Leaderboard

You would have thought having mocked it all up without the risers it would have all fitted together first time hey. Oh no! Every winder had to be adjusted ( including adding bits)... which I’m sure will come back to bite me in the arse. BUT they are in!!! I still need to trim the wedges, make the landing proper, and fit the bottom easy straight flight but Iv had enough stress this weekend. So we’re going to the pub, ( I might look at the landing tomorrow..... I might go shopping, I’ll see how I feel in the morning)

Dead man walking....... Ed, that looks the dogs bollocks mate. If I'd have fitted that, let alone made and fitted that, I'd have been walking around with a chest like Katie Price. Go drink beer, and buy SWMBO a bottle of fizzy for being your support, in more than one way.

No they were well rotten but according to G "not an issue" ... well they were a bloody issue. Should have seen how easy the lot was to drag down! Got all my money back and an apology. Then he asked if he could carry on and work for me. Anyway, page closed on that one, a room lost but never mind I have an amazing new crew on board now so onwards and upwards.

@Ferdinand is right, I'm one of the younger self builders at 31. In the south no less. Only reason it has been possible is a combination of factors: - Saving near enough 25% salary since starting my career. Lived in cheap/shared accommodation until last year to make it happen. - left university with no debt, paid via summer jobs, and never taken on any other debt since - always been frugal. For example, cars have always been sub £3k and bougt outright - been super fortunate in my education (aerospace engineering) that has landed me an insanely good career. - inheritance via father-in-law (biggest reason) - lucky break on a few share options - decision to project manage and DIY about £40k worth of labour (else we can't afford it). How we do that with two full time jobs between us will be an interesting challenge I won't deny that the majority of the above is down to privilege and luck. I would definitely consider myself a fortunate outlier, and am very thankful for it. But if I had a choice, I'd rather have my father-in-law around.

Thanks heavens for being sufficiently depressed! Seriously, if anyone's feeling really stressed, don't let it fester. Take a break if you can, talk to friends and family, get some counselling if you're feeling particularly bad, and slag off the chancers causing you grief on here. It all helps!

I’ve just fitted a load of oak stain acacia from Homebase. £30 a length, 28mm and oddly 2.2m long rather than 2.4m. I have had to do a number of cut outs and joins in it and decided to sand it all back and it’s changed colour completely. I’ve used Osmo Top in clear matt and it’s had 3 coats so far. It will get another following an 800 grit wet and dry rub over and that will be enough I think. In terms of quality I think it’s a decent product and an outstanding price - will see what it looks like when it’s finished ..!

I'm sure she'll pick her moment...

I say well done. I would never have attempted it as I know it's beyond my skills. When the beer has gone down and you have mellowed I am sure you will agree it is a success.

Indeed, the rule is quite sensible in that there's a lot to be said for houses being easily adaptable to people getting infirm in various ways. But don't need the kitchen to be wheelchair friendly just now. My own hobby horse on things like this is taps and controls which are awkward to turn if you don't have good manual dexterity. My mother in her last year or two didn't eat very well at least is part because she found the cooker knobs difficult to turn because her hands didn't grip well. BiL got her a tool to help but it wasn't really practical. Siblings and I said to get a new cooker but she wouldn't. Something to think about with shower controls and the like which are often designed for “elegance” rather than ease of use.

Not a big fan of the pop up sockets, seen more broken ones than working.

Bah humbug. Sell the plot, cash in on the crazy prices, move to a retirement flat and be nice and cosy . Alternatively, finish the bathroom (hint) and move onto insulation as your next task while you're still a spring chicken . ZooT can give you lessons as he will have done his whole house by then .

Our kitchen island is 1200mm wide but 2100mm long on one side, 1800mm long on the other, with a round table fitted in. A key dimension is the distance between the island and wall units, we have 1100mm which is good but 1000mm would be the minimum - we haad only 900mm in previous kitchen and that is tight! I have attached a photo and plan of the kitchen, to give you some idea of scale Our sockets are simply fitted into the side of the island - double socket at each end - you can just see one of them behind the bowl of fruit . That's a Gaulhofer window, 1500X1200mm, over the sink. The fan is a recirculation fan, ELICA bought online from Italy for a large discount on UK price (though euro rate was very much better than at the present). We tiled the floor before fitting any units. The island unit is not fixed down, but sits there under it's own weight. Quote 4_Plan view-1 stephanies design.pdf

Some people really make your own efforts look rubbish...... Fantastic piece of work

We have a full width window between our bedroom and the double height space above our kitchen/diner. It was inspired by pics we saw of Trevor Nelson's house a few years back: I think the idea can be very interesting if handled well.

Hi Christine. Sounds like a very challenging time a few things you can rely on though - You are not alone we are all rooting for you. Self building is very challenging but the sense of satisfaction when you come through it makes it all worth while. Just to start a self build takes a lot of courage and sticking to it takes even more but in the ends its your goal that matters and the pain of apparent mountains in the road when you hit them will look like bumps in the road when you look back and see what you have achieved. You have come an awful long way already, just a bit further and the sunlight uplands will be all yours. Keep on keeping on and you will come through it.

I stayed in a hotel in Barcelona that had this. Looked great!

I started thinking this sometime in April and it hasn't gone away yet! The difference is that I now know it will be worth it in the end - back then if I could have easily done it it would have been exhaust into the car. I just didn't have the energy to do it

Can you use anything like scrap pallets to give you an area outside the caravan that will be at least cleanish. As above it's time for a serious sit down and a time scale marked out. You have other trades booked in and can't be pushed back.

OMG apart from a few minor details you could be telling my story. Earlier this year. Lads arrive about 8 ish - and have a cup of tea/coffee; get on site about half past and start moving things about, whilst sharing youtube links and loud swearing. 9am it starts raining, so into the garage they go for more drinks. It's cold so they switch on my 2kw patio heater. 10 o'clock it stops raining - 10.20 still no sign of them. I get the courage to go and let them know that it has stopped raining - 'What --- it's arr break'. BUT it nearly half past 10 and you haven't done any f&&king work yet. Eventually, after I was told that half the work hadn't been quoted for and they wanted another 46k, (Yep £46,000) they got told to piss off I would sort it out myself and they were no longer needed. (It wasn't really as simple as that). So although mine is a new build rather than reno, in other ways we are pretty much at the same state. I'm sorting plasterers, joiners, plumbers and electricians. All doable if it wasn't for the fact that their work has to coordinate AND I have to get the suppliers to get the right things, at the right price, to the right place at the right time. Obviously this is a brief summary of many weeks of feeling sick, waking at 4 in the morning and downing wine every night. You have my sympathy - you are not alone

I can think of two specific periods in our build when I felt like that, and in both cases things got better soon afterwards. I think anyone who's built a house will recognise that feeling of despair, although you seem to be getting it big style. I don't know if it helps, but I just kept telling myself that one way or the other we'd get through it, and that once we did, the problems would become distant memories. There are still a few memories from our build that can annoy me if I think too hard about them, but they've faded with time, and left me with mostly good feelings about the process. Is there anything specific we can do to help? Might be advice, but might just be shoulder to cry/shriek on. We're with you, either way.

Debbie's been really patient. And the moment we had our windows in , I thought it might be time to start a conversation about how she wants her kitchen to be organised. We get surprisingly little talk-it-through-time and when we do it's clear that mental pictures aren't good enough. There's only so much Pintrest sharing that anyone can stand. So, out of the windows packing casing I made this. The box shape in the foreground is the island - which we hadn't planned for. In an effort to reduce the amount of yet more piss-poor planning, I'd like to plan the island in detail. I've made a start, but what the hell do I need to do next? She wants a hob, an in-island extractor, a fridge, somewhere to charge her command and control device (phone), somewhere to eat, a built in place for hot pans, and a bit of storage. All in 1200 square. Yeah, right.

Haha..... well my current kitchen is made from reclaimed scaffold boards and gymnasium floorboards with a bit of reclaimed laminate.... then there’s the kitchen table made out of larch cladding ofcuts and topped with a piece of shower board ! Not for most folks but It’s functional and cost me nothing and I don’t fret when the kids do something crazy like write on it with permanent marker...... recently I acquired 5 big marble tops about 1m x 600mm and some pretty amazing slate slabs at about the same size but 50mm thick. When I eventually do the cottage kitchen it will be a right old mixture.... done well it should be quirky and fun but functional.

People like me you mean . Always up for a beat the search engine challenge

@Christine Walker, I will be following in your footsteps, quite some considerable distance behind. I have read all your posts with careful interest. I too will not doubt have times when its hard to see the end. I am rooting for you!

Welcome, and sorry for missing your first post. I'll pop over to it and try to help.

When that's all finished and oiled up it will look outstanding. Really superb skills on show there. And a lot of patience.

I'm having a look at the copact laminate worktop, Zenith caldeira. It looks very nice and would be a more durable option for me than the wood I was previously looking at, but I'm not sure whether it will work for my island. It's an oversize one with a width of 1440 (2 standard cupboard carcasses back to back) and I would need to have 2 lengths of it joined. Not sure how achievable this is whilst getting a good finish on the join.

What a lovely piece of work, something to be really proud of, I know I would be. ?

Mine. She knew better than to shout back at the time.

But this a thing of beauty ???

Lovely looking stuff. I'll bet it's satisfying seeing it come together...

^^ put some boards under the wheels. or by the time you next come to move it, you may find it has sunk to the axles (it would in our ground in winter)

Just found this on the web

irrational or ludicrous ..?? even if it doesn’t back up, if the traps dry out it will smell anyway... and if it backs up to first floor then your shower wall drain in that new ground floor shower will need one hell of a non return valve on it ..!!!

If it backs up, it's when it gets to downstairs WC pan level that your "problems" start.

Regarding cables warranty, we made up extra 2m mc4 male/female cables and looped them into with a extra connection inside. The panel connectors are still between the panel and flashing. I was warned if we do anything to the mc4 connector on the panel the panel warranty would be invalid.

@Onoff - Debbie says have you got any advice on childbirth?

Try Wagner Renewables for a price on everything inc the in roof kit. Very knowledgeable and have offers on both MCS and non-MCS panels.

Just had a quick look and it seems there are several spreadsheet apps for the iPad. No idea whether they would work OK or not, but the quick ones I've found are Numbers, Free Spreadsheet and Excel. I'd imagine that using them on a tablet may well be an exercise in frustration though, as one key thing with any spreadsheet is the need to see the screen whilst entering data into cells, so without an external keyboard I'd guess they are likely to be a bit awkward and very slow to use. Any of them should be able to accept an .xls file though, as it's a very old standard. If you need it in another format I can upload in a pretty wide range of them, I'd just need to know what file extension any programme expects to see.

You can either copy the other members yourself or send it to the secretary who should do it for you if you ask. Tell her it's for the next meeting. I would make it a letter rather than an email even if that's how you send it to them.

With the amount of tanking you did you could get away without grout

If you have electric invest in an electric blanket. A lifesaver in the winter and cheap as chips to run.

Hi. We have bought a small farm house in Lincolnshire, about an acre with a tiny 1910 farmhouse. We have plans to extend the original building, demolishing a portacabin like single storey and create a new two storey extension. At a preliminary meeting with the planner, they were happy with the plans in principle but asked why we didn’t want to knock down and rebuild. We hadn’t considered this and loads of advice says rebuild, better energy options, claim vat back etc. But we’re not too sure? Do people really get back their vat (or as much as they expect?) is it worth knocking down a small but serviceable 3 bed house to start again? We’ve got a sensible fund for the extension, but demolish and rebuild sounds a lot more expensive? Is it worth it in the long run ? Current property 160sqm. Extension would add 140sqm.

I swayed back and for about the FIT. I decided the sums worked for me but it was a close call. £1k premium and no up front vat for 4.5kw system. I had a good look at two in roof kits the GSE system and the EASY ROOF system both very similar and i believe both French. My installer recomended the GSE as it was easier to install. No major issues when installing ( we installed it ourselves), but there was no exact instructions (maybe online?). Double check your chosen panel is compatible with your chosen inroof kit (most are but not all). You will probably be around £800 for the inroof kit for 4kw of panels. Prices are steadily falling for panels so pays to shop around. The all black panels with the inroof kit does look very tidy esp on slate (see jsharris house). Break the pv cost down to Cost per watt, makes life easy to compare apples with apples. Maybe hold of as long as possible, when the FIT ends in spring you may pick up some bargains! We looped cable from every panel into the loft space with a connection. This will allow easier maintance and repair down the line, I have not seen anybody else do this. Not to sure how to advice on inverters I don't have any first hand knowledge. All seem to have a life span and don't seem worth to repair. SMA sunnyboy inverters have been in the game along time and we picked up one in a bulk solar thermal purchase. If you have shading on roof look at ditching the single inverter and sticking on micro inverters on to each panel ( this was another reason we looped cables into loft space as we have trees but are planning to cut these back). quick check 300w black 8.33 solar (longest preformance manufacturer warranty I have seen but bit sceptical of 20 year warranty) is £110 each plus vat. You can get a better deal on quantity.

Yep already suggested that one. It is standard practice in Australia build a big garage, fit a shower and toilet, fit some temporary partition walls live in garage finish house garage ends up as nice man cave with toilet.

Given all you have on your plate, the best advice I think is to grit your teeth, and move on.

Definitely right to sack him. I doubt if it's worth the stress of fighting for the extra money back unfortunately. Lots of stress and no guarantee of success. I wish I'd only lost a couple of hundred!

Well I don’t care what he charged, the Work was crap and “not fit for purpose” . Wether you pursue him for your money back is up to you but I agree with others, get three opinions and quotes for the work you require. If you have photos of his work and there is a chance others will see them, he may well offer you your money back!!!

Grit your teeth. Focus on the future. Working with the building trades involves a learning and hardening-off process : its very uncomfortable and off-pissing. Especially the learning. Most of us are groping around in the half-dark nearly all the damn time. It stops most of us from sleeping well many nights of the year. I'm beginning to wish I was an amalgam of PedroW, Nod, The Welsh plumber, Pro Dave and JSH. I'd be bomb-proof if that were the case. 'Taint never gunner 'appen is it? Be clear about what needs to be done next List the heading and subheadings Discuss those with the next guys who will work for you. Agree what needs to happen Agree a budget: agree a set of dates when that budget will be reviewed (weekly?) - get a price Be seen on site, take photos, ask questions Take written notes of meetings. Send yer man a copy

More progress! Physically cutting things really isn’t taking that long once I got the jigs sorted. Actually deciding the marks are in the rights place is proving to be very time consuming. Now the big question is do I start the next set of strings and house them into this newel on the bench OR do I get the lower part all glued, screwed and fitted and then try to fit the rest while this bit is in situ...... bench sounds the sensible option but I just don’t know. Also I make a pretty clever dowel making set up. First I cut a 11mmx11mm stick on the table saw. Mount that in a cordless drill and spin it through this very crude looking “thing” then i I beat that through this 10mm hole I drilled in this drill bit. Seems to be working ok so far. Also made a jig for cutting the wedges but that bit doesn’t look very impressive. The little screw at the back is for “adjustment”. back to work ?