both the existing information and the additional features in a clearer way than before. We’ve also come up with a new colour scheme to go with our new logo.

Just for comparison, here’s the old look, which was based on the default WordPress template:

The navigation’s been reorganised too, into a more logical structure than the simple alphabetical list we had before. But if you can’t find what you’re looking for, then you can always make use of the HouseWiz Site Search facility at the top of the page.

The facelift isn’t quite complete – if you look closely over the next few weeks you’ll no doubt notice a few little tweaks here and there. But the bulk of the changeover has now been done. We hope you like it!

When we took over this site nearly two years ago, we were reasonably happy with the look and feel of it – which was and is based on WordPress’s default template. Other than a new masthead, we decided, “Don’t fix what ain’t broke.” (Advice which we’re sure many DIYers regret not following from time to time!)

However, we think the time’s come for a more radical facelift. We’ll be overhauling the site’s navigation system in the process, to make it easier for you to find the information you’re looking for.

We got Mark Ballantyne of Eagle Imagery to design the new logo here, which will be the basis for our new look. (The more eagle-eyed among you may already have spotted it as our new “favicon” in the address bar of your browser!) Mark designed the excellent logo for our sister site, Not Delia, earlier this year, and it was a no-brainer to give Mark and Eagle Imagery the repeat business – we’d recommend them to anyone.

The changes aren’t likely to happen overnight – they’ll probably happen bit by bit over the next couple of weeks. We just wanted to let our regulars know that things are changing!