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And the result was... The JCB munched through my subsoil like a 3 year old devouring jelly & Blancmange.

Get the boiler and the cylinder up the attic The only person to see that ever again is your service agent. Earn some brownie points with the extra storage of not having the plant in valuable living space.

If the pump will reach, put it into a bucket of clean water and let the tray drain into another bucket. That way you are only pumping clean water onto the blade and not cruddy water that leaves crap on the tiles.

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"

When the sun is below the horizon and 450 divided by 2 = 250 it is time to quit for the day. My assistant setting-out surveyor and I had a minor domestic incident in the gathering gloom at a foundation profile where our joint mathematical error became apparent. The gloom was both visible and mental. We had no choice but to soldier on marking out the foundations because although it was 9:30pm, tomorrow was dig-day and the JCB would be onsite at 7:30am. I had seriously underestimated the time needed to set out the foundation plan for a main house and garage comprised of 5 interlocking rectangles and 4 internal supporting walls. As the clock counted down to dig-day some fag packet maths revealed I needed 35 profiles, 70 stakes for the profiles, the rock hard ground required that all profile stakes needed a pointed entry = 140 cuts with a saw and oh don’t forget the 140 screws. The elastic sail measuring tape in my toolbox had thrown out my initial schedule and meant the first setting out attempt was scrubbed because I could not get stable diagonals. A new 30 meter long £35 steel tape from Screwfix was the answer when paired with my proper surveyors grp tape. Three days after that trip to screwfix and after 3 days of punishing heat, we drove home defeated with an incomplete set of walls marked out. At 1am my mind was churning, should I cancel the dig and be branded in the locality as the hapless self builder who messed around the pro’s. Could we live with a trapezoid kitchen 25mm out of true, yes, but what about the stairs condemned by my arithmetic error to run up the supporting wall 25mm out. The alarm woke me at 3:15am, I was back onsite for sun rise and even the vocal sheep in the adjoining field seemed to be mocking me. Before Swmbo turned up at 5:30am dressed for the office I banged in the remaining profiles and we then marked out the missing walls in a new colour (those line marking paint cans gunge up quickly). The JCB arrived 40 minutes late which allowed me to walk the foundation plan with a superficial air of confidence that masked my inner fatigue. Mr Digger was not phased by the erroneous foundation line, he just rubbed out the bad line with his foot and said he would align the bucket edge to the good one. The sun was up, the sheep had shut up and it was a relief to hand over to the pro’s. The day just go better. Building Control arrived at 11am and decreed 1m trenches would suffice because ground conditions we so good, the clay looking stuff was actually silt. We could have got away with 225mm of concrete but I had ordered enough for 600mm foundations. Mr BC was in such a good mood he gave the assembled crew a quick lesson on how to distinguish nice silt from evil clay. Many visitors passed by and declared I had the best looking trenches seen in Lincolnshire for years.

Lol, I don’t watch the tele! I find the noise of that way more annoying than the fridge or dishwasher lol.

Sunday dinner tasted very nice indeed. Things we like (compared to the caravan) in no particular order. Having a shower where you don't bang your elbows and it doesn't take an age to wash the soap off (decent flow rate) Sleeping in a bed where you can get out both sides with more than a 6" gap A kitchen with a decent amount of work surface, AND a bowl and a half sink. God I missed that extra half bowl. Part way through washing up and you realised you had not rinsed the coffee pot and the only place to do it was the bathroom basin. A dishwasher. Sitting on a proper sofa rather than the built in foam seats in the 'van Watching tv on a set with decent surround sound. God how I missed that and being forced to just use the crap built in speakers. Listening to music on a decent pair of speakers. God how I missed my hifi. A well detached house means I don't have to worry about troubling the neghbours. Going upstairs to bed. Don't get me wrong, the caravan did us well for the 15 months it was our residence, but we are glad that is now in the past tense (to all practical purposes) Later on it will get repurposed as a work space.

I much prefer that layout. Much better use of space and less "fussy" with no awkward corridors. The top one of the 3 revised layouts would be my favourite. Having a wardrobe tacked onto the end of each en-suite would give a bit of extra soundproofing between each en-suite and the "other" bedroom. The en-suite that has no window, I would fit a solar tube or light pipe to illuminate it, we had one in the last house and it worked very well. Re the architect and building control. To avoid delaying things I would let the building warrant go through so you can start the foundations, then submit an amendment. If your relationship with the architect has broken down, re do the drawings yourself

The reason one side cuts better than the other is the back of the blade cuts on the upstroke. You'll typically be pulling or pushing so will reflect which side has the upcutting edge against it. Whichever that is gets shelled, not by the initial down cut but by the resulting upcut off the arse end of the blade. Gets on my wick TBH but you soon learn to engineer how you lean on the machine during use to change the rough edge from the 'keeper' to the offcut.

If you are thinking of selling as a 4 bed 3 bath in the future then I would make your dressing area the bathroom and the bathroom the dressing area/future bed 4. That way you have 2 bedrooms with a bathroom between them and 2 further bedrooms with their own en suite. Agree about the little corridor of the landing to bed 2&3 ditch that if you can.

Some further getting feel for this: I marked a wedge shape on a clean 6" tile with a Sharpie. I lined one end up with the blade by eye and figured the offset from the blade was 5mm with the aid of the brown, 5mm pack: Then I held the tile down by hand and went for it. I note one side cuts cleaner than the other so thinking a new blade might be worthwhile?

We have a slab! With ducts sticking out of it. All beautifully taped. Thanks everyone. I forgot to allow for electricity to the kitchen island but everything else seems to have gone well. Ducts aren’t all in perfect positions but we should be able to work around it. Will see for sure when the frame goes up. MBC back in 23rd.

You're overthinking it....? You have no idea how good it is for me to be able to write that. Overthinking is good: the worry that attaches to it isn't.

A quick note for anyone planning on coming to see the piles going in on 17th July. My contractor has been in touch to say that he is over running on his current job and will be starting late on mine. I have a site meeting with him on Tuesday so will update then.

Speak to your SE about the loads. And tell your architect to FO. Your paying the bills, not the other way around. On the job with that cylinder I got told I would be answering to the architect. I said ta-ta. Wasn't long before it was the other way around. Architect got back-charged for specifying the wrong windows after the wrong ones were bought and fitted. I subbed out the brickwork, TF, roof and windows so got paid twice to fit them and got some nice free windows to boot.

They told me I wouldn't get it to fit. They didn't know me very well.

I was right about watching telly in the same room as the Fridge and dishwasher. Can't wait for the other living room to be ready. This stupid modern idea of having a lounge in the kitchen will never really catch on.

Its fair to say youve punched a gut to get there. Congrats mate. Nowt better than winding the amp up and getting the speakers working up a sweat. When SWMBO goes off to the shop the kids leg it downstairs and shout "chuck the beats on dad!" and my Yamaha / KEF gear gets the dust knocked off it. Sweet.

It's only when we rough it we appreciate the smooth... And it's character building ?

He's taking his Labrador for a walk.

Only just got this after reading twice! "Grow a pair!" I think is the underlying message

You can give porcelanosa your floor plans and they will design a bathroom layout for you......of course they specify their products but you dont have to use them if you get a layout you like go and buy your products elsewhere.....dont tell them thats what you are planning of course LOL

Draw a line, eat the bastard nuts and chuck two more down your kegs. You'll need to steer the blade as you cut, as the radial saw still wanders.

Easier to cut a piece of tile or timber to fit where your bottom rail is at the right angle as a tile will rotate on the pegs. Also easier to adjust as if you drill a hole in wrong place by 2mm you can’t re-drill it easily. Also, a long wedge will give the tile something to push against.

That's what I was thinking. The wife is not amused.......

Looks a lot better. Bedroom 2 & 3 are closer to rectandular (with small entrances) rather than the difficult L shaped previously and the Master Suite is still a considerable size. What's the small little room creating the third middle door between the bedrooms off the landing? Is it needed as you didn't previously have it? It's created a lot of doors in a row squashed together.

Definitely worth revisiting the design again before you press the commit button. You want to be absolutely sure it's right. We made some reasonably significant changes to the internal design that our TF company incorporated into the design and it was a pretty easy task to get the building warrant updated. The building warrant was already in place when we bought the plot and the internal layout modeled on the house that had just been built next door. I found the local building control pretty flexible in terms of changes to the internal layout and we did change one or 2 minor things halfway through too that they allowed us to literally draw on the plans in red pen.

Beer o'clock! ? IF I cut the actual tiles with the wet cutter I think I'll need to put some "pegs" in where the almonds are (yes I ate them afterwards).

Thanks @ProDave The timber frame company would be designing the house again using their own CAD software and they haven't started yet, so I could ask them to make the changes.

It's not that they're cramped. It's just they're 'small' when compared to the master suite. Having one bedroom, dressing area and ensuite larger than the two next bedrooms is out of proportion for the house. You kinda have a problem as you've too much space in the master suite. Not sure what stage you're at. If it's still early design I'd swap the master suite to the left. If it's first fix just continue and try and resolve the ensuite.

2 things don't work for me: The funny corridor to get into beds 2 and 3 off the landing Solve that by making the landing wider (less void over the dining, and reduce the stairwell void) That corridor takes a big bite out of what could be en-suite space. Secondly En-suite 2 is forced to be longer just to encompass the window it seems? That takes a bite out of the corner of bed 3 making it look awkward. Solve the corridor entrance, and move the window over, and both rooms can have a larger en-suite, both the same size, each taking up half the wall between the 2 bedrooms. I would still swap them over, the master and it's suite seems over sized to me. Why not share the space a bit better?

Thinking of resale, your existing layout could easily become 4 bed, even 4 bed 4 bath, with minor tweaks. Good planning. F

Unless there is a particular reason, I would swap the left and right hand halves over. You currently have the largest half as the master, dressing and it's en-suite and the smaller as beds 2 and 3 and their en-suites that look a little cramped. I would try the smaller left hand half as master, dressing and en-suite that would then give a bit more space for beds 2 and 3 and their en-suites in the right hand part.

We had a family bathroom that size but wider perhaps 16x14 at the old house .. and we had a steam room in one corner that could take 2 garden chairs inside the steam room. You could consider something like a wickerwork sofa, which are always luxurious in a bathroom, or a generous counter. Agree with Peter on the two bowls.

The wet cutter blade appears to be bang on 3mm which I guess is a bonus:

And the boiler is a paperweight. As WB are a bunch of tossers, you need to spend a fortune and ask their permission to convert from LPG to natural gas. With Vaillant you just buy a sticker for £6 and turn the screw on the gas valve. 15 mins work. Unless your willing to wait a long time to sell it, don't buy the boiler. 150L is for a 1 / 2 bed flat .

Tank is too small for low temps but will also need G3 sign off as install is BRegs reqt

The trouble with an ASHP is they are not good at heating hot water especially hot. I have ours set to a target temperature of 50 degrees at the moment. That means you really need more water storage volume as when you run a bath for instance, you will be using a larger proportion of hot water and adding less cold to it. So I suspect that tank at only 150 litres might let you down. Also you really want the high capacity heat pump input coil otherwise it won't get up to the heat pump temperature or it will take longer or force the heat pump to heat it hotter to get there.

If the window is frosted then you could put the bath in front of it anyway. It will be no different to having it next to a wall and leaving the wall space will allow you space for the cupboard you want. Storage is a must in a bathroom that size especially if you are sharing the space with a woman

I regret not having a cupboard in our en suite, despite our deciding to go “minimalist “ er indoors has shed loads of “stuff!?

@recoveringacademic Toolstation have a Reisser trade pack on offer at the moment that is really good value, £52 down to £40 Reisser Trade Pack

The larder fridge and larder freezer will be the ones costing a fair chunk of that. Before choosing an American FF, I looked at a pair of integrated fridge freezers side by side, with split doors hung facing each other so it’s like a larder. With this you get similar storage space for much less money.

do you have a full spec list? I love looking for this kind of stuff! It's like a sad hobby ..

The cook should choose the oven and work from there. I chose my particular neff model as I had it before and liked it. I have had neff ovens for a long time I prefer to Miele. Its very much personal choice. In the rented house we had c**p appliances, stoves range, Hotpoint fridge freezer, they were awful. Here I chose a large integrated fridge and an under the counter size integrated freezer because I am not a big frozen food user and also I have a huge American style side by side fridge freezer in my utility room. Its very personal.. you will use them every day and look at them every day. Get what you like and cut the corners somewhere less important.

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

Enjoy Sunday lunch and celebrate another milestone / achievement. Well done.

Shh! . Sleeping in it aren't you

Jolly good. If your hob is on cylinders I think you will be surprised how little gas a hob uses. Ours gets a lot of use and a 47kg cylinder lasts at least 18 months.

@CC45 - additional images uploaded under a new entry - hopefully they will assist.

Agree with this comment. Once you have made all the necessary arrangements (perhaps confirm the day or two before). Don't over think what could happen, I would devote your energy to a later stage of the project.