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Watching my wife try to use a cordless drill to drive in screws is one of the most frustrating things I've ever experienced. When you've been doing it for decades you don't even have to think about squaring it up, how hard to push at what point to avoid cam-out, etc, but it takes time to learn those things. I was there the first time my wife tried and I had to leave the room in the end. It was that or murder (touch and go whose murder, to be fair).

At last, most of our scaffolding is down, 5 months later than planned. In spite of all the trauma it has been worth it. Our views are lovely and the house is looking better than I had hoped. Guttering is arriving next week & a bit of finishing to the cedar & stonework & we are nearly there. Outside anyway.

If wanting to moved any piece of venered chipboard furniture which you didn't bother to glue in the first place, always try and move it full up with clothes etc. We have wardrobes like the leaning tower of Pisa thanks to her doing this for the last 30 years. One advantage of the menopause seems they don't want to move rooms around so much. I came home one day to find the lounge and dining room had swapped places and I needed to fit a new tv point.

Frankly a lot of blokes make a right f*** up using a blow lamp...

I must admit I always try and involve SWMBO. I went out earlier to Screwfix and was also tasked with getting bread, milk etc. I returned home to a thunderstorm with sheet lightning. I rushed in with the shopping and asked SWMBO to go out to the car and bring the copper pipe in.

I’m tempted just to increase our joint life cover and let my wife get on with it.

The cost of the mediation is less via phone. The mediator does not decide the outcome they will just put your points to the other party and try to see if there is an area where you are willing to settle. You will probably both need to compromise more than you feel comfortable with, but in any case with disputes such as this it is unlikely that a court would go for a slam dunk decision, as neither party was blameless.

Yes I imagine the vat on the plants should be reclaimable if it’s a condition of and agreed by the LPA on a landscaping plan.

@Mr Punter as requested. The poor piano has been moved all over the place and is finally where it is supposed to go. That's me to give some scale. We love the way that the lights reflect off all the glass and the floor at night. These are basically the finished stairs. They still have lights to go in on the underside of the front edge of the treads.

What you have there is section of contemporary industrial-style trellis, aged to a rich brown patina. Screw it to the fence and break out the clematis!

It looks like too much heat. Brush flux up the outside of the pipe a bit so the solder has a chance to run to the edge of the fitting. When I went to lead free stuff I found the solder less meltable and was tending to overheat joints - now I keep the solder near to the heated fitting and check it frequently on the fitting itself. I sometimes feel that a fitting once cooked once never is the same again. Still end feed a yorkshire fitting - you will soon move onto normal (cheaper) fittings. I would take that joint apart, bin the filling, really well clean the pipe (unless you can see the ends are well tinned) and give it another go. I use the same flux and solder you do but I dont put anything else on. Never had any probs. Personal preference I guess. Plasterboard makes a good heat shield (paper does burn a bit).

Oooh I know what those are cos when the meters were boxed in and I needed to remove the boxing I'd tried every size of phillips screwdriver under the sun to try to get the screws out with no joy. Sent a photo of the screw to my brother in the end (before I knew this was such a friendly group ) to find out what I needed and he informed me that they were torx screws and no phillips screwdriver in the world would remove them. Bought the right torx screwdriver AND used the drill for the first time and they came out sweet as a nut. Epic!

I must admit I let no one borrow my wood chisels, absolutely no one.

@Onoff I’m with your SWMBO 100% on screwdrivers!

@newhome, according to SWMBO there are only two types of screwdriver bits: "Flatty" ones used for opening paint tins and scraping stuff off. Then you get "pointy" ones. These you hit with a hammer to make holes in things like flower pot bases or walls to fit Rawlpugs!

Well I always use these to clean both pipe and fitting https://www.toolstation.com/shop/p49495. Also when I was taught how to solder joints ( a few decades ago) I was told not to heat the pipe/fitting too quickly, keep the flame away a bit so the whole joint heated uniformly and keep tapping the solder on the joint till it melted in and remove the flame immediately, also as above, don’t be in too much of a hurry to cool it down with water etc.

I have never cleaned with any solvent. Fine steel wool will have it shining bright, flux on straight away before you even touch it with bare hands. The fittings are going black because you are getting it way too hot. And looking at the "subject" joint, I can't see you are end feeding it? I personally like to end feed a bit just to be sure, and you definitely know it when you have done so. Another mistake I see (even some plumbers) is they are too quick to grab the joint with a wet rag and clean it all off while it is still hot. I prefer to leave the flux while it is cooling and only wipe it with a dry rag when it is pretty cool.

Now go and propose you are installing a HUGE electric boiler and the voltage DROP will exceed permissible limits and you demand they upgrade their infrastructure. Throw in a non inverter driven heat pump with a huge start up current for good measure. I would be interested of you could get an electrician to measure the loop impedance at the supply point. Or even if you could do a quick and dirty method (I will tell you how if you have an ac volt meter)

No need. I don’t use wire wool as you can leave bits behind that can rust. I use a piece of one of these 100 grit pads and go round the pipe then that’s it - flux and go as the flux will clean any chemical residue as it goes.

On the plan is there an entrance marked. Scale of this point to the nearest corner. You will need to use points both sides of the entrance to the same corner to give you an accurate measurement. The rest is just using Pythagoras to get you your corners. Once it's roughly set out as 4 corners then you can see how it sits and move it whatever way you need to. You will need a big metal tape measure, won't stretch like a plastic tape, wooden stakes and string line. And another pair of hands. It's not hard to do but will take a few hrs and a few different positions to get it where it finally needs to be.

bolt cutters and yourself. Jan uses ours.

Russell if you look at the first of the pics in my blog entry, then you can see how the concrete spanned the eps and I also put some wood shuttering n the outside (and rebar reinforcing inside wired to ringbeam box rebar) so that the concrete tongue spanned the ring EPS and closed the 50mm airgap to the out stone skin. We had slate throughout the ground floor and I also used the same as the external steps. Beneath this I used a line of foamglass butting up to the tongue to break the bridge. The test was the really cold spells in winter. The inside floor next to the doors was maybe a few degrees colder than the ~22-23°C elsewhere but not noticeably so and well above condensation temperatures.

Its to minimise solar gain and without having to have the lights on all day LOL I have huge solar gain issues on my south and west facing elevations even though I have good overhangs the sun is so hot coming through MVHR struggles to keep temp down to an acceptable level. 28-30 degrees in living area is not unusual. I have internal blackouts in my bedroom and its hot as hell in there and I rarely put them up, have to keep en suite window open to let heat out. I do night time purge ventilating and that rather negates the reason for mvhr for me as the clean air aspect was more important that heat recovery. If external blinds/films are beyond budget now then I will be buying a few large garden umbrellas to deal with this years problem while i save up.

@Nickfromwales Thanks for your input Nick. Sadly there won't be any garage until after the the new house is completed (on the advice of the planning consultant who managed to get the Conservation Officer back in his box, so we'll take her advice on that) but I was hoping to do something along the lines of what @JSHarris did with his supply, I'll need to re-read his blog to refresh my memory and then try and work out where everything will go on my plot. That will be a host of questions for a separate thread - standby... Several good points on that thread as well, plus I've learnt what a water boundary box is (even though I had read that thread before!). Every day's a school day.

Thanks @PeterStarck they are based in Alabama USA so I have contacted them and asked for their UK agents to get in touch. Will let you know.

Handbags or bolt cutters? Never in a million years did I think my life would change so dramatically!

If you get a neighbor, or other dog walker, to help you might be able to, sort of, roll it up and that will make it easier to handle. Long handle bolt cutters are the best thing, and safest if you cannot get it taken away via the ad.

You can still proceed to a hearing if the mediation doesn’t work out I believe. The court may prefer it if you have if have tried to work things out using the service.

I have done mediation via telephone. The outcome was acceptable. I think the court like you to do this if it is offered.

Ha ha, I knew you’d say that about the price. On you go re finding it cheaper

So your timber frame should be there today. All going well I hope! It’s the best time of the build IMO watching it go up. Enjoy!

Holy cow! I was going to start getting some quotes this week, but I'm not so sure now! I may anyway as there's only 1 large upstairs south facing window that I think it's essential on, so I'll report back with what I find out.

Free to collector would be first choice. Don't use an angle grinder on the gravel as it may well flick up a stone. In fact, don't use an angle grinder at all if you do not think you are competent. If you do, use a thin blade. Goggles and gloves are a must.

Thanks Temp. I have taken the view I will get it 100% complete and signed off, then add the New Dormers. You are right, they shoudl have removed the PD on this but didn't. I spoke with the case officer and said what I intended to do and he agreed that I could and he checked to see if the PD was a restriction and also said it shoudl have been removed. So all in all it looks like I shoudl be OK?

I’m the opposite in that I see them as too dangerous and don’t really like them in truth. I won’t look when anyone climbs up a ladder onto a roof or uses what I consider to be a ‘dangerous’ power tool such as a circular saw or a chainsaw. That didn’t exactly provide him with the confidence that I should use any power tools. I can cut myself on a knife or fall off a stepladder and smash my head in (have form with both!). That said I do need to be able to use ‘simple’ power tool such as a drill to do the most basic of jobs here so need to learn. It just would have been handy having someone here helping me learn rather than replying on YouTube videos. Im not suddenly going to use the more dangerous ones as I’m sure that could end badly.

If you are using a grinder, then start in the middle so that the two end wires hold the rest of it steady until the last two cuts. Alternatively bolt cutters are surprisingly cheap, and can be useful for all sorts of things. F

Sorry .. misread. Have corrected. Must still be traumatised by toenails ;-).

You're in? Looks superb, and you must be very pleased. I'll post it so that nobody else has to, now that you are "In Da House".

+1 Only things detailed on a landscaping plan can be reclaimed.

I haven't taken a full picture of the front of the house as it isn't quite finished. We are finally building the archway at the front door, so we are using the kitchen door at the moment. Due to the weight of the stone they are doing two pieces a day. I was a bit taken aback by the thickness of the stone, I think the architect must get commission from the quarry!

Angle grinder with a metal cutting wheel. Just don't be fearful of it (called being a pussy, which I know you are not). If I get time tomorrow (got a show on this weeks so a lot of driving) I shall make a video of how to do it and how not too. Bit like one of the old Kenny Everett ones.

Thanks Tom. We are starting to make progress inside as well now. Just finished the cement slurry grouting of the beam & block. Done the DPM & 800mm of floor insulation & 100mm perimeter insulation in the living area. Utility & hallway to do. Started the acoustic insulation in the ceiling (horrible job). MVHR arriving this week. Henry is getting on with the joinery upstairs. Most of the first fix electrics & plumbing done.

My understanding is you can only claim back plants/trees etc if they are detailed on approved planning

You will need a demolition order before you start, its paperwork from the council and is designed to make sure you are staying within the rules, you can imaging a self builder tackling a twenty story tower block armed only with the education gained from watching some footage from the Fred Dibnah archive. BEWARE though that we applied for a demolition order and in our councils (Canterbury) workflow this triggers a commencement of the build which then led them to put a stop order on us as we had not discharged one of the planning conditions, we had a bit of time sorting it all out. You can get around this by either discharging the planning condition(s) or just telling them not to trigger a commencement as the demolition work you are doing is just site preparation and not the main build.

Visible? It's having floor over it! + To be fair the loft is FULL of Hep2O and I've not seen any chewed yet but I'm intending gradually replacing it for peace of mind. Going soldered.

A mate is a gig electrician, he gave two Golden Tickets to an Ed Shiran gig to a young couple who turned up outside the stadium just for the atmosphere.

NAh, @Hecateh and I thought of a few words you haven’t used. We have had a combo of red and white wine and think your reaction was entirely appropriate. Hope they catch the bar stewards!

Utter filth. The guys who nicked your lead that is. Now go and wash your mouth with soap whilst I go and buy a bag of f*ck stars to edit that with tomorrow. F*ck me ? ?

Keep it down to a dull roar @Yzzy, eh?