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I no longer required site insurance and arranged a one year 'Unoccupied Buildings and Contents Insurance' policy with Sennocke at a much lower premium. Their telephone number is 01732742102.

This a subject that will crop up in every house design from entrance to back door as well as room linking. If you need to develop a long thin house or long thin extension, it should be a priority to consider the nature of the links or corridors as much as the rooms themselves. That may seem obvious, but I'm sure we've all been in offices, hotels, guest houses and even recently designed homes where evidently no consideration has been paid to the links and passages. There should at least be a naturally lit, or moving artificially lit 'goal' at the end. There should also be events, activities, punctuation, changes in wall/daylight, especially if they are unavoidably long. Now I know these spaces are being paid for at the same rate as the rest of the house, so why not make the space and goal work for its cost, for the delight of all? As mentioned earlier in the blog 'Bays and Oriels', a useful and calm daylit spot can be created along a corridor, perhaps associated with built in shelving and of comfortable seating and small table, to act as a workspace, for homework, contemplation of the garden view or the last of the days sun or a bird table...all to taste. The corridor could be totally shelved for books, records or CDs, a postcard collection or even a well lit mini art gallery, or planted wall, depending on your hobbies and fancies. It is something I've often tried to design into my projects, houses that never to seem offer enough storage. The theme is expanded at least in 'A Pattern Language' by Chris Alexander et al (a must) and Frank Lloyd Wright designs (see Wright Sized Houses by Diane Maddex) along with other design books reviewed in my book "Self build Home...the Last Thing You Need is an Architect"...info on Cargocollective.com. Cheers, Caliwag

I looked at the Starck rimless on Megabad when I was ordering my WCs. In the end I didn't go that way as I thought they looked a bit odd, it looks like they have a rim at the back but not the front. The Villeroy and Boch ones look exactly the same. They promote that they are easier to clean. I really don't think that toilets needs cleaned right up under the rim. I am not aware of toilet rims ever causing a problem in the long history of their existence. So I think it really just comes down to personal preference. Maybe they flush better by swirling the water around faster. Again I don't find any issues with current toilets so went with what I thought looked better.

I might be taking you too literally - but I disagree. There will NOT be a "re-think". Societal development does not happen by "thinking" or grand design, it happens by collective action, or more specifically a series of action. That might be action by disruptive (yuk!) startups, volte face by populist governments, fashions, trends, world events... anything. No-one at any point will "think" this through beyond short termist positions, of which I would count things like governmental market control, new product development and so on. Examples like "where will the charging points go" are very myopic. A solution will be found, of some sort. If there's no solution, it probably won't happen in the first place, or people in tower blocks simply won't have cars... sometimes bad shit happens. No technical development in the history of mankind has happened with zero disadvantages. Even the wheel flattened people's toes now and then. As such it's almost pointless discussing what might be, because no-one knows, and anyone that does know is (a) lying, (b) deluded or (c) trying to sell you something. We'll learn and have to live with it either way.

There are so many separate issues that get clumped together with transport that it is sometimes hard to disaggregate them. So a few points: Lithium Sulphur batteries. The energy density may reach 5 times the energy density of Lithium Ion batteries, so maybe reaching a practical level of 1 kWh/kg. Gasoline is 13 kWh/kg. Now there are advantages in motor efficiencies that help electric vehicles (90% compared to 45% for an IC). So still a big gap. There is also a lot of life left in the IC engine. I don't think that the charge/discharge cycle numbers are that great yet, maybe 1000. Greenhouse gases. It is probably better to centrally generate (or at least MW locally) than burn fuel in a vehicle. The grid is getting cleaner and will continue to do so for a couple of decades. Other pollutants. The main ones are particulates and oxides of nitrogen. These are relatively short lived in the environment, but have a long term affect on health. Getting rid of high concentrations of these is a good thing. EVs will help greatly here. Traffic Congestion. This may not change greatly with the introduction of EVs. It is really a function of the economy. The better off we become, the worse the traffic becomes, unless there is intervention from governments/councils/planners. Walking/Cycling. While we still mix vehicles and pedestrians/cyclists, we will have a problem. Vehicles easily kill and main people, people hold up traffic. Major rethink is needed. Living in the South West, and liking both walking/cycling, it is not the vehicles that puts me off, it is the weather. I don't think that covered walkways are the answer though, they just feel like a good placed to get mugged. I don't know the best way around this one. I am sure there are many other things that affect transport and new technologies being introduced. One being costs. Oddly enough, in the past, generally the more you paid for a car the higher the performance and the less mileage you got from the fuel. With EVs it seems that the more you pay, the better distance you get from a charge. This is not strictly true as Tesla recently showed by remotely upgrading the battery packs for Florida residence (so they could flee when the hurricane hit). Because battery energy density, and power delivery is pretty poor compared to gasoline/diesel, vehicles need to be larger and heavier, not always a good thing. I saw a new Leaf today it is not a small car, nor is the ZOE, but then again, not many cars are small today.

Yep you want to avoid the cowboys:

The audacity for him to be shouting at you?!!!!!! Probably not used to a 'mere woman' (and whom knows nothing about boarding) complaining about his fine workmanship!! I would have been tempted to tell him to pack up and go in any case but I guess you have to think of the long term and any delays that would have caused trying to find a replacement. If he's on any of those findacowboybuilder sites, it may be worth putting your comments on there. But well done! In a few months I no doubt will be putting my plasterboarding fiasco on here too!

I still think if he had started the shouty match with me he would have been off the site. Thankfully I have never had that with anyone on our site. I did have a "heated discussion" with the joiner on a house I wired last year. That was very unpleasant. I nearly walked off the job as I found it almost impossible to work with him, it was only the fact I personally new the owner of the house that I stuck it out and carried on, trying to find out what days the joiner would not be there so I could work without having to interact with him.