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Well that took a LOT longer than expected. I shan't bore you with writing the details of all the balls ups I had with getting the rest of the slates I needed but finally the back is slated. Now It's just the little mono pitch to slate, lead work, ridge, cast the cils, fit the windows and doors and I will be officially watertight ?

Good days work today. Granite dry fitted. Turns out it's not to bad to work with. Just used a 4.5'' grinder with a diamond blade and a plant sprayer to keep it wet.

Had my 3 mins and finally got planning permission thank god for that. There was no objectors so it was pretty straight forward. Thanks everyone

Unfortunately I am that man...chatting to the sales guy in plumb world turned around to see my big lad pulling his trousers up...he's got lots of autism and just did what came naturally in the display pan, oops! Sales guy was brilliant and sent us on our way with a wry smile, said it'd take him a minute to make good. I did offer but he insisted. Never been back again

Seems to be coming together well. Currently at about £3300. Ikea units with an oak trim strip made from some oak skirting :-) Picking up the granite tomorrow AM hopefully we will be looking and hopefully pretty bespoke. That'll be £300 and £90 for the acrylic.

A few simple suggestions. 1. Lose the vestibule It is too small to be of any use, we have a larger one currently and still stand in the hall whilst people walk through. I have done away with it in the new place. Without the vestibule you will have a much larger and more pleasant area in front of the stairs. 2. Could you put the washing machine in the hot press? Depends on if you like to hang washing outside, but if you use a dryer, then keeping all the washing upstairs is a lot easier. 3. I would always rather have fitted wardrobes in bedrooms if possible. 4. What was the architect thinking with the chimney up the middle of the wall in the bedroom. Does the lounge really need such a big fireplace taking up a lot of room. If it does I would try to route the flue out the wall, not up the way. Decide what fire you want before you start, it has been a nightmare trying to get fires to fit with all the flue requirements. 5. As mentioned try to get larger walk in showers without doors. 6. Move the door into the kitchen/dining room behind the stairs. Walking in facing the island so close to the door will feel quite unpleasant and will be bad for circulation. It's better to enter the middle of the room with the option of going right or left. The dining area will also probably be the quietest least used area so better to walk into. You could then have a straight stair and wider hall. 7. Turn around the WC and enter from the hall. You can then lose the rear hall and incorporate it into the utility room. 8. There are currently no cupboards downstairs, there will be space if you lose the rear hall and rearrange that area. 9. Put cistern and pipework under the eaves in the upstairs shower room. 10. How low exactly do the walls go in the bedrooms? If that roof slopes at 45 degrees in the master bedroom then you will end up at floor level at the end of the room. You might have to cut a metre off the room. I would not really want to end up much lower than 1.2/1,3m at the side wall. That room might be much smaller than it looks. Even the other bedrooms may have an issue.

We also have vaulted ceilings upstairs and had room inlets at around 500mm above the floor. We used 204mm x 60mm ducting for that short length. The extracts in the bathrooms were through an extra wide internal wall between the ensuite and bathroom where we used 125mm round ducting.

Hope she likes it ... and it is a good job you did not meet Esmeralda.

Grabbed a customer by the throat a couple of months ago after being messed about for some money. Best thing I ever did. Got the balance and like to think I made it easier for every following trade that bloke ever uses! Sometimes diplomacy can only get you so far!

I misjudged this. I've put in a traditional number of switches to cover multi-way switching of lights and a touch screen panel thinking I'd regularly need access to the app. Could have got away with half the switches and the touchscreen is now used to stream the output from the camera at our entrance Loxone has been able to control all my heating and cooling hardware. Modbus to the Nibe heat pump controller, IP directly to the Airflow MVHR and relays to vents and blinds. Not fully configured yet, that's a work in progress, but the basics are working.

You do know those bathrooms are for display purposes only, don't you...

It may be hidden in here: http://www.uk-ncm.org.uk/

Run your build through EPC software it should give you a new figure

The copyright laws include an express exemption for private research, study and commentary. F

Interesting 63-page Phase 2 report, of which about 2/3 to 4/5 are references, appendices and the normal stuff. And it ends up recommending NO ACTION. Google and the map interface on the council w/s are useful ways to find things sometimes. In your shoes I would very carefully consider employing an appropriate professional to review my application before submission, as a quarter way house between self-planning and getting a professional to do the whole thing. I would want someone with significant (= 5+ years) local experience of this type of development with this particular Council, and ideally in the same geographical area. I would find one by asking in independent local estate agents for their MRICS, and then have a conversation with the MRICS to see if they are appropriate or can recommend a professional colleague. You could also look at people who wrote reports for previous applications that impress you. When we did our (housing estate on family land) Planning App I chose the chap who was in the local paper stories who won the permission for a controversial housing estate. Should you go down that route, the brief of what you want to know is crucial as you need to use their time efficiently. I think I would expect to need up to a day of their time, including a detailed 1-2 hour feedback and questions meeting, and budget up to £400-£500 - perhaps making clear that it was advice for which I would not expect liability cover. Negotiating your terms is quite tactical. The benefit for you would be a better understanding of how the LA will approach it, and more corners k ocked off your planning app, and what areas you can de-emphasize etc. eg You could potentially save your barrier and soil costs if they know information that helps your case. That is for your judgement on the Time and Cost/Benefit and Risk Management triangle. On the topsoil, whether they ask for a landscape plan or statement or not, you can include one (and to design your house) which involves removing minimal topsoil during construction and afterwards. That is *if* you are confident that the soil is OK. You could design it as a family football garden (ie the existing surface as lawn and raised beds) or similar. Personally I dislike the habit of micromanagement of developments years after completion - it is another example of planning overreach. Apply KISS. Like the Heritage Statement, it could just be a para in the D&A perhaps with a sketch plan. You may need to exclude most of the back garden from construction traffic to prevent disturbance. Would they buy that? What does your Soil-chap say when you ask him how much soil would need to be removed? You could of course also use your dug-up topsoil for reprofiling areas of the garden. Not sure how it is handled, but I can see someone deciding on the basis of the Soil Report that it must be treated as Controlled Waste or something similar, just in case - I have infinite faith in the ability of big organisations to make excessive decisions because it seems sensible at the time. At which point your skip bill becomes a little larger than it was before. Perhaps other BHers know better on that. If you want certainty then it is one of your two options. Over to you. X marks the spot :-). F

No apology needed. We all do it all the time. Project vs topic. Tricky decision. I usually end up with 2 of each as a compromise :-).

Great thread - I find it instructive, to remember that stress cuts both ways and in all directions both enhancing perception while often being the root cause of unintended consequences. Reflecting after reading the thread so far I particularly feel that my other half is going through this as well and she still works. Curiously while I am buried in the details she gets her stress from seeing the bigger picture and this past week she has been worrying about the project - why did we do this - remind me, will it be OK. Yes I say, we always said we would do this, the money is in place and I don't think they can take it away - it may not be enough but if that happens we will finish the project out of revenue, it was designed by a proper Architect so the design should be good, it should cost less than it is worth (not that that matters), we have the skills and the time plus life insurance for either of us to finish it if anything happens to the other. To me that looks like all bases are covered. However I get the sense that the my male approach of providing down to earth evidence based practical advice in a situation like this has only limited impact on the stressors she has. I (perhaps we) need to find ways of de-stressing in the affective domain (attitudes, perceptions and values) where I suspect the real stress arises. I am therefore stressed by her stress and I need to help her differently which will, in turn, help me. So if you want practical advice I guess its to try and see things from the other half's perspective.

I'm exactly like this. It doesn't matter if you miss a stud once or twice with the nailer (so long as nobody is standing on the other side!) but once you reach the point where things are going to be on show, you have to be much more careful- I've found that I've slowed down quite a bit. Everyone else seems to think it's daft that I'm more apprehensive about fitting s piece of skirting board than I was about installing a joist, or pouring founds. On the general question of stress and timescale, I've found my enthusiasm waxing and waning throughout the project. I wish I could go back to the very start when I was spending hours on Sketchup trying out different layouts (none of which I used in the end- the final one only emerged after I'd started plasterboarding). If you could bottle than endless energy, and use a bit of it at the end of the build, wouldn't that be wonderful?

Following on from this there is another benefit - I've been on some anti-anxiety drugs for about 4-5mths now. The net benefit apart from some more mental clarity is that i'm much more comfortable walking about up on the top of the scaffold :-)

My parents in law have a number of wealthy friends - sold their businesses for £10-30 million type of well-off (after years of raking in hundreds of thousands of quid per annum from these businesses). All are retired with huge houses, expensive cars every couple of years, large holiday houses in France, trips all over the world. Yet to a person, all they seem to care about is foreigners, benefits cheats, regulations inconveniencing them ("health and safety gone mad!") and the amount of tax the government "steals" from them. I have a lot of difficulty sitting in the same room hearing them talk about how hard they worked to get where they are, as if every poor person just needed to a work a bit harder to get everything they've had. Oh, and it seems they all read the Daily Wail! I think the problem is that selfishness makes you unhappy. All the research shows that true happiness comes from giving, not getting. If these people spent a bit less time (and money) trying to fill the voids in their own lives with "stuff", and a bit more time trying to make the lives of others better, I'm sure they'd be happier. Not really a conversation you can have with them of course!

It's not clear, as the case law is old and hinges on judgements made on cases that pre-date the introduction of the Council Tax. The key point that came out back when I ran into trouble with our council snooper was that in order for council tax to be levied the property has to be valued by the VOA and also has to be in a condition whereby it can be considered to be a rateable hereditament. This hinges on a couple of bits of case law, that have defined some circumstances when a particular property could be deemed a hereditament, and the judgements are here: http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2011/2125.html&query=rgm&method=boolean http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKUT/LC/2011/RA_63_2008_Dec.html I know, beyond doubt, that not having a potable water supply to the house makes in uninhabitable, as far as the law goes surrounding it being an hereditament. There is some indication that not having a means of foul waste disposal may also render it uninhabitable, but I think this is less reliable, as there could be a counter argument that a portable toilet needs to be on site in order to comply with HS&E laws. It's possible that not having an electricity supply may also scupper the council tax bods, but again I'm not sure I'd rely on it, as there are plenty of people who live off-grid and still pay council tax. The most reliable way of keeping a house that's still under construction in a state where council tax cannot be charged would be to ensure it has no potable water supply. Our council, who were rude, belligerent, broke several laws when snooping around and were generally determined to get us to pay up, had to admit that not having potable water meant they were unable to issue a notice of intended completion, and so start the VOA process that leads to the charging of council tax. In our case, because we had a borehole, I had the water privately tested to make sure it was safe, but did not inform the environmental health people at the council and did not have the official environmental health water testing done. I will admit I did this out of spite, as the council had annoyed me by their attitude and accusations. As a consequence we had around an extra year of paying no council tax. Had the council behaved reasonably then I would have had the water tested earlier and paid the council tax earlier, but they put my back up, and this was my way at getting back at them.

I've tried to persuade SWMBO on this. Two dishwashers, no cupboards. Take out what you want, use, put in the other. When full, swap over.

Apologies - got my Guides mixed up. It was the Domestic Building Services Guide that was updated in 2013 not the Ventilation Guide (still at 2010 version)