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I couldn't do this plumbing lark for a living: Bloody nerve wracking if it doesn't fit...but it did! 140mm offset. Yes, first go and minor trimming: The hardest one done at least.

A long day and a lot of £££’s but at last we have our tarmac road (circa 300 sq m) and drive base (circa 130 sq m). A real transformation, looks a bit more like somewhere I can move into next week!

This week - knowing there was less than £3k for me to pay to get to the agreed endpoint. I have been incredibly impressed with how BB and crew have pulled out all the stops to meet their commitments. I'm struggling not to feel guilty - but there have been many weeks when I have paid day rate x 20 (4 men 5 days) for what has amounted to be 2 men 2 - 3 days actual work. (bearing in mind my lounge looks out over the building site and I have a good idea how much time was spent on phones and or just standing around chatting) I have had a minimum of 5 workers here every day. 8 until 6 Monday to Wednesday. 7 - 6 Thursday, 6 - 6.30 Friday and 6 - 6.30 today. I did make them bacon butties this morning and pizza this evening - Oh and I gave them beer last night. BB is coming back next week to add a couple of cavity closures. He has left me a pallet of bricks for my retaining wall, and spares of nearly everything else. For now, I have a nearly clear site, and a finished shell. Next stop soffits fascias etc and then doors and windows

Yes, after years of dreaming, thinking, researching and waiting, work finally started on our first self build project. After a couple of false starts due to the builder having to finish a job that over ran and the arrival of the better weather, we eventually broke ground on Wednesday 18th April, two days later than anticipated. Annoying yes, but then what can you do? It’s only two days and it’s important to maintain a relationship with your builder. Nonetheless, we are now ready to do the foundations, which start W/C 23rd April. The sheer amount of top soil removed was somewhat overwhelming. The site had to be stripped down to what is called the sub soil – the firm clay stuff and therefore everything above it had to be removed. We had allocated a spot within the plot to store the topsoil but we soon realised that this space wasn’t going to be enough! Thankfully, the neighbouring farmer allowed us to deposit the remaining topsoil, in the field directly next to our plot. He will no doubt make use of it over the coming months but I have to say, if he hadn’t allowed us to do that, we would have had no choice but to hire in a fleet of tipper trucks with grabbers attached. Imagine the expense of that !! Anyway, the top soil removed and store within our plot we come in handy once the landscaping starts. I spent a couple of days as the Dumper truck driver and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. I didn’t have the nerve to give the digger a go – far to many levers and pedals!! The hired in toilet was christened within half an hour of the Digger driver arriving ! Thank goodness it gets serviced every week. SPEnergy and BT Openreach both dropped off their respective ducting for when the time comes. Interesting to note that SPEnergy would only allow us 50 metres of ducting as anymore would affect the type of cabling that would have to be installed. 50 metres should be more than sufficient for us but in any case the guy who dropped off the ducting, gave us 75 metres!! The structures, namely the timber frame for the house and the car port, will be erected during the middle of May and the back end of May. Again, another little set back really, albeit a week later than expected. The team of erectors will not have finished the job before ours in time so we had to take a slot, a week later. More photos will be posted as the work unfolds but for now here are a few of the work so far. Thanks for reading.

So @Onoff has been on a bender today then?

Especially for when you find half of the cat inside and the other half outside. ACME Kitty-snipper 2000 Mk1 ....."every home should have one" lol.

It's that big it contains a vet who climbs out and scans the cat for you!

Bit short of time this morning (I have 1 tonne of tiles to collect and shift ) but I know the subject of passive flaps have caused mulch debate! So I finally lost the argument and a cat flap was a requirement. So I parted with a not insignificant sum of money and bought the medium door from Petwalk. I have to say it’s a seriously well engineered peice of kit. I’ve got to finish the wiring and need to find some of that braided cable sheath to tidy the cable. I’ll try and add some more detail later but in the mean time I’ll let pictures and a little video do the talking. This is was definitely a measure twice, three, four, five times and cut once operation!

Hats off, a top bit of bending No problem laying a swept bend flat, and a bit quieter too.

Sorry @pocster, your poor window thread has been truly shat on by our nonsense. I would ban myself for a week but my law on self-preservation prevents me from doing any wrong.

This week I was left owing under £3k I have had a minimum of 5 workers here every day. 8 until 6 Monday to Wednesday. 7 - 6 Thursday, 6 - 6.30 Friday and 6 - 6.30 today. Made them bacon butties this morning and Pizza this evening. Half this effort a few weeks ago and we wouldn't have been in this situation. Scaffolding down and relatively clear site

I’ve seen the photos !

Thanks. Success.

Hmm! I rather think that a cat was what Lewis Carroll was thinking of ...... Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

And if it's not making a noise? Until you open the box you won't know whether it's dead or alive...or even if there's a cat in there...

Good to get started. Driving a dumper is surprisingly therapeutic isn't it?

It depends on lots of thing, and coverage could be Half of that or 50% more. One trick is to buy more paint than you could possible need and take the leftover back. Suggest starting with this thread, as it is probably the most comprehensive. Any advice I could give is on that thread, though I am having a 100-150 sqm wall spray painted tomorrow or Monday and I may post some photographs. When we are up and running and using the right throughput on my machine to minimise offspray and paint bounceback, we will be using about a litre of paint every 3 minutes or so (which is slow).

BONUS !

Might not just be the female judges you attract You might end up getting sectioned tho

Nice stuff, I hope the weather stays good for your groundworks

I really hope they see it that way !

Don't forget that except for glazing facing between SE and SW which sees the sun all year round the other potentially problem glazing in the summer won't see the sun in the winter. Therefore putting a film on those windows won't affect solar gain in the winter. We have a glazed gable which only sees the sun for four months of the year (mid April to mid August) and we have had a film put on it which has reduced overheating massively.

Well done. It's a good looking site too.

Watch that overhead power line with the digger and tipping trucks.

Great to take that first step. I remember that stage with mine. So exciting. The next massively exciting bit for me was seeing the timber frame go up. Won't be long for you now. Enjoy!

Ooh get you f####g show off.

Congratulations! Must be gutting seeing others progress when you can't, but you're off the blocks now. Enjoy!

I've used a chip reader to scan about 2000 dogs (don't ask!), and I would say that about a third of those have chips that require the scanner to be waved over the dog reasonably significantly before it reads. Sometimes it can take many attempts to get the chips to read either because they've migrated or just 'because'. I personally have had about 20 dogs chipped of my own and I've had 3 that have been relatively difficult to read in that time. One was down his left leg, another has an American (but compatible) chip that can be awkward to read on occasion, and another has the chip in her elbow. I would be seriously impressed with a door that could read a chip consistently from a distance away. The scanners struggle sometimes when they are literally placed directly on the dog. Will be very interested to see how you get on with it when the mythical cat turns up. A collar with a dangling thing would probably be more consistent if the cat would keep it on. That's a serious commitment spending that amount on 'forward planning' . I looked at a video on Youtube and looks like you can arrange for parcels to be put in it too. That could be handy for those drugs that @Nickfromwales wants to send you .

Forward planning.

I installed a large dog flap for a neighbour once, he had Alsatians, I pointed out it was large enough for a burgular but he was adamant the dogs would see them off. Later he caught someone trying to break into his garden shed and his dogs just sat there watching him!

That’s crappy. TBH with something like this you would think the company would send very detailed measuring instructions.

If some of them are larger can you not be creative and fit those in the smaller openings somehow? Or are they not that much larger?

1) Where's the cat? 2) Does it have to wear a collar with a "key" on?

Cut the frame off and Resin bond the glas straight into the concrete opening!

Anyway @daiking your list is wrong. It goes like this. 1. Take a group of amazingly helpful and altruistic people on this forum who invest lots of time and effort advising people for no gain. 2. After lots of advice both on and off forum determine that the issues can’t be fixed through keyboard advice 3. 2 of those amazing people (plus a son) offer to travel an incredible distance to help address the issues. 4. After very long days things finally work for the first time ever. 5. Ensure that some fun and banter (and beer) is part of the experience. DIY SOS Buildhub style. I’ve said it a lot but I’ll say it again. This forum is amazing!

Hi @ultramods, im project managing our build in Aberdeenshire as well as working full time, doing the work ourselves, and having a young family (and trying to sell our current home but that’s another story!) it’s not easy but it’s do-able and if I thought I was saving £15k it would have been a no-brainer. It is time consuming and at times stressful but if you are organised and able then I can’t see why you couldn’t do it, especially if you are using workmen that you trust. My sister in law started her project with the same architectural Technician as you are using, but they parted ways before the build started and after a redesign with a different firm, went with a custom homes builder who project managed it for her. That worked best for her, she was on a tight timescale. Much like you have said, Im too much of a control freak to have anyone else do my ordering and keep a fine eye on the budget, I make the time to get and compare (and haggle) different quotes, I just don’t believe an AT project manager would do that, especially if he has other projects he is managing or designing at the time. We have time, and are “in the trade” , and already had many trade accounts open, but even the window quotes alone saved over £6k between comparable companies. We also have the luxury of the only people we are holding up,with any delays, would be ourselves. I guess only you know the answer but given that you mentioned the wife is an a accountant, I can’t see it being the VAT reclaim being an issue !

Cracking plans Am I right in thinking your timber frame is form Scotframe? if so are they suppling windows etc?? makes life very easy! If you genuneinly have time to project manage, regular on site and long nights at computer then I say yes 100%. Do not underestimate time involved though!

I sprayed our last house inside and out, we backrolled the last two coats. House was 360m and it took no time at all. We are positively stuck in the dark ages in this country. Sprayed all ceilings, walls and interior woodwork. Including doors. Even spayed all the facia as we couldn't get the colour we wanted. Advice for @JSHarris buy lots of masking tape and brown paper, I guarantee the bit you don't mask will get overspray on it. Who said if if you have 8 hours to cut a tree down spend 6 sharpening your axe. This is so true for this spraying lark you will spend 3/4 of the job time in prep and a 1/4 chucking the paint about.

Whoops, dropped one and didn’t get out of the way 100kg stopped by a mere finger or two, ouch

Yeah but you’re a strange one .........

This is where somebody on here has your address and sends Mrs @joe90 the Petwalk brochure...

Fraid not . 1 other is a similar size ; the 2 other ones are completely different