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Big day today. Scaffold finally down. I’ve still got a few outside jobs which I’m going to have to do off my tower, just couldn’t justify any more weeks hire! Still soooooo much to do

Some of you will know that we've recently completed our build and moved in. What you may not know is why we built the house we have, and why it is quite literally proving to be a breath of fresh air. Mrs NSS has had various health issues all her life, not least chronic asthma, but a little over 4 years ago things got a whole lot worse. Cumulative damage from the asthma had left the lower third of both lungs in shit shape, and this had led to a 6-weekly cycle of chest infections and antibiotic courses. This vicious circle eventually resulted in hospital admissions for pneumonia and pleurisy, and a diagnosis of Bronchiectasis, a degenerative lung disease for which we were told there was no treatment/cure. My first and only question to the clinician was, "Okay, so what can we do to slow the progression?" The answer, "in an ideal world, live in a hermetically sealed bubble". Essentially, eliminate as many of the irritants (airborne particles and allergens) to her condition as possible, and that's what I set out to achieve from our new home - not so much building the dream as building the bubble. Four years on, plot found, research conducted, house designed and built, and the news is so far so good. We've been in for about two months now and the difference has been remarkable with her reliance on inhalers significantly reduced, and sleeping much better due to reduced congestion. This week she had her regular respiratory check up and her breathing was found to be the best it has been for several years. Yes, it's early days, but if this house enables me and Mrs NSS to enjoy quality time together for longer than may otherwise have been the case, then it will have been worth every sleepless night, every bead of sweat, and every single penny. Whatever your motivation to self build, take a deep breath and go for it - you won't regret it.

+1 to juliet balcony. We incorporated them in all of our bedrooms. We used 12mm toughened glass and they balconies are nearly invisible, inside and outside.

Thank you its made my week reading your post. Its not a common condition and people seem don't understand the awfulness of it. Onwards to my bubble!

oh wow that is so spooky. The main reason we started down our build road was my health. I too have bronchiectasis and life was becoming progressivly more difficult. We searched for our location on the top of a hill with clean air around and set about building the bubble I had been desperately wanting for several years. I am so thrilled to hear how well your wife is doing it gives me great hope for myself, any improvement however small will be so welcome. We are still some months away from finishing and lots of hurdles still to overcome but I will start the day tomorrow with renewed hope and optimisim for the future in our bubble, Thank you so much for posting this and I wish you and your wife all the very best in your new home....she and I are very lucky ladies to have such caring partners willing to go to these lengths to improve our quailty of life. xx

Firstly great news this site is back.... Fantastic resource for all.! I am a builder and we build 1 house a year on average but I am about to start my own project this year and its a very different site from our norm. We have a 20 acre site with Class Q for 1 house. The site is remote and has no mains drainage I wanted to go down the non electric route for the treatment plant as Id like to locate it far away from my house and near a watercourse (all year Flow). I am leaning toward the clearfox as as a trout fisherman i want to do my bit and achieve high water quality but once you start researching there is so much conflicting info out there is is somewhat confusing. I want to do it right first time with the ability to add a possible holiday cabin at a later date. Does anyone have experience with any of these non electric plants. I have read previous posts but with no direct reference to the clearfox other than its price. My father used to build his own septic tanks in blockwork on large sites with 20 beds plus, I assume this is not cost effective to put in front of a plant nowadays. my max capacity is 10-12 beds. Any advice much appreciated. A

There is a lesson from this. In Scotland you can get a certificate of temporary habitation when the building is nearly complete. Hmrc will take this as evidence of completion. If you then miss the 3 month deadline for the VAT claim, then wait until you get the actual completion certificate and that gives you another 3 month window.

Great result and thanks for sharing it. We have a Novus 450 and F7 Filters . Fortunately neither my wife or I suffer from any kind of breathing difficulties but we do notice the improved air quality and the almost complete lack of dust in the house. We have changed the inlet filters regularly (every 100 days or so), as we live near a main road. The inlet filters get very dirty, though the extract filters are usually very clean and look as if they will not replacing for full year. The replacement filters are expensive - where are you sourcing your filters? We have tried PAUL Scotland who are competitive in the UK but recently sourced from Holland - TOPS Filters, at a more competitive price when buying multiple filters. We had some issues with one of the filters but TOPS sent replaced all the order, without any hassle.

I looked at various sources of supply, including online websites who seem to specialise in juliet balconies and there is a lot of choice of style and specification, including toughened/laminated glass. The ,main problem is that the glass was very heavy and required a tower/lifting equipment to install. My build was nearing completion and I had limited labour and no lifting equipment at site. So in the end, I went to a local glazing supplier, who we had already used for several other elements, and they supplied and installed the balconies for a reasonable price that was extremely (more) competitive with anything on-line. They checked the dimensions before ordering the glass , have installed dozens of similar juliet balconies and I didn't have to organise labour and equipment or cooordinate delivery and installation. The invoice was zero rated for VAT As @Ian points out there are various specifications of glass to be considered, depending on the precise purpose of the balcony. I agree that for commercial purposes the correct specification may be toughened & laminated glass but each and every application should be properly considered and selected on its specific use and location. After careful thought and looking at the alternatives, I decided that our juliet balconies would be rarely used and never in a situation where there was likely to be several people on a large balcony with a high probability of forces on the balcony that may lead to failure. So, we I selected and specified the toughened glass option with input from the glazing company, though I did not consider "heat soaking" at that time - it may have been a sensible addition and in fact we have used such glass for another application for colour. I did seek my BCO's prior approval for the specification of glass and fixing method proposed.

Schrodinger's Shower!

Just append "re-visited" to the thread title...

When I've done capital and running cost comparisons in the past, I've found that if your DHW and heating requirements are below 2500kWh/yr each, then Direct electric is the cheapest and simplest way to go. As the requirement for either rises, so does the balance towards another form of heating. One thing to remember factoring in with gas is the cost of getting a mains connection AND an annual maintenance contract. The cost of the connection alone could significantly alter the equation / pay for solar PV.

If it were me, then I' not have the balcony, but compromise by moving the large door out and making it a Juliet balcony instead. You gain room in the bedroom, avoid the structural issues, reduce the cost and still have the ability to sit in what amounts to an almost open air area at that end of the room if you wish (and the weather allows).

Wow +1. You normally don't consider MVHR to have a super higher function, just recovering some otherwise lost heat, bringing some fresher air in, and maybe drying your Y-fronts a bit quicker on the clothes rack, but to hear this POV may be music to the ears of others who suffer similarly to your wife. Enjoy the house, and please pass the collective well wishes of everyone here to your better half. Best regards, Nick.

Wow - that's amazing - well done and long may it continue for 6 months at the beginning of this year I had a friend's son's fiancee living with me (from Taiwan). Whilst I cannot deny the benefits - having it freshly made in my fridge made me gag every time I opened the door. I can eat small quantities but I would definitely need a different way of storing it

That is so good to hear! Off the wall this but I've read in a few places that kimchi is supposed to help with asthma. A bit of an acquired taste maybe but I started eating recently as I'm a believer that we have basically killed off our good gut bacteria with our sanitised Western diet and over use of antibiotics that kill good and bad. Results for me have been great. I've lost weight, have more energy and No.2s "better" (tmi I know). One unexpected thing is a skin rash I've had for years on one shin has completely cleared. Got it from Sainsburys.

Super.

UFH everywhere! It’s glorious

Thanks what you have said is what I thought I wanted BUT having read so much on here, I'm starting to second guess myself. This group is so helpful. If I had been on here 18 months ago I think I would be in a very different place now

Forget electric showers unless you like showering under a dribble. If mains gas is available then it's a no brainer. Decent size combi or system boiler and unvented hot water tank. I would go UFH Wet UFH downstairs, radiators everywhere else with individual trv's so can be turned up / down / off as required or even UFH throughout on all floors. Remember a key feature of UFH is an individual thermostat for every room so unused rooms turned right down and your bedroom set to your cool temperature.

Voila! Out sink unit and the bin unit both came with these, which have rubber seals at the edges. I've had a small leak from the tap area as I've not tightened it (and someone splashed a lot) - just sat on this and caused zero damage :-)

We've just finished our Howdens kitchen and the OH, who fitted, it was impressed by the quaility and ease of installation. much better since the last one we did a few years ago. I thiink you can acheive a lovely kitchen by using fairly standard carcasses then use better quality worktops and appliances. Its was only a small kitchen for our renovation house but came in at around £4k. That was units, appliances, handles and oak worktops, a; from Howdens, in their Oct sale.

Got the floor in this afternoon which means the kitchen is now 95% complete :-) still got 2.5 bathrooms to complete tho. Really pleased with the kitchen.

I’m quite surprised at the cost i realise that if I go down the route of quarts granite etc The price of the worktops will be about the same But the price of chipboard cupboards amazes me a friend of mine had solid wood carcasses a couple of years back I didn’t ask him how much they cost I’m sort of glad that I didn’t now we are no further on choosing a kitchen But we are pretty settled on a layout Which means I can get on with the first fix electrical and plumbing also