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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40058074 When I heard this on the radio, the thing that jumped out was the comment that the National Grid was paying companies to use electricity at times of peak (wind and solar) generation so it could manage what was being generated. Wouldn't it be nice if domestic consumers were offered the same...

This was our build finance story. We owned a nice newish 4 bed and had paid down the mortgage substantially, also had some savings. When we stumbled across our new house (tired 1950's detached on 1/2 acre garden) we re-mortgaged the original property to the hilt and used the equity to help buy the new (old) house. Then rented out the original house to cover that mortgage and started planning our build. A few years later, we eventually sold the original house and had the capital (our build fund) in the bank. No need for a self build mortgage we thought. However when we informed our lender that we were planning 'substantial' works on the house (i.e. demolishing and rebuilding) they got cold feet and after much faffing, released us from the mortgage penalty free - however that ate much of the build fund. We then got a self build from Ecology, who were very easy to deal with but have strict criteria on lending to passive or SAP A projects. They were happy to give us the whole chunk upfront or release it as we needed it, there were no inspections or surveys to release funds. On our self build team, Mrs B is the visionary and I am the one who figures out how to do it. Works quite well and irritatingly she's almost always right with her decisions.... (even after I've said about six times - thats impossible, we cant afford that, that will look stupid etc...)

We did this, on top of the 4ft stone-faced block wall that forms our North boundary, the one with the big retaining wall. We used those bolt-down 75mm post holders, secured to the top of the blocks with 4 thunderbolts. If doing it again I think I'd have had the concrete-in post holders built in to the wall, with the sockets on top, really just to make it look a bit neater.

FFS don't buy a wreck and sink a fortune into it trying to make it something it'll never be! Some realise this too late

I am wondering about putting the silhouette of a large sitting dog in my wall in a contrasting brick colour just to give an interesting twist to the road, but I do not know if I have the nerve . F

Common issue here. If you can live in No 2 house, sell No 1 first, build, then sell No 2 If you can't live in No 2, caravan, sell No 1 FIRST , then build. Or, like many here, make it up as you go along because of national and local level policy changes during the course of the build. Ian

I'm just a bit peeved that I didn't need to turn our meter box into a Faraday cage, to stop these daft things working, after all....................

Slow progress due to a combination of learning curve around window profiles and limited time on site, but it's moving in the right direction.

To finish this off... Decided to excavate outside the inspection chamber and cut a hole to take the new pipe. Cold chisel, hammer and a diamond blade on an angle grinder plus lots of patience and success! There was a great guide on paving expert website which recommend a nice flowing entry angle for the pipe making sure the bottom of the new pipe was level with the old. We used quick drying cement and did some neat sculpting once it had started to go off to make it all nice and smooth. The flow is right to left. Think this is called a kidney...new pipe in the centre of the pic. It's not obvious from this pic but the kidney is on a swept bend which is also dropping away underground from the new pipe entry. Better view of the made good kidney. And in this one you can see the 4m run up to the new WC. Only one elbow and one swept bend needed. It's all tested and working so pretty pleased.?