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Bonjour from sunny Newtownards. Another first-timer here, trying to pull off that miraculous money-saving build. We're at contract on a site currently near Carrowdore, and are working with Shaun Baxter from Irish House Plans on a design. There's FPP on the site retained on footings, but we'll be reapplying to get our "own" home. I've had discussions with Kilbroney re. a TF build and it sounds like they'll be good to offer whatever level of support I require. We'll see if any of the other TF providers want to play too. We've someone trusted for the groundworks I intend to do all the interior except for the spread. My background is in industrial and lab equipment repair and so I'm comfortable doing the electrical, plumbing and heating (with a little help from my friends, lol) as well as the insulation, airtightness MVHR and boarding. I hope I can offer something to the collective as much as take. David

Good afternoon, To explain the title. We bought an old derelict forge/smithy with a 200 year old cottage attached in about an acre some 2 years ago, just a couple of miles from Berwick upon Tweed. During that time we have not forged ahead. At least I have found this forum, it's great that people want to share( warts and all) and already I have picked up some useful info. Planning delays , namely from bats (which we do not have), but our neighbours opposite do. There were problems with concerns about contamination from the forge, to cut a long story short, the building was only ever used to shoe horses but the vendor thought that calling it a forge would give it more appeal and satisfying the guys from environmental health took time. Plus we scaled down the project to a single story with 2 bedrooms mainly to suit our budget but also we decided that the two of us did not need anything bigger, still plenty of space for visitors. We have now removed what remains of the forge (lost count of how much we shifted on that) dug foundations/drains for extension to cottage, gutted the cottage digging out about 100tonnes to allow us to lay our slab which will be finished by the weekend. The plan now is for the joiner to start 1st week of June. It feels like we are finally making progress. Looking forward to reading my way through the posts Cheers Karen

I fear this is correct. A lot of them genuinely feel they are doing gods work - what their religion demands - and fighting to right injustices etc. They feel just as morally justified as someone fighting in WW2 in the french resistance. I would want it to be made more difficult for them to believe that. I would like to see a clear statement from every leader of a muslim country and every islamic religious leader - stating without any caveats that they completely condemn these attacks - that they represent the opposite of islam - and nobody who commits such attacks can consider themselves a muslim. That would make it more difficult for people to believe these attacks are demanded by their religion. It would also clarify that the majority of the islamic world do not support the attacks - just a fringe of idiots. Some islamic leaders would refuse to make such a statement - and then we would know they are part of the problem.

I was never in London around the time of the Troubles (and I suspect day to day it wasn't as bad as your experience), but I understand there was a similar stoicism involved there. I had exactly that conversation with someone today. Far more people die on the UK's roads every week than were killed in this attack. We just have this guttural reaction to events like this that the drip of "ordinary" deaths don't seem to involve. I supposed it's called "terrorism" for a reason.

Congratulations. Keep it damp to avoid it drying out too fast and developing surface cracks. Just a note on pressurising the underfloor heating pipes. Where it’s fixed to steel mesh with cable ties or similar it’s fine but if you’ve underfloor heating in a thin screed which is put in near the end rather than the start of the project and it’s clipped down with the plastic staples which are just pushed into insulation than it can come up with concrete pumps or wheel barrows going over it. It’s not the pipe that fails but the plastic staples that come loose in the insulation. In this case the additional weight of the water in the pipes help keep it down and stop the pipes floating to the top of a thin screed. If the pipes are full of air instead of heavier water they can float to the top of a screed.

Hi, My drying room / wine cellar is now complete - using 22mm stainless steel pipe with a center support : The pipes feel very sturdy and can take plenty of weight. Many thanks for everyones help. - reddal

Tbh if you've a marked line and things are real tight then there's always the multi tool. Oh, don't forget to deburr the cut pipes. Bit of sandpaper / gloves / "DON'T FLUSH" sign in the WC above! Tbh "DON'T USE" might be be better as No1s and 2s might displace water down the stack without flushing. G'teed thd wife/kids will want to use it when you do the job.

I had a couple of colorcoat roofs installed by the these guys and was very happy with them and the roof. I didn't go the DIY route because I was pretty much doing everything else so happy to pay more for this part of the build. I'm not sure if you are installing yourself or not but I wouldn't hesitate to call them as I suspect they could answer your questions pretty quick (maybe while getting an install quote). I also have a copy of the guarantee if you want to have a look. http://www.steelroofinstallersuk.com/contact-us/

That's a really silly idea...believe me I've thought of it! Getting the annealing right to flatten them out is a bitch though. Too much heat and they just crinkle up:

You can get exactly the same electricity usage information by just fitting a simple wireless energy monitor, in fact we have one that British Gas handed out free a few years ago when we switched to them. Smart Meters have no advantages for consumers, in fact the limited evidence so far suggests they are causing significant billing problems, for a host of reasons. Also, as Ferdinand rightly says, they are insecure and give utility companies a lot of potential control over your supply (the latter being why they are so enthusiastic about them). There's also a major problem at the moment in that there is a lack of proper compatibility between meters from different suppliers. Change energy supplier and you may well find that your Smart Meter stops working as a Smart Meter, and reverts back to being a dumb meter. If I was at all cynical, I'd say that this may well be a deliberate move to try and encourage customers to stay with a particular supplier, rather than look around for the best deal each year or so.

They are not secure enough, they are not universally compatible between different companies, and they potentially give outside bodies the power to control my electricity without me being able to do very much about it easily or necessarily knowing what is happening, or consenting, That is why I refused one.

Erm...my "years" are a bit different to others!

If the 'excessive' presence only serves to stop any 'momentum' with any like minded individuals, then it will be welcome and possibly life saving. There is no right way to fight or deter these deluded, despicable people, but any visible measure is obviously better than none, but how do you combat terrorism? I'd not like to be tasked with that responsibility, nor to receive the blame and ridicule when it still proves ineffective. God speed to the organisations and individuals who do their utmost to keep us safe whilst we go about our business, and let's be grateful for the liberties we enjoy in this country as a result. My oldest daughter is 8, and I couldn't imagine waking up to that bed being empty. RIP.

The British mentality sometimes beggars belief, if social media is anything to go by. Soldiers patrolling key buildings and public spaces - "OTT, cancel the election, politically motivated, bla bla bla. " Of course if they did nothing and something *did* happen - 'government did nothing, why were they so complacent, yawn yawn yawn.' Why are we a country full of so many self haters? Why are we a country full of so many people who don't believe that governments might actually act in what they see as the best interests of the general population? I frankly don't care if it cannot be proven that soldiers will make us safer - if someone in a position of responsibility thinks its the right thing to do, it's no problem for me - I trust that decision. Better safe than sorry is fine with me. I just get rather down about why so many in our country love nothing than to berate our country no matter what. It's bonkers.

Answers in the thread title posted on Ebuild here: (Some of these views may have changed, but it is still all useful grist for your mill. @Declan52 @ProDave @JSHarris @JSHarris @Stones @jack @jack There is another thread buried deeper in Ebuild, which I aim to have a look at later.

Not that I'm self building but..... - Should have done better at school - So I could have paid someone else to do it all

The thing we're finding difficult is balance our desire for perfection with the reality of what's on offer. My biggest weakness is the desire to do everything myself and thinking and often saying " oh! That'll only take my x hours" when in reality it'll take me 6 times x hours.

As we are on the national park we were not allowed to burn. The 1950's house we demolished had a similar level of poor quality timber. Full of nails and in general poor quality, I put an advert on Gumtree for "free firewood" and an entire house worth was gone in one weekend. I could have got rid of it 5 times over!

Continued: - Not putting heating the bathrooms. Not quite a disaster, but even with passivhaus levels of insulation, the bathrooms are a little chillier than desirable in winter. - Didn't think hard enough about level access. Solvable, but would have been a LOT easier if we'd sorted it earlier. - Same with the garage - really didn't give enough thought to how we were going to manage the access ramp into the garage. More to follow, for sure...

I'd have specced more external blinds, there are a few windows that I mistakenly assumed would not need them but the sun does find its way in during the day. I'd have gone for fully hung door sets vs putting in the linings first and then getting the joiner to hang the doors after. He did a good job and I saved a few quid on the door furniture but it took way longer than expected so the labour cost racked up. Included architrave and skirting in the budget. Budgeted a lot more for general joinery - really underestimated the post 1st fix work needed to box in pipes etc and get ship shape for plastering plus lots of other small jobs On the other hand, things I'm really glad I did are Joining e-build (Buildhub predecessor) and never being afraid of asking a stupid question. Infact I almost relish it sometimes Meeting quite a few other self builders, mostly from this forum. Talking to others on the phone. Helped keep ourselves sane, shared good trades, learned a few tricks and was happy to pass on advice to the next generation Living on site in a caravan (even with wife, two kids and a cat). The basement - was a bit of a leap of faith but worked out really well External concealed blinds on east windows and on east and south Velux Splurging on really nice stairs and doors. Resin floor downstairs Choosing alu soffit & fascia instead of uPVC Squeezing in electric UFH in the bathrooms at the very last minute. Taking the time to be amazed that I managed to big a big old house with zero past experience, stay married and not be bankrupt at the end. I also learned to chill out a lot during the build and (try) not to get too stressed out. As they say, two types of problems - things you can change and things you can't, no point loosing sleep over the latter...

There aren't enough gigs of storage on the server for me to list them all, but some include: - assumed that external blinds would provide 100% darkness, so didn't allow for internal window coverings. They provide nothing of the sort, so everyone is presently getting woken very early by light leakage. Had I known this I've had built in recesses for proper light-proof window coverings. - didn't put in writing some things that I should have, which came back to bite me on the bum when it became my word against the other guy (I actually think he genuinely remembered it differently to me, but one thing I do have is a reliable memory for conversations, so he was definitely in the wrong). - specified in greater detail what level of finish I expected from trades. According to at least some trades we've had onsite, my idea of basic, workmanlike quality" is "perfection that no human being (or at least English tradesperson) can achieve". I think it just shows how poor many people are at their trades. - I carefully measured up all the window apertures once the frame was up, then proceeded to not get around to comparing them to the plans. Some were slightly short, and that triggered the biggest nightmare of the build (as we all know from watching Grand Designs, it's always the windows that cause the problems!) - kept putting off difficult decisions, which often meant making the decision at crunch time, while under stress (possibly even stress related to something unrelated). Also meant we sometimes paid over the odds for materials, because we didn't plan them far enough in advance. I could go on (and on, etc). I suspect that other people will have different issues. The ones I had above are largely related to my own personal weaknesses as a human, which include a dislike of confrontation, an intense dislike of telling people what to do (you really need to learn how to do this - I'm certainly better than I was as a result of the experience), and problems with making big decisions. I recommend examining your own weaknesses and seeing where you think they might get you into trouble!

The only thing I would do differently is sell the old house first before building the replacement. The inability after 2 years trying to sell the old house has left us working on the new house in dribs and drabs on an almost non existent pot of money.

Reading those threads, we have permission from about 80% of the people to copy posts across, so I will have a look at doing that later. F

From ebuild http://www.ebuild.co.uk/topic/15595-with-hindsight-what-would-you-have-done-differently/page__p__114558__hl__mistakes#entry114558