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Lovely looking house and a great job, well done!

Good observations, none of which I disagree with generally. Your house is often the most valuable asset so take time to read the fine print when the detailed insurance terms and conditions come through. I had one Claim where there was a bit of initial push back, gathering of information and a bit of SE by me reporting on a house on the south coast of England. The gable end of the house was next to the public pavement, lots of prams being pushed and pedestrians walking by, major HSE risk that they clocked once pointed out to them. The thing was so badly built and so expensive and difficult to fix that the warranty provider settled, from memory in about four months after I got involved. The warranty provider bought the house back, paid all costs; professional fees, legal fees, a bit extra for finding another house, removers cost and some ancillary stuff. Some claims can be pretty straight forward and get dealt with relatively quickly. It's not always that bad in terms of reaching a resolution. Some providers are using Claims handling companies.. the clue is in the name.. just how do they make their money? Obviously by making the Claims process as easy as possible and being helpful by not indulging in; gate keeping for example, offer up suggestions to the house holder at what is a stressful time for them .. or some may suggest not?

How high will these new trees grow? You won't be seeing that sunset for ever. Are they fruit trees or other? May I say it all looks great, but when I first saw your pic of the kerbs going in on 1/2m of concrete base, it made me think of a bobsleigh run. all rather splendid now.

Not a blog, but a few words would be interesting. Then in a year you can reflect on those notes and realise everything is fine really.

Hamilton Leonard Insurance Brokers, just changed their name to Roxburgh. Ask for Allan Burns, always helpful. 53 Moss St, Paisley PA1 1DR Phone: 0141 226 5161 Website: https://roxburghinsurance.co.uk/

The house building itself is ancillary and a bit of a nuisance. Buy land, get houses built, sell houses. The money will be made by getting the land at the best price, then squeezing more houses onto it, combined with rising demand when there was some. Would the developers take turns at getting the land so as to keep the price down? I wouldn't be surprised, but the chances of proving anything would be very small. It will have been doe by some 'understandings' and nothing in writing. Only very big developers can do it because there are a lot of funds tied up for a long time. Thus it will really be the lenders who are doing well. At present there are developments around here that are on hold because they aren't selling. 3 year old houses on the same estates are selling at 10% less than they cost. There are too many units available and also some doubts among potential buyers about the future. The land and building cost the developers too much during a boom period. Then the subsidiary of an arm of a contractor can be allowed to go out of business while the ownership and profits are already elsewhere. But if the price rises then they do not spend more on better quality, but keep the money. But still there are big sites getting planning permission.

or will the leveller etch the copper and cause an early failure?

Trim back enough to get at least 40-50mm overlap of scrim tape. It's that which will prevent cracking.

You'll spend this, and possibly more, if you opt for a supply and fit package. DIY will save you a lot, as it will with everything else in life. I've done some big houses with multiples of units, and the bill has gone above £20k, but these have all been very high spec installs, and have operated in total silence; I had to stick a bit of A4 paper to an extract, and watch it being held there, to prove it was running on one previous project. Their neighbour's (also just moved into a brand new home) couldn't believe how inaudible it was, and were resorting to turning theirs off at night as it was a lemonade job. As with anything, buy cheap, buy twice, or accept the compromises and keep quiet.

I've back-filled the timber / masonary join as it was not great, that is now rock solid as you say. Would you trim back the plaster layer a bit and SBR the sand/cement underneath before scrim tape or just go straight on old plaster? Trying to keep skim to minimum.

Not to the detriment of the functionality A lot of "cheap" designs have fresh supply vents almost immediately above doorways of bedrooms etc, and near zero air flows across the room. If you need to have a long run, and want quiet operation, you simply double up on the ducts. This is something sewn into the heart of the build fabric, with near zero chance of 'putting it right' retrospectively. It will also be on 24/7/365 for the rest of your life there, so maybe not somewhere to cut all of the meat off the bone Buy a good quality Brink unit from Air-Haus.co.uk, oversize it(!), and make sure to install proper attenuators on the supply and extract ports for super-quiet operational sound in the rooms.

The timber structure already exists, just needs re-skinning as the attempt the person made at plasterboard fitting was poor to begin with and has now got damage to it as well. My concern is the join to the existing plastered wall. I can skim the whole wall with a thin skim but not board the entire wall due to coving that I'd rather not remove (I'll never get a match). I want to avoid the plaster cracking down the join after skimming if possible.

We perhaps need to find some common ground here so we can identify the aspects we can agree on and then discuss the things we don't - this is usually (still) a good basis for discourse and otherwise we are contributing to the death of nuance and increasing polarisation which gets us nowhere. All it does is improve our ability to throw language laden bricks into the opposing camp. So to kick this off perhaps: Can we agree that the planet is warming up whatever the cause? If we are able to agree at least that we can perhaps then discuss consequences, mitigation strategies and opportunities it brings. Only after that we can discuss evidence for causal factors, natural cycles, human activity, adjustments by the operators of the simulation we are all living in - the science, or otherwise, of what is happening.

Or a flat.

Our first quote was £10k - it was dismissed very quickly

"Viva la revolución"

I made one a few years back. Just used it on the bathroom, it worked. The efficiency was not to good, about 70% if I remember right. Most of that was down to using a couple of Manrose bathroom fans. They are terrible. Big fans are needed, area is everything when it comes to shifting air.

This is inexpensive: http://www.builditsolar.com/Experimental/DIYHRV/DIYHRV.htm

Think I had read £10k on earlier post on Buildhub. Would be good to know if this is wrong

Who said £10K?

Once you get your head around it it's a pretty simple system. Pretty easy to install if you plan ahead and know your duct routes. Our whole system was around £2k installed and commissioned DIY basis except commissioning sign off. To certify yourself you need a certified Then you can self certify. I paid £200 for someone else to do it.

@Captain Scally I’ve asked you questions here and on eBay as I’m interested. Any chance of answering them?

What figures has your air leakage test given. That is your starting point.

I believe one consequence of the current UK system is that new houses pay far more than old houses, regardless of market property value or floorspace. So, some consistency would be helpful & fair. I think property taxes in the US are far, far higher than the UK. Depending on state, they are often based on market value. This encourages people to down size as they get older, but some people are forced to sell if their area becomes more popular, house prices move up, and the owners can’t afford the increased taxes.

There are a few snags and a few things we would/should have done differently Pete, I'm not sure whether that would make for an interesting blog though. I do plan to do something when we have had a year in the house, to reflect on our experience and lessons learned. (PS If you are who I suspect you are, do drop in or stop over whenever you and Mandy are down this way - not many canals nearby though, I'm afraid! ☹️)