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Latest update. Second formal offer has been received, higher than first offer, cash buyer (confirmed that the money is sitting in their bank), no mortgage, defined exchange of contracts date that looks realistic. Another couple have told us they are submitting a cash offer first thing next week, they just need to confirm with the solicitor a realistic date for exchange of contracts first. It's now 6 days and 6 hours since the house went on the market and we have effectively got three offers, plus another two that I fully expect to make an offer some time next week, plus three more than have stated they want to buy but need to confirm that they can get a mortgage first. Our current plan is for the agent to send out a request for best and final offers, with a confirmed exchange of contracts date, to all interested parties early next week, with a reasonable closing date for the receipt of offers, then we will select the offer that is the combination of the least risk of falling through plus the best price. Looks like the house is pretty close to being sold though, whatever happens. We're both sitting here a bit stunned, as this is not at all what we expected, especially given the poor decorative state of this house. Time for another glass of wine, I think, with commiserations to those of you who are finding it hard to sell.

After 11 days on the job we are now wind and water tight. Plumbers will be in tomorrow, roofer, brickie and electrician beginning of week, definitely moving along at a pace I’m happy with, lots of ordering went on this week to make sure we are ready for the onslaught next week and I may have news about the electricity soon but can’t say much just now, onwards and upwards ?quite an interesting roof in the middle only wish the budget would have run to oak here as it seems a shame to gyproc it all but it will still be an interesting shape

Spent the afternoon fitting the bifolds Though I’ve fitted plenty of windows and doors Itvwas a first for bifolds Not so difficult really Just a case of making sure everything is square and plumb

The windows were delivered last Friday. They arrived in three pallets, two of them were lifted off by the lorry's tail lift and a pallet truck. The larger pallet had to have the windows taken off manually. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the offloading as it was all hands on deck. I was however involved in the lifting of the windows, on average the windows were about 75kgs each, but the french doors were double at 150kgs. Here are some of the exterior. And the interior. Facias and soffits have also been fitted around the house. The next job will be fitting the Siberian larch cladding and followed by the slates next month.

It should be easy enough to relocate the socket a bit higher up, if only for peace of mind. Not a big job, given that there is some refinishing work that needs to be done in that area anyway. Any competent electrician should be able to do the job in an hour or so, and although you'll probably pay more than it should cost as it's such a relatively quick and easy job. It looks easy enough to take out the existing back box, extend the ring final with heat shrink sealed crimps, tucked inside a wago box back in the service void/wall cavity, run the extended cables in up to an appleby box higher up the wall and rewire them to the outlet. If it were me I'd relocate the outlet, just for peace of mind, if nothing else. I have a healthy respect for keeping water away from electrical systems, borne out of experience with everything from electric shock risk to corrosion induced in electric fittings from being in a potentially damp area.

@ProDave there are two leaks - one from a pipe and one from a waste. And I wouldn’t re-make that waste for my worst enemy - it’s a bin and replace job as someone has hacked off basically the second arm from a twin sink set and lashed it together ...

Yup already getting a sense of achievement.. the battens went on great (tho finding them under the PB is a daunting prospect/ some had to be 46 cm or 50cm not the std 40cm due to the 2xsocket or window edge intrusions. I'm one for doing a proper job now Im getting on a bit.. so now thinking to do the reveals whilst I'm at it. The floor is one major source of cold along with these 2 walls & the fogged/ shot big upvc window, one in the pics.. but don't think I can do anything about that. Got the info re. grip adhesive for this problem batten. thanks. Will get on monday @ screwfix with a foam gun trigger thingy.

On the topic of ST versus PV and the relative cost and energy production, Ed Davies did some useful work on this in his blog. It's a bit out of date now, but Ed's work is still valid, in my view, and well worth a read for anyone contemplating ST or PV. It's interesting to see how his views changed slightly over time, too: https://edavies.me.uk/2011/12/pv-heating/ https://edavies.me.uk/2012/01/solar-per-area/ https://edavies.me.uk/2012/01/pv-et-flat/ https://edavies.me.uk/2012/11/pv-dhw/ https://edavies.me.uk/2012/11/pv-immersion-gotchas/ https://edavies.me.uk/2016/07/mp-pv-heater/ https://edavies.me.uk/2014/12/dead-solar-thermal/

Had exactly the same problem on my build. I can't offer any advice, but you have my sympathy!

Nice looking house. Great symmetry.

6 month update. Started fitting ducting for the MVHR, my wall build is 3 layers, 140mm, 70mm and 50mm so the ducting fitted well (luck) within the walls. Just need to uncoil the 50m lengths and start dragging it through the build. Then I added the final 50mm timber and insulation before I started the OSB. It took about 2 months to fit about 150 boards, the vapour barrier, double sided tape, airtight tape, it was quite a challenge especially the vaulted ceilings. For the flat roof, fitted the Velux Rooflights then GRP, about 35sqm, 2 layers. Just need to be very organised and keep all tools and materials clean. I might put some Sedum on at a later date. Had some windows and doors delivered and fitted. Kastrup and Internorm. The whole experience disappointing so far. Most of the Kastrup need replacing due to roller marks on glass. Fitting below average. Finally the Tata SSR. Took me ages to set out but once the eaves and verge square it goes on well. 3 roofs to fit. Now half way through the second roof with 7 Velux which fitted well though very heavy, the soft wood frames very prone to damage if not protected. Working out how the EDW flashing kit works around the SSR takes a while, lots of measuring and cutting, creating upstands and folding but the end result is good. About to move the Kwikstage round again. Body struggling though. If anyone wants more detail do ask. Its all quite challenging but still satisfying.

In fact .... in that shower in the spare ensuite, there should be a hose ..! Nick one from that ..!

You can still do much the same sort of thing - you presumably know the basics of the process (washing, drying, ironing, etc.) and the sequencing. That should give you some ideas of resources used (water and heat) and from that you can start looking at ways to reduce them. Water recycling is an obvious route (e.g. https://www.waterworld.com/articles/iww/2016/09/water-recycling-system-for-commercial-laundry-users-benfits-from-pertnership-between-concurrent-technologies-corporation-water-energy-technologies.html) - particularly if you can keep the recycled water hot before feeding it back into the system, as are heat pump driers like http://www.primuslaundry.com/_media/primus-aacebe969ab4c553bb29cdc38daee2ad/primus_evo4_drying_technology_eng.pdf. However, without looking at the requirements of the process you might be missing something obvious.

That is because I flatly refused to consider dropping the price to the point where we got less for selling our old 5 bedroom house than what is is costing to build the replacement 3 bedroom house. Nobody of sane mind would PAY to downsize to a smaller house 50 yards up the road.

Well done, in our last house we had them (as we do again) but after the joiners fitted them we had to take them back out and refit!

Looks great, I confess I got the makers of ours to install ours as they said it would take them an hour because they were practised at it).

Plastic bag or two (one inside the other) might be a better plug for the smell.?

@Redoctoberthe dormers came as panels with cut out for windows and joiners just had to cut out trusses and the panels either side of big windows came as panels ready to fit, they aren’t painted just the membrane on them just now, we’re planning to put cedral on dormers and rest will be blocked up and rendered, the middle section of the roof was the only part that had to be built, no trusses for it and the joiners did a fantastic job making it.

I assume you've already got something like this? https://www.barriquand.com/en/heat-exchangers-industrial-laundry I'd start by tracing where all the energy goes, identifying where it enters and leaves the system and at what temperatures. Picking technologies before you have a very good idea of the problem you're trying to solve is usually a bad idea.

Try and cut it pretty accurately I would. At 25mm thick you could virtually cut with a craft knife with the blade out a bit and GLOVES! Sawing PIR makes horrible dust. Some advocate cutting 5mm short and filling the edge with foam. If I'm a "bit" out I might run a thin bead of foam up one batten then push the pir against that and in between the other batten. Foam expands to fill the gap. Oh, and photograph against a tape / mark the wall either side etc where any horizontal battens are. Any wall cupboards going on this wall?

At 600mm the pb wont be supported enough and will be too flexible.

Is their a PCM43 sunamp on the cards? Has anybody a update price list for sunamp?

Hi @Christine Walker - great progress being made and a lot more during the coming week. Were the wooden sections around the dormers and gables finished on site prior to erection or did they come to site already painted? Either way, it will no doubt save a lot of time and effort. Sadly this is an area we still need to consider!

So far.. the veerticals done on 1 of the 2 walls. I need advice on getting a batten onto the top lip of the window.. Im sure its a lintel or s'thing I'm hitting but I can't drill enough depth.

How big? Monobloc or bi-block? A Chinese ASHP can be had as a 10kW monobloc for less than £2k, which only needs a small amount of plumbing and electrical to install. If you're getting £1,300 per year in RHI then you might want to look at insulation levels and the like first since that works out at something like 15 MWh of heat provided.

@newhome funny i was playing on the rhi calculator just now and was coming to the same figures!

Smart !

Look at that! How exciting!

It needs to be about 4 times the area to harvest similar amounts of power. If you want to use the electricity as well as heat water it needs to be bigger than that, so enormous is a reasonable comment. Of course neither of them produce much heat energy when you really need it, in the winter! No, I wouldn't install solar thermal now either.

I would tell them to call out immediately or foot the bill for someone else to come out. 4 days is BS. Any pics of the waste etc?

Crap plumbers everywhere are currently bulk buying those ! Previous customer had a £35k bespoke kitchen ( fitters of which couldn't hang a picture tbh ) and they're MD came in refusing to let me near the plumbing, after I'd plumbed the entire bloody big house without issue. Along comes the fitter with a worried look and a blow lamp. Following day, a Saturday morning, the customer is walking around his 100m2 of 600x600mm porcelain floor in flippers Who does the kitchen co ask to fix it? Dry soldered joint. They got the copper so hot it had gone black. Ive not ever heard of or seen these devices tbh, just not sure how to approach a customer and say "can you spend change of £500 fitting this system to protect you against my plumbing in case it leaks?" One for the customer to decide I guess, but I'll certainly consider suggesting fitting one if they're happy to pay for it. I'll bet there will be a mixed response and some ridicule from other plumbers. @lizzie Was this an error on the plumbers side, or the kitchen fitters side?

That should be fine, and done in copper too. If all of those sub floor voids are ventilated then that won't be a problem. They just frown on you having a leak and charging a small cavity, whereas they're not so bothered about the larger ones. Duct from the bottles until the 'hollow void' with the duct sealed the dwelling side, and the other end of the duct visible and exposed to atmosphere. If a leak occurs it'll transport the gas to outside where it can be detected. Remember you only need 15mm, 22mm is way overkill.

As posi joists are a bespoke engineered solution i'd have assumed your posi supplier would be specifying and supplying the hangers as part of the package. Don't their drawings spec the hangers, and include a disclaimer against adapting/modifying without consultation.

Looks great. It will be exciting next week having all those different trades working.

Better and better. Just look at that big open sky.

Replacement spring £114 from eBay! The springs has an aluminium tag on each spring giving the spring model number.

I chose the Grohe device specifically because it senses the whole house water system. It is on the incoming main. I have it on an app so can see status any time anywhere. Its shows me pressure, temp and usage. I set defaults and it will switch system off if system goes outside those parameters. It detects micro leaks as well as pressure drops and with all my pipes running in the roof above 450 of mbc best pumped insulation I wanted to keep an eye on things. You can get those extra little flood sensors to go onto Grohe system but I did not bother. Its now become more widely available (was only via registered installer when I got mine so first fix plumber supplied and fitted). Good price here today - less than I paid. https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/grohe-sense-guard-smart-water-controller-22513ln0?campaign=googlebase&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxPGUwZK_3AIVzJ3tCh2gAQ76EAQYASABEgKTVfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I used to use small metal brackets that had slots in them rather than holes, stainless pan head screws in the middle of the slot and not too tight. All oak worktops I have fitted come with instructions on fitting and treatment.

I usually drill a 6mm hole and put a 4mm stainless pan head in to hold it down so it can move sideways but not upwards

I assume you have the instructions for fitting oak worktops as you also need a couple of coats of oil on all raw edges and underneath before fitting and fit a vapour barrier above appliances like dishwasher and washing machines .The screws holding the worktop to the units also need to be able to move to stop splitting.

4 meters of oak: oak. Oak. King Hell. How thick?

Timber expands across the grain, so the issue is most tricky where you have a corner and the worktop has a wall at either end. If it is a straight run you should not have an issue.

I always left a small gap at the rear of wood worktops for expansion and contraction and fixed the upstand to the wall and used 1mm spacers between the two, when dry remove the spacers and use a clear silicone to seal the gap, this will allow the two to move slightly and retain a water tight seal.

Thanks! He just emailed back and said this: “The new one has the basket on the wrong end, we pack them like that to fit them in the box. Pull the basket off the top with the black rubber on and it should look exactly the same as your original. You will need to pull out you existing basket, put the new one on the new valve by twisting it in to place and fit the whole lot” How the hell was I supposed to know that? How do you know that? Cos it’s obvious? What does ‘pull out the basket’ mean? There’s another bit to remove? Where the hell is that?

I really don't like the idea of having a power socket underneath all that potentially leaking plumbing. Whenever I've needed to have power in places like that I stick the outlets as high up as I can, to minimise the risk that a fault in any of the plumbing will spray water on the socket. All around it looks to be a right old bodge job, which is a bloody shame when you've paid good money and expected a reasonably good standard of work.

You need a customer with a previous 10k claim for water damage and a month in a hotel. Like that one? F

Well I am not alone with window issues, the suppliers and fitters produced really good drawings which the fitters just ignored and some cills will not fit under the window cill drip edge. Some damage on installation with one frame having crow bars marks. The glass is a major issue. The suppliers initially said thats standard, then said they would replace 2 windows and now in conversation with Kastrup to replace 7. The Internorm slider is fine apart from some tiny frame damage on installation. Its very slow to being resolved so wondering if someone can give me some legal advice how I might pursue the matter.

I look so young anyway that I am still on the same bottle !