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Right...practical cap on... I've found with the "institutions" that a verbal complaint, such as with the NHS or to the head teacher in the playground sees aims to pacify you but often nothing gets done. The only thing that works nowadays is formal letter of complaint backed up with a copied email. For the 99% of "parents" who moan only one writes. And they don't want OFSTED seeing that without it having been dealt with. The thing is with big organisations that they all have "targets", "annual reviews" and complaints procedures. Everyone down the line is also fearful for their job security so doesn't want a black mark. I would write a formal letter of complaint, to the top, giving dates and naming names. Say obviously about the emotional & financial turmoil this has caused, that you would never have undertaken "this" if you hadn't been led to believe "that". And copy in the FSA. Google the lenders press and advertising slogans if helpful and try and throw that at them. Add in having a dig about their environmental policy (you should be able to find it online) and that denying you funds hardly fits in with it. Add in "being non supportive of self build, low energy homes etc". Do this on the basis of nothing lost nothing gained for a couple of hours of your time. Good luck.

I can't see why not, but you may need clarification, and perhaps a permit to discharge, from the Environment Agency. We cheated, because the stream is the other side of the lane, so did a percolation test in the band of porous soil where the surge tank was going to drain to. We knew this was hydraulically connected to the stream, via the hardcore under the lane, but as far as building control were concerned as long as that area passed the perc test we were OK. You may be able to make some sort of hidden porous "leak" to the stream, cover it up, then do a perc test in the area where you want to discharge your surge tank/pond. That might get around having to jump through hoops with the EA.

Debbie and I have been greatly heartened by all the support. I'll respond to all your PMs over the next few days. Some have caused a bit of a gulp. The rest of the family have rallied round and it looks as if we might be able to get to wind proof and water tight in October or early November. Might. That gives us the opportunity to avoid the expense of a caravan, or to put it more positively, get a taste of the real self-build experience. Who said retirement was about taking it easy?

Original house contained cheap UPVC windows that were ill fitted and would not match the new windows in the two extensions. So the decision was made to fit new windows throughout with the original plan to go for alu-clad wooden, nut resorted to UPVC due to cost and worries on how some of the alu-clad windows were constructed. Surprising how difficult it was to get quotes that were in an affordable category. Some companies needed numerous follow-up calls which was very frustrating in view of the fact that I would be spending approx £20k on their product. In the end, although I would have preferred to buy local, I ended up sourcing windows from abroad which ended up costing a lot less than anything UK-sourced and also meant they were passivhaus certified! Pity how many sectors in the UK shoot themselves in the foot by atrocious service which is partly down to them not wanting to deal with end clients/self-builders. There was a lot of email ping-pong, but I think that would have been the case with UK windows too, but they were at least keen to do business which didn't seem to be the case with many of the UK ones. The only area I was hesitant about was measuring the window openings which was further complicated by the fact that I was using special EWI brackets which would position the windows outside of the window opening itself. So I had to take into account the bracket measurements in addition to the window openings. I must have measured each opening at least 15 times before submitting my final order. Glad to say everything seems to fit (just 3 doors to fit now). Unloading some of the units was a bit precarious especially the 800kg 4.6x 2.3m slider using a standard forklift and then travelling 200m down the road! I got a local window company to help me fit the windows and of course they had no clue how to fit them with the EWI brackets. It took a while for them to admit that the client knew best in this case as he'd actually read the bloody instructions. Means I'll have to rectify their first window later on. External view: Next stage on the exterior, is to EWI all walls with circa 100mm insulation. Note the brackets above (this is the first window and the bottom bracket aren't fitted correctly, so will need to be fixed before EWI). The brackets will cause minimal thermal bridging at least and certainly be better than having a timber frame constructed all round the window frame. The external aluminium cills (sourced from Germany, cheaper and thicker than UK suppliers) will fix onto that bottom mini (grey) cill at the bottom. EWI will tuck in under frame (well all sides of frame of course): and will marry up with the insulation I plan to add under the internal cill also: My next job is to get started with the internal plastering, so I'm looking at how to detail the internal reveals and cills. My plan is to insulate under the cill also. Cavity wall will most likely be filled with PIR where I can force it down or EPS beads (with a bit of PVA). I'll then fix 60mm PIR board to the now insulated cavity wall using PU adhesive. I'll have to channel out a bit of the PIR to accommodate the window brackets so the board sits flat: I should have enough clearance then to fit a wooden cill on top of the PIR. Not sure how best to affix that to PIR. Maybe the plasterboard reveals will sit on top of the cill and help pin it down. Probably overkill with the EWI, but my intention was to also insulate the reveals (see grey EPS example above) with 20-25mm PIR board and then plasterboard over the top. Just need to leave sufficient space to get at the internal beading in case the glass ever needs replacing (sons and footballs....). The other consideration is to decide where to stick the air tightness tape. Initial thought was to stick that on face of window frame and onto brickwork before I stick down the PIR board. But how well does the stuff stick to clean brickwork? I could add a further layer of tape from window frame and stick to top of PIR board before the final cill goes down. I'll try and post some drawings up here later on. Not great, but some of the intended detail:

We moved in in April. Second fix takes a long time (plus the well-documented tiling, shower tray and splashback cockups). Finally onto the Hardieplank fibre cement cladding. Screwed up the project planning, by letting the scaffolding go before we were ready to clad, so its a cherry picker. Slower than using scaffolding but it is getting the job done. Not too long now ...

It seems that Google/Nest are launching an "Internet of Things" full home security system, with an alarm, internet connected video etc: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41336093 Sounds an interesting idea, BUT, and it's a big BUT, would I want to trust Google with all that data about our house? Given their track record for what I believe is abuse of personal data, I'm not at all sure I'd want to trust a our home security to such a system. It's bound to become a prime target for hackers, and as a former IT security colleague was very fond of reminding us at any opportunity, you can never be 100% sure that any internet connected system is secure. The same individual was also fond of reminding us that we spent many times more on our network security, per user, than practically any other organisation, and he still couldn't be 100% sure our systems were secure.

Another 'hot press' ? ?

Well I got 2of these off fleabay and very pleased with them. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stone-Quadrant-Square-Rectangle-Tray-For-Shower-Enclosure-Glass-Door-Free-Waste/281721335445?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 as an aside I just priced ab shower panels and , well " gulp" how much???

Thats a clever workaround. I've spoken to the environment and they agree in principal it should be fine but agree that the stream doesn't officially exist. They also didn't know how or what the process is for getting it verified.

Buy them untreated. You can get Sika for £30 for 5 litres of the universal one and a sprayer is £9.... that's all of them done and it's quick and you can also use it to do other stuff too.

Servicing included. I have mains services, the house is still habitable, but its easier than having door key issues and boots on my floor. The interesting thing is that we seem to have ground-nesting wasps in the front lawn, right where the bog will go. I'll soon see on the CCTV if any of the guys makes a rapid exit :-)

Mitigation: Look for online examples of the same problem being successfully resolved in your LPA. One thing of which you can be almost certain: you aren't the first person to be faced with this issue. Read carefully and look at how the discussion between planner and developer evolved. My LPA allows you to do that (because Wyre is fairly fastidious in including all documentation), but it's a Hell of a slog. Proper document naming conventions, orderly file hierarchies are rare. Very few people have the skills or experience to do this important job properly. You have a tremendous amount of reading to do, and none of it will be wasted even if you don't find examples of what you need to focus on.

I bought my controller from a Carrier depot in Southampton, forgot what I paid for it.

OH and I started off looking at kit type houses - everything from DanWood to Huf. Huf was just to horrify ourselves with what we would never be able to afford! Eventually, though, we decided that none of them really offered what we wanted and by the time you had altered them enough to what you had in mind, you might as well go down the individual route. One of the particular things that put me off the kit houses was the insistence on the foundations being laid to an incredibly tight tolerance but giving very little in the way of help and guidance as to who to use (apart from one company). We bought a plot in north Dorset, near Sturminster Newton, with an old pre-fab bungalow on it that will be demolished and replaced with the new house. I found the plot by keeping a keen eye on Rightmove and property sites. Re. the design, I 'interviewed' several architect/architectural technicians firms as well as seeing a couple at self build shows. Some I really didn't like and so wouldn't use, some were way over the top on their fees but there was still a good selection of reasonably priced, personable individuals that we felt we could work with and who were relatively local to us. It's hard to be open minded and not be overwhelmed at the beginning, but don't be afraid to change your mind - it's your own money you will be spending!

me too! Once we have finished on our renovation, I am sure we'd be up for the odd weekend in Lancashire! the banks are right &&$$!!'s.

Bit of an aside, but that's very interesting. We're plagued with moles at times and if I knew what the frequency of the vibrations was perhaps I could build a better trap.

So The final thing I never mentioned has my final finish isn't the normal finish like most people have tiles or wood!! It's going to be a golden fossil paving slab

I'd just get your electrician to fit a charge point that has no data transmission capability. There are several suppliers of EVSE equipment, and they are easy to connect. I have two, a 30A one at one and of the drive and 15A one at the other, with the 30A one having a standard IEC 62196-2 socket, rather than a fixed trailing lead, so visitors can use it. I designed and made both my EVSEs, but there are kits available from people like http://evbitz.uk for those who are competent to build them, or you can just buy a ready built EVSE on it's own from someone like Rolec. There's about £100 worth of parts in an EVSE, including the (expensive) connector cost, so not a great deal to be saved over the price of a kit, but a fair bit to be saved over the cost of a ready-made unit. Be aware that you need to know the type of connector the car uses, though. Most still use the J1772 connector, and a lot of charge points are supplied with a tethered J1772 connector on a lead, but I foresee a time when there will be a switch to the IEC62196-2 connector, so a charge point with an IEC 62196-2 socket instead of a flying lead may be more future-proof.