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Forgive me for coming back at this, I asked before re a path around the rear of the house and patio area. Our planning says we need semi permeable. We have groundsman coming back tomorrow night. First time he came he said just use gravel and we didn't need any drains/pipes at the bottom of the slope above patio, he would just widen it a bit as requested and slope. I think we need a drain, it rains a lot here. Also now is the time to do it. Advice from here was to use MOT for the path. I think mot1 isn't permeable but mot 3 is, was thinking of putting 14mm on top of donegal quartz 14mm on top in the second stage. Second stage too we will drop kerb, it will be moving the entry slighty to the right, where the silver citroen is parked. We looked at a new builds nearby they all use paving slabs. Any thoughts, it would be really appreciated. That brown pipe just was temporary it was just for rodding drains.

the door is only 610mm and its bottom right looking at from the pictures above. Looking at it unhung it looks crazy narrow, but thats how its always been since 1930, i just replaced the old softwood one for the solid core oak alternative, the size is no issue. Towel rail on the wall where the door opens up to most likely. If it ends up even remotely like these pictures i'll be happy.

yeah I plan to, it’s still all cleared out at the moment, been some heavy downpours last couple of days. when I moved everything out there was a tiny spot of what felt like water but nothing more than that, I did repair the roof membrane whilst I was up so hopefully that will have cured it. annoying as I only did that small section of roof 2 years ago and it’s a pig to get on to!

The promise is to use a different cold bridging methodology, probably using FEA tools, so yes a lot of work required, but better than blanket defaults as per SAP currently? If used correctly..... But this is interesting, because there is no mention of using BS EN 12831-1:2017 which is the UK standard for designing the space heating load. And this standard has only just been implemented. I wonder if this is going to lead to different standards being used for new builds using HEM that aren't necessarily going to be consistent with BS EN 12831-1. Or is there going to be another poorly considered change to the industry.

Sadly, the implementation probably will be.

We're not ditching it, just able to delay when its installed

“At its core, HEM is a building physics simulation. It takes detailed data about a home (its construction, heating system, ventilation, insulation, glazing, orientation, and local weather) and calculates its energy performance at half-hourly intervals throughout a full year.‘ Well it’s probably a step forward being single & open source / cloud / written & paid for by the government. It’s effectively UK govt’s answer to PHPP. The usual problems won’t entirely go away though: + since we have little idea how our current housing stock is built, there will be lots of guessing i.e. ‘assumptions’. So a bit GIGO. + we’ll need loads of custom psi calcs if the results are going to reflect the actual heat loss. + these are only models and reflect assumptions about how we live in these houses - probably there will be little comparison of actual vs. model (just like EPCs) so the man in the street may pay them very little attention. The 1/2 hour intervals are marketing BS and won’t help the accuracy one bit. Lastly, one of the helpful things about PHPP is its database of real world components - this will be key but a lot of work to replicate.

Neither did we

We did not tape but used the 150mm overlap (permavent)

So pleased for you, we recognise the 'stress' generally, but also of starting a build without having sold, and leaving a house with which you've had a strong emotional attachment.

More complex but will still be sh!te in.... Same monkeys will just use a different computer program.

hmm. I think that the idea that some labourers would "muck in and do the screeding" a tad overconfident myself! It may well be that they can screed to a high degree of accuracy, obviously I don't know them. But, the potential for a dogs dinner is definitely there.

I'm surprised how much better that looks. I thought it would be an improvement but it's better than I imagined. Not sure if the mirror now ends up too high but it looks nice on the render. Probably not worth too much further work until you are a bit further along. Still, do bear in mind trying to keep a single line going from the windowsill, through the second shelf on the nook*, through to the level of the nook in the shower and, bonus for points, to the level of the handle on the shower door * You could adjust the lowest point of the nook to maintain spacing or switch to 3 shelves rather than 4. Maybe. Not an area I feel knowledgable enough with to answer. Sure someone else can say more though.

I am wondering where your entry door is ? We rearranged what had been a very clunky old style sliding door, replacing it with a normal swing inwards door. By using a narrower door of 725mm, but the same height and design as other doors with the same architrave, you would likely never sense it being narrower. Reduces space for the door swing. Also by moving it 100mm off the corner we could slot a radiator behind the open door. We have a bath with shower over, achieved by using a talentofil so the bath needs no tap space at the end. And it curves inward at one end. When I measured the length of the bathing recess it was the same as much longer baths. Design looks nice. Quartz is used quite a bit now for bathroom worktops and shelves. Where is the soap going ? And maybe the shower entry could be at the near end ? And the heated towel rail ?

The Future is HEM - https://home-energy-model.co.uk/

Isn't it possible to fork out a bit more and have a full SAP EPC calculated rather than an rdSAP version.

After a long chat with Grok it seems the monthly cost of the Residential 100 subscription is increasing to £40 in the UK. It also told me how to see my billing preview for the the next month, which at the moment, is still £23. Grok indicated that the preview might change, but that the email was probably sent in error as the price was in dollars. I'll wait and see.

Have you been in touch with the tilers, or was this DIY? I have not used fix-a-floor but there should not be problems with the tiles over such a large area. If it were me I would do a small area and monitor before taking on the whole floor.

Is this timber frame wall a load bearing wall or is it just internal framing? If it's load bearing then you really want to follow standard timber framing methods. I would almost always use the 3rd option from left, but sometimes use option 1 if short of cls.

You did well to ditch the green roof. Unless the planners included a condition that the house could not be occupied until you have written approval for the roof as built there should not be an issue.

anything is on the table, im only in the early stages here but choices are limited in such a room, anything considered though. The only constants are the soil location and the window. Ive made those changes, i did have the tap in the stud wall, the renderer took liberties and changed it for some reason. I didnt consider the condensation on the brick, cheers for that. I have a section of exposed brick in all the rooms ive worked on so far, bit of a call-out to the original house which i have essentially carved up. I would like to keep that, maybe an insulated board and then original bricks cut into slips...

Well, it's been nearly 9 months since we moved in, and I didn't leave a list last time, so here are the parts of the last list that still needed work. As you will see there still remains a lot of stuff to do. You'll soon learn why they're still here 😞 more stone work - still on the list but much reduced rainwater soakaways - still on the list rainwater collection system - decided after deliberating a lot to leave this out for now as it's not a condition backfilling - partly done, still on the list concrete lego brick retaining wall - delivered, to be fitted Flooring - en-suite and "attic" room left to do Wood cladding - still on the list Fit internal doors - one last door to do Fit en suite - basin and bog outstanding Build MY garage - still on the list A green roof system, because its on the planning application, and may be required for certificate of completion (unless someone can enlighten me as to how to avoid this, and be able to delay the installation) - still on the list, but good news on the completion element for this below. Back in August 2025 we moved into a building site, and worked hard to get the remaining bedrooms completed before our first Christmas for which SWMBO had invited MY family. Not sure whether to label this action as bullying, blackmail, fraud, spousal abuse or whether another specific crime was committed. But, we got there, and a fantastic Christmas was had. Also during this time, we managed to secure a buyer for our old house. We had decided to stop calling it home to start the process of removing 29 years of emotional attachment to the place in which we brought up our two children, and in December we removed pretty much all the remaining furniture in readiness for Christmas and what we thought would be a completion on the sale in January/February of 2026. You may recall me asking questions about a retaining wall which was holding up the new buyers getting a mortgage. Now, this wall was not a part of the house but on our boundary about 2 feet or so away from the side wall of the house. It has a crack in it and the lender wanted it repaired. We had requested an SE to come give us a report, hopefully to tell the lender to stop being a d1ck, and we had arranged to meet them on the 6th January. We arrived the day before to find it difficult to open the front door because there was some plasterboard behind it which had come from the landing ceiling at the top of the stairs. This had been caused by a leaking water pipe in the loft. Subsequent water bills showed that 28m3 of water had come through the ceiling - we now had a major water leak insurance claim repair to deal with. And the upshot of the SE visit the following day was they said it did need fixing. B0110cks!! So, now instead of a completion in Jan/Feb, we were looking at a completion in 3-6 months. We then found out that the retaining wall was our liability, and not the people who owned the land behind it. This put a huge dent in our plans. Everything we had planned to do in the first half of 2026 (work on the house and a ski trip) went on hold as we got someone in to repair the wall (in March, once the rain had stopped) and to deal with the insurance company who thought it was a great idea to appoint two separate companies to complete the drying out/repair work - WHAT COULD GO WRONG? We sat down, and reworked our plans for work on the house. This has been limited to work that we could carry out with little spend because either it was something outside in the "garden" (read mud bath), we already had the materials on site, or the materials required were not hugely expensive. What have we been up to in between complaining to the insurance company about the lack of co-ordination and progress (WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?) We bought parts to start finishing off the rainwater drainage pipework, which also allowed us to do our first bit of hard landscaping, some steps down to one side of the house, and starting off the path as well. We still had a lot of stone cladding to complete, so once the weather improved, I set to completing most of this. There are still a few odd bits and pieces to do once the balcony and connecting bridge have been completed (one of the large ticket items that is on hold). The other main area of work has been the en-suite bathroom, where we spent a little bit of savings and created a service wall on two sides, got it plastered and painted, and also installed the walk-in shower. After a bit of back and forth, SWMBO agreed to a wall hung toilet pan (thank you to those who responded to my cry for help). So, the en-suite requires said bog, a basin and vanity, tiling behind the basin, flooring and a door to be completed. All materials on site or on order, and the plan is to get on with that over the next few weeks. So, where does all this leave us? Well, the bits of good news we've had:- - our BCO visited just before Christmas and gave us a list of things he'd like to see before he issued a completion certificate, and on that list found that the green roof was not required to be fitted, but just some documentation about what we proposed to put up there. I know what many will think, but we will probably still install one at some point, but it does mean we can delay installing it until after completion. - I mentioned we secured a buyer for the old house. Well, they have stuck around through all our tribulations and we will be completing on June 5th. Come mid June we should have the following major items to complete, and the funds to do them: Balcony including balustrade Connecting bridge to balcony Balustrade by internal stairwell Exterior porch floor rainwater soakaways - still on the list concrete lego brick retaining wall and backfilling Flooring - "attic" room left to do Wood cladding Finish the en suite - as outlined above Build MY garage - still on the list A green roof system Once all that is done we might also be ready to clear the site of the touring caravan we used for the first four years of weekends and holiday time we spent building the house and a lot of left over building materials. I'm glad to say there is very little of that as I resisted the "order 10% more than you need" rule, and am pleased to say it only bit me twice in extra delivery charges. This has meant we have incurred zero cost for skips/clearaway etc. and, no, we have not buried it all in a very big hole in the 3 acre field we bought. There's still a lot to do, but as we approach June 5th with lightened hearts, we have a much clearer view of some form of end game, with may hours to be spent creating a new garden around our NEW HOME!!

Migration was relatively simple . But now I’ve got more ram want to be like a sad YouTube video and compare gpt120b against mlx 120b for speed . In theory looking for 20%+ as a pessimistic hope !

I know this topic is mostly talking about waste but you did mention design as well. I have a some thoughts with the above if you don't mind: 1. Overall I like it. The window cill/shelf aligning is great. Maybe could carry that line through the nooks as well? 2. Medicine cabinet seems wrong. Maybe a thinner one mounted a bit higher to allow the wood to extend along to the edge of the bump out would be better? 3. Have you considered that the nooks (especially the one with exposed brick) may be a condensation issue? (depends how well insulated those bricks are). Condensation there + wood won't go well. 4. If you are having a bump out to cover the plumbing, consider a wall mounted tap for the sink. Looks great and easier to clean. More expensive though and need to consider how to access the connections. 5. Maybe a different sink? Seems like a horrible dirt trap between the back of sink and the wall.

If the gaps exceed 600mm add 2 pieces as shown.