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Kitchen finished today. It took me about a week to put the kitchen together and plumb in the sink and dishwasher. The worktop under the window is a cheap temporary laminate one to get the kitchen functioning quickly. Later on that will be replaced with a stone worktop and that one will be moved to the utility room, which is why it has been left over length for now as that's how long it will be in the utility. I then had to wait for Gus the joiner to machine the oak breakfast bar worktop. Sometimes even when self building, it is worth employing a good tradesman when you know they can do a better job of something than you can. It was then 2 days to varnish it, and finally today it was dry so I could fit it and plumb in the hob. Next to the fridge, where the clock is for now, will eventually be partitioned off to form a pantry. Sunday dinner will be cooked and eaten in the house tomorrow. A little more and a couple more pictures on the blog at http://www.willowburn.net/ look for the entry "Kitchen Finished"

He would need a good editor as the following statement to the “wet it through till it’s sopping” was “now mix me a bucket of jizz and make it like mother’s milk....” Translate that ..!!

I clad my house with cedar. I used grade no. 2 clear and better which had no knots. These pictures are of the north side of the house with a gap of around five years between them. We bought the cladding from the local timber yard who machined it to my specifications.

A few more images showing the completed UFH network for upstairs, the servicing battens downstairs and also some additional "supports" to accommodate the fitted kitchen units. I have really been impressed with the UFH fitter - he has even supplied photos of vulnerable positions so there should be no excuse for puncturing a pipe after the screed and boarding has gone down. You will see the areas left "unpiped" in the en-suite and bathroom areas. The manifold is stored in the landing cupboard.

Just to finish this off, I fitted the new jets today. Here's what I ended up with: Mains jet size LPG jet aize 103 67 103 66 115 86 72 50 I had bought a pack of 6 jets which gave me a few more options to play with. All seems to be working fine.

No damp rag to get the dust off, primer then tanking.

I could stand behind that one. You wouldn’t like it if I hit scaffold with a hammer for hours at a time and personally I can’t hear the difference.

I've a way with words.....what can I say.

That style would be ace in a book! It would just need a good glossary at the back! You can't suppress style, it's a unique selling point!

Was typing the same answer as @lizzie..! I’d use 3m fence posts bolted to the existing wall and then fence the front of it using a rail and board. You can always make it full height and hide the wall too or stick planters in front and grow stuff up it to hide the wall section

If its sound cant you leave the existing wall in place and put some really long fence posts in front to your finished height and then just cover the lot in fencing, cheaper and easier especially if you are thinking of facing the retaining wall.

Boiler will need to modulate right down - buffer would be ideal then it won’t short cycle etc

UFH manifold will do that for you.

I have a wet diamond disc tile cutter, with a nearly new blade in it, that you can have for free if you want it, as I'm only going to bin it when we move.

Pretty much. You can't quite see the Ben from our house. If you could it would be a bit to the left. You can see it from the top of our road, but as you walk down, it disappears behind the tree line of a forest. I live in hope that one day the forest will be felled and we might just be able to see the Ben.

That’s very tidy ..! Surprised he used ordinary nail in pipe clips but they’ve done the job. And the floor fitters can’t exactly say they didn’t know where the pipes were ...

I am in the same position and so is someone else i know. The original price I paid for my CRL Structural warranty was £3,700. CRL have offered a new policy for closer to £5,000. Good tip on the Credit Card payment above...i have a feeling i also paid on Credit Card...UPDATE: I did pay for it with Barclaycard. They are sending me some forms so they can investigate this. L

That is a very tidy job. I wonder will they leave out the screed upstairs on the bits where lots of pipes run together to the manifolds? That's what I did otherwise that area might get too warm.

Work of art that is!

Looks like your guys know what they are doing Ramius?

My MSP is Gillian Martin, I think she has a bit more free time as of the last few weeks......... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-44643327

We built our house about 11 years ago. At the time someone told me to budget £100 a meter for just about any service involving trenching across a field, more if it had to go under a road. The water main actually ran across our plot but needed diverting to the edge. This involved a trench and pipe about 45m long all on our plot. The cost for that and connecting our house to it was about £4600 so pretty close to the £100 a meter budgeted.

Done. All bits back on. Looks good..unless you know where to look! That Dulux Diamond Matt is proper white and sparkly!

The guy i spoke to from BT (I think he was a local estimator) seamed to think it would be OK. However he did seam like a decent guy, so maybe other people in BT wouldn't be as accommodating.

We were £1815 for two connections which inc approx 200m through the adjacent park (no road crossings) and we done all the work ourselves inc buying the pipe. They just came out and checked before back filling.

Scottish water were a bit hard to deal with, but in the end they were very good value. Our quote for the water connection was about £1K but that also did not include the road crossing. The water main was a few feet into the field the other side of the road. and we had to do all the trenching on our plot. I then started looking for prices for the road crossing, an independent contractor wanted £2K as dis Scottish Hydro, but when asked Scottish water only wanted an extra £1K for the road crossing so they did it. What you need to ask them for is an "all works" quote including the road crossing. they supplied the pipe from the main under the road, and the boundary box, we just had to supply pipe from the boundary box to the house wtc. As it happens it was not SW themselves that did it, they subcontracted it to someone else.

Mop the concrete with a dilute primer such as FlexiPrime. Do NOT tank until you are 100% ready to tile. Literally the day before. You'll just scuff it and ruin it. Total waste of time and money if your not laying tiles the next day.

They fly I believe twice as fast as a helicopter so the rotors have immense downward thrust. Makes it a pita to abseil out of and horrible for rescue duties because of the downdraft. Especially over water where it could drown the rescuees! They now have X seconds to shut the engines down after landing in dusty / sandy conditions as it can get turned to glass inside the powerful engines and then solidify. This after a crash in Hawaii. Still looks the dogs bollocks though!

You probably need to edit the first post, ie this one, to add a summary of where you've got to and the difficulties you have faced. You can add photos too if you have some you would like to add. Then as you come to do a new entry you need to start a new blog post like the one following about the trusses. Each new blog post to have it's own entry from now on, unless you want to add more info about a post you've already made in which case you can edit the entry to add the new info.

Put a sample floor down in one ensuite un grouted just in case it has to come up?

the chinooks may shoot back but at least they don't shit on you, unlike the parakeets....

I ordered through Roccia these plank tiles are lazer cut and a great design I needed 150 mtrs But batches can vary wildly So ordered direct Roccia knock them out at 46 I paid £29 including vat and carriage

History now...Ive put it behind me. Sorry didnt mean to but in on the conversations. It just jarred a nerve. Its back in the box now, onwards we go.

parakeets can be shit. Just don’t get the chinooks by mistake .. they shoot back.

I remember a good friend recalling a story of a Devonshire farmer being abused by a bunch of organised trespassers ( commonly known as “ramblers”) because his cattle were spoiling the peace and quiet of the countryside. Also hear many a tale of residents complaining to councils because of tractors disturbing them late at night ( almost undoubtably in harvest time). I really dont don’t understand the mentality of some people.

Hi @CC45 - Yes, I will upload the photos over the weekend as the screed mix goes down on Monday. The screed mix will go to the top of the battens and then the egger boards sit across that and the battens.

Phew! Panic Over! Was in the "measuring" bag along with the squares, rules and short levels etc.

Not included

Just to make you feel better (!) Wessex Water quoted us around £23,000 for a mains water connection, plus another £14,000 for a pumped sewage connection (not including the ~£3k for the pump chamber and installation). Electricity connection and cable moves in total came to just under £4,000. The cheap one was the 'phone, as all we paid was the standard connection charge, around £100, IIRC. The moral of this tale is to ALWAYS check, and double check, the costs and viability of getting services to your plot BEFORE you exchange contracts. Had we not done this we would have had some very nasty surprises (and we could have paid a great deal more for our plot than we did).