Justin,

Yes, that is a much simpler idea I agree.  Thanks.

I removed my PETSC_DIR and honour the python path but not get another problem.

I am running this on CENTos and it would appear that apt-get is not present. 

I remember someone saying that you can install firedrake has been installed on Centos.  Is it possible to do it without apt-get or is there something I'm missing?

$ python firedrake-install --honour-pythonpath
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "firedrake-install", line 1024, in <module>
    check_call(["apt-get", "--version"])
  File "firedrake-install", line 369, in check_call
    subprocess.check_call(arguments, env=env)
  File "/opt/sharcnet/python/2.7.8/intel/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 535, in check_call
    retcode = call(*popenargs, **kwargs)
  File "/opt/sharcnet/python/2.7.8/intel/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 522, in call
    return Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs).wait()
  File "/opt/sharcnet/python/2.7.8/intel/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 710, in __init__
    errread, errwrite)
  File "/opt/sharcnet/python/2.7.8/intel/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 1327, in _execute_child
    raise child_exception
OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory