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I don't do blogs but here is a picture of the building work so far, as I said before I am very happy with my builder who is going to start the roof this week and I am going to do all the fiddly work with lining, insulation and eaves construction.

We have a slab

I wondered where that gearbox went. Can I have it back please? It's failed its MoT every year since then......

Solar thermal from BEER cans!

In my previous post, I explained how we came across our plot when out walking close to where my mother-in-law had moved over from Dublin. It came with full planning permission for a modern house built into the hill, as shown on the boarding on site. Interestingly, the boarding was from a local builder (which I’ve blurred out here) This is the image shown on the boarding: Here’s another sample image of the house: “Our” house would be the one on the right – the plot on the left had been purchased separately and the owners had instructed their own architect and builders to build a different style of house. At that time (January 2015), we were looking to move from our old Farmhouse to a more maintenance-free life and bought into the idea of a new house. Whilst we knew our existing furniture would not necessarily “fit” within the contemporary style, we were both agreed to look into things further. At this point, we knew absolutely nothing about self-building. So, towards the end of January 2015, we contacted the number on the site boarding to enquire further. The builder advised us that there were 2 build options: A house purchase process, where we’d effectively pay them a fixed price for the plot and house as advertised (they also provided a spec-sheet), but where we’d pay what was then called Stamp Duty. This would involve an up-front deposit then staged payments Purchase the plot from the existing owner (the owner of the architect company who designed the house) and then engage with the builder to undertake the construction of the house. We were obviously attracted to option 2, as it would save on the considerable stamp duty, and going with that builder would also result in additional savings due to the sharing of mobilisation costs, shared project manager, economies of scale etc, as the neighbouring plot had already been sold and work was due to start in May 2015. We continued dialogue with the builder, and over the following days and weeks, got more details about the site. Here was another 3D model of the approved home: Here's the site layout showing our plot as the only one available: And the floorplans We also got elevation views: However, it was during these discussions that we started getting concerned about two specific areas around the plot: There was a train line running along the back of the plot, serving the local coal power station. We emailed the power station to ask for the timetable, and their response was that due to "strict policies and security we are unable to release any information" regarding the train timetable. We had a chuckle at that and instead spoke to local people who told us there were around 4 scheduled journeys per week. I made sure that information did not fall into nefarious hands. The was a pipeline running along the border of our plot* and the plot to the east of us (the one where the build was due to start in May), which imposed a 3.5 meter “no build zone” either side of its centre line. (*) This turned out not to be the case, but I'll come back to that in a future post. You can see the latter on another site plan we received: Another benefit of going with the builder aligned to the plot was that they already had a relationship with the pipeline owner (BP) and were in the progress of getting their structural engineer get agreement from BP on the foundation design –this was (understandably) a planning condition from Fife Council. However, after much soul-searching and many discussions, and 3-4 weeks after first viewing the plot, we decided the risk was too much for us and contacted the builder to say we’d not be taking things any further. We then resigned ourselves to finding another home on the existing housing market. In the next post, I’ll explain why we changed our mind and bought the plot, and start introducing the challenges the pipeline has placed on our life.

Saw some at one of the shows (ideal home I think) and nearly fell over when they told us the price ... think it was Gliss and it was about £500 per rail ....

If it's got a bend in the middle you need a Dr not a joke

It all looks great - well done and good luck with the final third! Love seeing the photo's of build and Roger.

We had 9 windows and 5 doors, including a 3.6m wide sliding doors with side windows and inward & outward opening french doors. The cost was £335/m2, exclusive of VAT.

Personally I probably would pay the extra £15 for a Mira and the 5 year over 2 year guarantee. I have one Mira that has been going strong since 1994 with only new shower heads. Ferdinand

Not directly related to this thread, but something that I recommend for anyone needing to do hardware debugging is a Bitscope which you can get for around £80 (though I bought mine pre-vote for nearer £60). Even so it's for more than an order of magnitude cheaper then the DLOs we used to buy.

I built a Marlin Roadster around 1984, can't post a photo as at that time I was in to only taking slides, for some odd reason, and I don't have a slide scanner. In 1995 I built a road going single seater, though, a Hudson Mystic, powered by a Renault Gordini engine. With an empty weight of around 400kg it tended to be reasonably quick. Here's it parked in front of another one of "my" toys at the time:

Right, it's not my fault this thread digresses but here goes, it's a gentry, a copy of a 1953 MG TF. Built on the mechanics of a 1968 triumph vitesse 200 ( straight six) and we think it was built in about 1974. Original owner and builder died and it was inherited and put away for years. The gentry has a good reputation as a "good" kit car that does not look like one. Also good is the fact it has my favourite engine, six cylinder triumph, and disc brakes. History here for those interested. http://www.gentrycars.co.uk/documents/Gentry.pdf And pic of what I bought. I intend to put it on the road ( it has a new MOT) but completely rebuild from the chassis up over winter AFTER the house is finished. Purists will sneer as it's not an MG but frankly with the better mechanics and the fact it costs a quarter of an original it ticks my boxes ( and I can mend it with spanners ?)