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Or, perhaps, run it in reverse in a small, well-sealed, cupboard. You could call it a "refrigerator"... ?

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like A Bathroom... But not from this angle:

Our blockwork started three weeks ago. This was always going to be weather dependent and it was mixed for the first two weeks in November but since then we have had a really good weather window where its been calm, sunny and not too cold which allowed the remaining work to be completed. Our brickie was fitted a temporary gutter which could be taken off when required. This gable end is where the prevailing wind comes down off the mountains, we have shelter belt here but its nice to know that we now have a solid concrete wall. Next on the list is fitting the concrete windows cills which should be next week. The sections that don't have blockwork will be fitted with the remaining Siberian larch cladding in early December.

What I did for my joists was to clamp a stick to the top of the joist to rest over the header. If the stick is stiff enough and the clamp is tight this ensures that the top of the joist lines up with the top of the header and still allows a bit of movement for the bottom of the joist to get the best compromise on verticality of the joists (some of mine were a bit twisted so it wasn't possible to get both ends completely vertical).

Just to add to this if anyone is thinking about purchasing one. The spec is for a max 3a start current and there has been some concern raised about these units just hitting full power and staying there. With a clamp meter on, its fairly clear to see that they actually ramp up over about 15-20 seconds to full power then level off, modulating as they go. They power down in a similar fashion with the load dropping off and then the fans finally powering down. Its probably what I would expect from a Mitsubishi unit tbh, all in they seem pretty well made.

Finish the bathroom ..........?

Perhaps. But there are umpteen options, all balancing risk vs reward, and different lenses that potential buyers look through. eg Consider a value without PP for this site - £X. Once it has full PP the value is Y. In which case the original owner can: 1 - Invest say £5k in PP, increase the value by £A to £X+A, and gives them £A-5k in extra money. 2 - Assign a higher value for the potential, which gives them £X+B. Where £B is the subject of estimates and the price of a willing buyer. If Fred and Fiona the Self-Building family come along they may be running out of sprog-space so will pay more than Bob than Batchelor or Sheila the Speculator. But Fred and Fiona or Bob pay no CiL and get their VAT back on the build, and Sheila may have an extra 3% Stamp Duty to pay (OK - may not apply to a plot, but makes the point), which may mean that Sheila's offer is forced by the tax treatment to be £25k lower than if there were a different playing field. 3 - Impose an Overage Agreement, which may give them a potential uplift £C in the future, depending, but may also drive people away. 4 - Take a middle route eg Outline PP. Then that increased value goes through the lens to Price, P, and then of Personal Opinions (eg it may save Fiona a 90 minute commute and a second car, so may save £5k a year, which annualises up to £25k or £50k on the price, depending on the current return that Fiona can obtain on £25k used elsewhere, and how much time she wants to spend with her horse and/or her family). Who knows, Owen the Owner may have had some legover with 25 years ago and want to help his illegitimate child for the future, and so be inclined towards selling to Fanny-Mae his Former-Mistress at a lower price. But then the Buyer may only get PP for something smaller than they want, which may mean having paralysed themselves with analysis, they have a financial bloodbath anyway, and end up hiding behind excuses such as "I got my dream forever home" or "it was worth it to get exactly what I wanted". Or perhaps those are features, not bugs ? . Or they may read a self-build website and save £50k on build costs because they build it differently. And that is before the art of the deal and the knowledge of the Planning System or Local Politics, and that Harry the Hoary Old Git thinks he can get four houses on there at Appeal, or if he sells to a housing association and gets local opinion on his side. but OTOH the limitations of Part Q will affect all of those. Favourite quote: Which train are you on? But then some people are travelling on the High Road or the Low Road, not the train. You takes your choice, after working out what you can / can't control, taking advice on what you may be able to do, influenced by your own circs, and then makes your offer depending on everything else, and pays your money if you win. I try to envisage it in terms of money vs risk, in the circumstances, and then wait until I feel I know enough to make a decision. But I really wish you success. Apologies for my early morning maunderings. Ferdinand

Back on topic. It's pretty grim being back in the old house. Had to turn the heating up, as when I came back from the new house to here to finish clearing out and packing our last few bits and pieces up it felt miserably uncomfortable (and noisy). The heating's been on, set for 21.5 deg C, but I'm sitting here with cold feet and not looking forward to our last night here. The stark difference between a much-improved (loads of extra insulation, lots of attention paid to improving airtightness, reasonably decent uPVC double glazing, condensing combi boiler) 1986 block and brick bungalow and our passive house is just unbelievable. The room temperature of both is the same, but for some reason (most probably the far more even temperature in the new house, with the walls, floor, ceiling and windows all at the same temperature) the new house feels so much more comfortable. I won't regret finally moving out of this old house. Having experienced the comfort of a passive house I doubt I could ever feel comfortable in any other type of house in future. Good job we have no intention of ever moving house again. Best of all, I'm finally shifting out of "self-build mode", and starting to think about life when we're not working almost exclusively on house-related stuff. First off is a nice holiday, though...

Glad it's working! My heating ate up the electric when it was on for the first time this year, but it did settle down after that. Hopefully it will be the same for your boiler.

Heating is on! Suddenly it started to flow on Friday night and all is now well with the world! But my god can that pellet stove eat those pellets! we were told we would use 1and a half to two tons a year but I can’t see that happening, installer has said it will use a lot until the house is heated up and then settle down, I really hope so or I’d have been as well with oil. It’s a funny piece of kit, set the water temperature to70degrees and it burns away at the top setting until it gets to about 68 then gradually cuts down its rate of burning till it eventually goes very slowly, you then see the temperature drop gradually and when it’s down about 50 degrees it starts working it’s burn rate up again but this can take quite a while and I do wonder why it gets so low before ramping up again, I’m just not sure of it yet but I suppose time will tell, hope it’s not been an expensive mistake.

Wow, that's looking fantastic!

I had endless hassle over water usage, with a PITA "old school" building inspector, who not only made me fit restrictors everywhere, but also insisted that I provide evidence (in the form of photographs) that I had done so. I complied with all his requests, filled in the calculator, printed everything out to prove that every outlet, WC etc complied with the regs (despite us having a borehole private supply, so not needing to comply with water regs anyway) and had them all lined up on the kitchen work surface for the final completion inspection. The head of building control turned out to do this, and wasn't the slightest bit interested in water consumption, as he said it didn't apply to anyone with a private supply (something I'd been arguing over for weeks). I actually left some of the restrictors in place, as they are pretty good at reducing splashing from taps. One major error I made was accidentally leaving the shower flow restrictor in place. SWMBO was less than impressed with a 6 litre/minute shower, but was too polite to mention it. I spotted it straight away and removed it, and now all is well in the world...

It'll be bloody luxury when you get 2 showers and a bath finally on the go instead of everyone cramming into the ensuite (not all at once hopefully ...) . When's No. 1 son back from uni? That has to be your goal if he's to get first dibs surely?

Oh yes! It was in use but then I covered it over as a bench / working platform and to protect it. A few days hopefully and I'll have it uncovered ready for tiling

I can fully confirm to @PeterW message. Also I wish to write few words in terms of Defrosting. I had a chance to witness such moment when pump switch itself to defrosting mode. Entire procedure took about 90sec. Durring this process compressor speed went down a bit. Temp at the hot outlet from the unit dropped during this process from 50C to 13C. After this short moment unit returned to normal mode. By the way of update: for last 24 days my ASHP consumed 685kWh. Total working time 336h. Average load 2.04kW

My understanding is as follows...let's suppose the existing area is 200sqm... Simple extension...there would be no cil liability as the increase is under 100sqm of new space. Knock down and rebuild 40sqm larger... The new building is 240sqm. Since thsg is bigger than 100sqm there will be a cil liability. However it would be calculated on 240-200 = 40sqm eg the increase in area only. Not on the total area 240sqm. This is provide the new pp is granted before demolition. You sould also get the self builder exemption if you do all the claim paperwork before starting. See also.. https://www.khub.net/web/planningadvisoryservicepas/forum/-/message_boards/message/28062398 So yes you should avoid doing any work on site including demolition before you have the new pp and cil exemption paperwork done.

You can get longer dishwasher hose from places like Screwfix. I would also get a pipe clip to support the hose reducing any string on the spigot.

You're probably confusing this with someone plotting a murder

Just to be different I fit all the hangers first, with an off cut to make sure the bottom is in the right place. Issue with this method is the timbers all have to be the same size to avoid the floor undulating. But unless you use a thicknesses on every one, one side is going to suffer, technically should be the ceiling iirc but you can’t have everything. Other than that my only advice would be to use 40mm twist nails. They’re over spec but you won’t hit your fingers as much with them.

The most important thing to consider is can you get someone to install the ashp and all is bits and commission it and get it working as it's meant to be. You can easily buy the unit and all its bits from ebay but as you have read on here countless times its the quality of the installation that will count the most.

I find it strange that people don't seem to understand the difference between recirculating heat and recirculating air. It's almost as if the incoming air has somehow been contaminated by the exhaust. I just tell people that the entire air in the house is exchanged every 2 hrs. That's not quite true because our MVHR at 30% flow does about 10% every 20-25 mins so there will be the odd lingering molecules. The main point is that the air in the house is a lot fresher overall than no MVHR and an odd window cracked open.

Temporary screws to hold them in ..?? No reason not to as long as you don’t split the joist ends. And don't forget to use twist nails for the hangers - screws are a no-no ..!!

Mind bleach! Can't erase that upskirt reflection!

Any use? https://www.nwl.co.uk/your-home/your-account/usage-calculator.aspx

...they'd be three years late and five times over budget....

I am more shocked at the plumber or kitchen fitter that hacked half the back of the cabinet out, rather than drill a hole for the waste pipe., or the "plumber" that used that flexi waste because it was quicker than doing a proper job. The right hand waste will need a plug in the unused overflow port and whichever washing machine hose point you do not use will need a blanking plug.

That's about it. Shower riser to drill and fit, tiling in the cupboard might have to wait. Pocket lights to threadle up/down. Towel rad to go on & UFH...nowhere to connect them to at the mo...Body dryer...in but no supply as yet. Speaker and spot positions in loft to be better insulated. I'd like to get the door frame in asap but need to take the left hand wall back a bit. Pre-tiling but best shot of the doorway: Frame needs to go to the left. That brick needs to go and then be finished off. More chain drilling I reckon. Bastards, I'm going back outside to clean buckets after realising just how much more there is to do!

He needs to persuade Jennifer to come and try his new shower and body dryer .

It was temporarily connected for the purposes of testing ..!! Didn’t have chance to take a photo of the finished installation as it was late ...

come on @PeterW, trying to promote best practise on this forum, HSE will be visiting you when posting photos like that!

So.... Quick bit of jerry rigging of the controller last night after getting the 2nd fix radials completed and..... it fired up first time !!! I've left it on 65% load, and just got it chugging 27c water into the slab now for the next few days - it is a 9kw output at 7/35 so currently it is drawing around 5.2A - my fag packet calcs say that is around 1.3kW which would give a CoP of near on 4 so I'm quite happy ! This lot now needs to be cleaned up and the timers put in properly !

Just spotted another advert on eBay... possibly not as good as the above Kinspan but a nice description! https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F183504793875

Interestingly, it seems that the online conveyancers work on a Saturday, as I've just had three documents appear on the system, one of which is the mortgage redemption chit from the building society, who only seem to have posted it yesterday, so someone must be working to have opened the mail and scanned it in. Interestingly, this redemption chit has highlighted a significant brain fart I must have had way back when we were rushing around to get a mortgage on our old house to partially fund the new build. I had it in my head that we'd borrowed up to the max LtV at the time, which was 50%. Back in 2013 our old house was valued at £260k, so all my financial calculations had assumed that our mortgage was for £130k. It seems I was wrong, and that we only borrowed £110k. This has several interesting impacts: 1. It seems that the new house cost £20k less to build than I thought, as I'd made the assumption that we'd spent all of the £130k mortgage I thought we had on it. 2. We will get back £20k more to help top up our depleted savings than I thought we were going to get. 3. Our post-build, post-house move, holiday looks like it's now going to be even more expensive. I noticed that SWMBO has this morning been looking at booking a suite at our favourite hotel (Burgh Island) for a couple of weeks - that'll make a BIG dent in the £20k, I'm sure, plus it means I'll have to buy more expensive new clothes to replace all the ones I've ruined (see this post in this thread:

Well, we're both out of the old house for good, now. We did the final cleaning of the old house yesterday, so we could have a weekend in the new build without having to worry about still having to go back to do stuff at the old house. All I have left to do there is pop over on Monday to take the final meter readings and try to get hold of the buyer to sort out passing on the keys. The latter is predictably difficult, as the buyer seems not to be willing to commit to any arrangements for collecting the keys. I have everything sorted on our side; my solicitor is going to call me as soon as they have the funds and completion has taken place, so I can hand over the keys. The problem is that the buyers solicitor (I've literally just found out today) is based in London, and doesn't seem to advertise a conveyancing service at all; they seem to be specialists in family law. No wonder we've had endless problems with them. It also explains why our solicitor has had to repeatedly chase them up for everything, along with some really daft questions they've raised, often questions that they already have had written answers to. This means I can't just drop the keys off with the buyers solicitor, and with the buyer being reluctant to commit to a time to collect the keys, I'm left with the feeling that I'll have to find the buyers address and just drop the keys through the letter box, if push comes to shove. The daft thing is that I've already offered to meet the buyer at the house, and talk through the heating and boiler controls, bathroom UFH programmer etc, something the buyer was keen to accept.