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It was a tight squeeze but we got it out the opposite side of the site that it came in on. Ended up selling to the caravan mover as I kept getting messed about by other self builders. Hard to believe that it's been on site for nearly 3 years and we lived in it for 18 months. Can't say I was sad to let it go... Can start work in the back garden now (funds allowing)!

I really hate to be the bad bloke here. But I really think you need to get some expert help on your side, I understand the want,need to have a go yourself but what you are attempting could lead on to a multitude of fcuk up that will continue to haunt you throughout the rest of the build. How about this find a local brickie who is willing to come to site for two days and help you do the layout, hire a laser level and get all your levels transferred around the build, get the brickie to show you how to work out the bond. Cost brickie two days £350 laser £40 return on your investment fcuking priceless, cock this up now and pay for it in the rest of the build. You have said your blockwork sits sits on a row of brackets, this is not uncommon and I have done plenty of jobs where the outer skin sits on a steel ledge. so why is this steel not level ? If you don't fix this level problem you will be chasing it for ages. Sorry but get some proper advice with someone on site. Russ.

Trusses done. Here's one of them (kingpost yet to be cut down, by the way). I might leave those dog footprints...

Finished everything, hand printed the house warming invitations, went shopping and left crispy duck in the oven and cold beer in the fridge.?

My experience was the whole ground floor, including all the internal stud walls, plus most of the flooring on the first floor and a few parts of the first floor walls. I was getting in the way on-site, so I left at around 10:30, when they were still lifting stuff off the lorry with a 100ft jib crane. I came back around 16:30 and all the ground floor external and internal walls were up.

Would be a good trip though as I've never seen a hot press before !

@TerryE they obviously listen. strut lines marked with tape

Having read through the few replies I would say @JSHarris is the winner

Looking at a standard 900x300 copper cylinder. I'm leaving the immersion in as that way it means if the ASHP ever fails I've got a big version of @TerryE Willis heater ..!

Now there's a challenge for you. I am sure you could make one for a quarter of this PS. on a serious note, You can get manual roller and Roman blind kits pretty cheaply. A small project box with an Arduino, esp8266 or RPi3 Model A+ to give you WiFii control and a small servo motor and pulley on the inside or outside of the box -- just mounted in the reveal. Maybe not as neat as hidden in the roller barrel but still entirely doable for well under £100 and more like £30 if you use the ESP board that I use and source the components direct from China.

Can anyone explain to me why electric roman blind headers are so ludicrously expensive? I've fitted quite a lot of roman blinds in the new house, and have to say they are way better than curtains in just about every respect, including having the useful attribute of being able to block the sun when partially down, and they take up less room. Having read this thread I thought about adding electric actuators, thinking they would make life a bit simpler for the harder to reach windows. I looked at the price and was just gobsmacked. The rollers seem to use a smaller version of the same brand motor that operates my 3m wide garage roller door, but that motor is double the price. Seems insane to me to pay the best bit of £500 to motorise a £200 blind.

...and you didn't see that coming?

i took a different view. I levelled and grassed most of the site before I sold the digger. So now all I have to do is some paths, some raised decking, and some more sheds. I am the only idiot that now has to mow the lawn around the unfinished house.

Well if that's wrong.....

Sadly I don't have time for another trip to NI in the near future, although my other half would leap at the opportunity to have another holiday there, I'm sure! I used AutoCad to do all the house drawings and just added the main plumbing and heating system layouts as layers on the master drawings, so I could print off plans that focussed on just one system at a time. I did the same with the electrical installation layout, the MVHR ducting and even the kitchen cabinets and the major items of furniture, which made planning where things could fit a fair bit easier.

Just put yourself on eBay. I'd recommend a 99p start

I think this sums up one of the reasons I would have no qualms about recommending MBC - they listen and they are constantly trying to improve things. Be it this or the upstanding detail I saw on another thread that seems to lessen the difficulty that I had building the wall out so water dripping off the wall cleared the EPS.

@jack That was my experience of them as well. I met them at the Swindon Build Centre event, the people there seemed very knowledgeable so I sent off exactly what I wanted, and got something completely different back, I went back to them 3 times with exactly what I wanted and they just didn't respond.

@bassanclan I wasn't a plastic fan, but after reading @JSHarris's conclusions on EB I had no choice other than to realise that it's undeniably more practical in certain installations. Having a manifold gives you the non-localised isolation benefits, part commissioning, and much better flow to the outlets vs standard / series plumbing. If you wish to reduce the number of runs / manifold ports simply tee the WC's off the bath cold or basin cold and run 15mm instead of 10mm. Remember that wall hung / concealed WC's will already have built in localised isolation so it's just down to having hidden T's etc where you can't get to them afterwards. Fwiw, if I were plumbing my own house from scratch I would 100% deffo be doing 'point to point' continuous runs of Hepworth plastic for a ( hidden ) joint free installation. It's a no brainer tbh, and even though I'm currently plumbing two 2 bed flats completely in copper as we speak, ( standard series plumbing so push fit joints are a no go due to size / practicality / cost ), I'd still convert when the job dictated it. With posi-joists it's just like pulling electrical cable in, and you could DIY first fix a large property, with a labourer to help handle the coils, in a few days. It also removes the risk of hot works which is a huge worry in a TF house. Have a sit down and reconsider your position with the copper, and that's coming from a die-hard copper fan. .

Thats my experience of EVERY energy company I've spoken to

We have the 'auto boost' in the 4 bathrooms and the MVHR controller, which has a boost function, in the utility. Our cooker hood is not compatible with the cooker hood mode of the MVHR so theres a plan to put a current sensor on the supply for that to work. On our MVHR, any boost signal runs the boost for 10 mins, you can't turn it off.

Just sit them flush. I was speaking to a decorator about this - he does tape and fill but says he never specs TE boards as the finish is fine without. No need for gaps - he said if there are, just put caulk in the gaps before taping. I meant to respond about boards to floor but couldn't remember why I left a gap. Partly it makes boards easier to fit but also because I also thought if there was a spill it might be better if the boards don't touch the floor. Decorator said he'll come down and give me some lessons that will save me hours and avoid having to sand everything. Will share once he's been J

Simple.... Two solenoids holding the rail onto its brackets - at sunrise the pins retract and the rail falls to the floor..... you have til sunset to reset it manually ...