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The weather's been dry and warm for a while now so I thought I'd take advantage and finally finish the front garden. The paving went well and it didn't take long laying the turf and it's easier cutting grass than weeding! We added some tubs with lavender to finish off. I'll have to finish the bathroom now, no more excuses.

Needed something to give a focal point over the dining table. With limited budget as ever! Found a nine strand lamp in stollers reduced to a sensible price. Then added some kilner jam jars. Hopefully the ribbing and some squirrel cage bulbs will give a nice textured light around the white room.

Honeywell all the way, you poor misguided fool. ?

Well....it's not too shabby seeing as I'm from Swansea. It's not exactly just down the frog and toad now, is it? ?

Good stuff, it’s easy stuff to work just paint on in thin coats and watch the edges for it gathering.

Closer still, we have light in the light box and the breakfast bar is looking the part with a couple of coats of Osmo. Sink fitting proving challenging. None of my drill bits touch the granite. Good job we’ve got some offcuts to practice on with the new diamond core drills. I’m going to be really hacked off if this breaks the worktop!

Indeed. That’s why they wear skirts.

Yes that is the plan. Will get a load more CAT 6 by the sounds of it, its a 70mm duct so can get loads down it and there will be plenty of room for later projects. I will put 4 CAT 6 in. It was only the neutral and alarm I needed to send down to the house smoke alarms so the house alarms go off with the garden room ones and vice versa. I was using the millstone manor firex model where one common wire connects all the alarms so they go off together and there is (can be) a relay that interfaces to the house alarm wanted to KISS. Although you can double pole isolate the power to the garden room or the house which would mean that the smoke alarms in one place could be live from the other - might need rethink of that! So: (thanks all) 4 x CAT 6 1 x 6 core alarm cable. 1 x 3 core smoke alarm signal. (Assuming safe operation can be achieved) 1 x Draw rope (was going to be one anyway @Ferdinand.)

The proper name for dwangs!

The offspring of Noggin the Nog. Or do you want the other definition?

Thank you. Maybe one day but I've got plenty to keep me busy for the time being.

It's Indian Sandstone that has a honed finish. It's also thickness calibrated +/- 2mm so easier to lay. It was the last two pallets left in a sale so we only had 104 slabs to work with but we did the front path, side verandah and rear patio without breaking any. Very fortunate.

I should confess, a mate of mine does small hydro schemes for a living, so I have a passing interest in it. We cooked a tray of tatties on his dumpload one evening.

You don't need a Completion Certificate to reclaim VAT. Other forms of evidence such as proof of entry on Valuation Roll (for council tax) or a letter from a bank / building society confirming release of final stage payment secured against the building. Detailed in the guidance notes. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-refunds-for-diy-housebuilders-claim-form-and-notes-for-conversions-vat431c

Today's progress not massive but getting closer. We are on the hunt for a set of graded appliances so we can have the full champagne for lemonade experience. Looking for a neff steam oven, pyro oven, induction hob and either a microwave or a coffee machine subject to budget! Anyway on with the photos. The breakfast bar is made. Just need to fab up an angle iron frame in 3mm box to get the levels spot on.

F what are you doing sitting on top of a sink? Use the shower like the rest of us.

Here's what we used, we got ours through the Barn Owl Project run by the Essex Wildlife Trust. It then gets monitored by them and then, as happened this year when we had 4 chicks born, they all get ringed and registered. We had a roost in a barn adjacent to the one we developed, so knowing we'd disturb them we put up a couple of boxes in an adjacent hedge row. The Owls used one of the boxes as a breeding site in the second year it was up.