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Whilst our master bedroom is upstairs, we have (as closely as possible) replicated this downstairs so that we can switch to ground floor living if/when it becomes necessary. We also have gone for wide doors everywhere, no thresholds internally (Karndean flooring throughout), flush thresholds on all external doors (including onto patio/deck), lowered kitchen worktops on handleless cupboards, no wall cupboards, eye-level (actually slightly lower than normal) ovens with slide and hide doors, a four burner hob with all four arranged in a single row so no need to reach across to back burners, midi height fridge and freezers (no point having fulĺ height if you can't reach the top shelves), inward opening windows with the handles positioned low on the frame, low tray walk in showers with low level shower controls, simple push button privacy locks on the bathroom doors and a fully open plan kitchen/dining/living space.

Have moved around to the back today.

Jeremy wins on a technicality. You know when I said "you" you know I meant the pair of you. Anyway congratulations. I know what it's like to be building slowly with no third party help.

Tree house roof tomorrow...maybe!

Well that works...bored now:

Faye has just laid the very last brick?

You have just laid the very last brick?

I've not been in town to see how the build is going for weeks. So I had to sneak into my own site today. There has been a nice amount of progress. I am loving the double height spaces and the glass front to the upstairs landing. Master bedroom looking back towards the dressing room. Chimney breast and glazed gable in the master bedroom. View from upstairs landing. Double height upstairs study, when I was in here I wondered about putting in a roof window. Eaves space that I asked about using for storage in another thread. View along bathrooms/en suites/dressing rooms. Velux windows go in soon. Guest room dressing room. Not sure about the airtightness membrane. First stud walls going in. Another view from the upstairs landing. Games room, really sunny with the Velux windows. View from the top. View down into study from games room. Chimney and balcony at the end of the house. Eaves space in my daughter's bedroom. She wants a secret area in here.

If you look at that list there Ian nothing that screams out of the ordinary yet it's so elegantly designed to make a difference for you in the future. It always amazes me when I walk round new houses that don't have even the simplest of adaptablity options included.

Historically, when houses were all built from small components by hand, labour costs dominated the cost of a house and land cost was relatively small. If you could supply the labour yourself (true self-build) you could save a lot of money. It's much less true now, when many components are pre-assembled and there is lots of expense involved in complying with the enormous bureaucracy. Of course, the self-build entertainment industry has built up the claims of money saving, even if you use a turnkey package - I suspect most of those claimed savings are just property inflation. I did self build a colour TV in the early 70s, when they were incredibly expensive. In the end it didn't save much (just like house building) but it was a very valuable experience. And people do make railways, boats and planes. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39945650

From my screed supplier: "Force drying of a Liquid Screed can begin as early as 7 days following installation of the screed by various methods. Commissioning (heating & cooling procedure) of under floor heating systems. Set flow temperature to 20-25ºC, maintain for a minimum of 3 days and then gradually increase the temperature in Max 5ºC increments to maximum operating temperature. This should be maintained for a further 7 days (water temperature should not exceed 55ºC for screeds), prior to returning to ambient temperature again in Max 5oC increments" Though I would check with your supplier first. And it would make for an uncomfortably hot build site!

And "scum" forming:

Another brick in the wall... Difficult to judge until the end, but brick acid is to hand. F

A couple more pics showing window profile detail. Not sure why the cladding looks blue in the 2nd pic. It's all in fact cream white.