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For a reason or reasons unknown to me I am about to pen a short piece about cats. I think it is mainly because @AnonymousBosch posted a picture of his supervisory cat, here. Now, that cat is a lot of things, and whilst allegedly Jellicle (ie black and white), is not so. It is clearly a Rum-Tum-Tugger - particularly given a penchant for using 'playbites' as a slightly abrupt management tool. It is also the fault of whoever did not tell me about the statue of Hodge, the supervisory cat that used to own Dr Samuel Johnson, when I was living in the City of London back in the late 1990s. As reported by Boswell: 'I recollect [Hodge] one day scrambling up Dr. Johnson's breast, apparently with much satisfaction, while my friend smiling and half-whistling, rubbed down his back, and pulled him by the tail; and when I observed he was a fine cat, saying, "Why yes, Sir, but I have had cats whom I liked better than this;" and then as if perceiving Hodge to be out of countenance, adding, "but he is a very fine cat, a very fine cat indeed."' I need to record somewhere that a statue of Hodge now exists in Gough Square, outside Dr Johnson's House - just around the corner from where Cafe Opera used to exist in Fleet Street. Cafe Opera was just what it says - reasonable Italian Food whilst being serenaded by Opera singers earning a crust on the side. (Credit Mrs Woffington, who's current blog, which seems unfortunately to have stopped in 2010, is here. I will assume she found a congenial Latin teacher who now occupies her interest). The oysters, upon which Dr Johnson used to feed Hodge, are a sign (in 2019 anyway) of a very supervisory cat. Whilst I'm jabbering about this area, I recommend that anyone wanting to get some amazing ideas for Garden Design take a tour around the two dozen pocket-parks in the City of London. These are genuinely delightful, complexly small designs, and deserve a profile as high as the collection of City Churches by Wren. Greyfriars Bobby, never mind Paddington Bear, eat your heart out.

Hi all, we we are embarking... well embarked... on our build. This is a cottage style house (due to planning requirements!) in Cambridge Gloucestershire. We have had fun and games getting planning, which we ended up having to split into multiple applications on the advice of our planning consultant. And then further fun obtaining the mortgage. I am 56 and my wife change jobs with her new role initially a 1 year contract, which meant our initial lender, who we had spent 3 months working with, immediately withdrew! We managed to obtain a new lender and funds should be available next week. We have got the foundations finished and as soon as we have funds and tie up a few ends plan to order our frame from MBC Timberframe. we are hoping to get in by Christmas ( I said that 2 years ago too when we bought the land!) ELEVATIONS-2269796.pdf GROUND_FLOOR_PLAN-2269794.pdf FIRST_FLOOR_PLAN-2269795.pdf

Hay Stuart, yes I used off the shelf flashing kits that did not need any alterations, I am not sure of the flashing kit code but it’s the one designed for wriggly / corrugated tin, I will see if I can track it down..... I’m pretty sure it’s not the slate flashing kit as I have used that on another roof and the skirt is very different. (Photo included) I am also pretty sure that like your tin my tin has a high edge on one side and a low edge on the opposite side, you want the low edges to go into the velux gutter not the high edge as this will not be as effective... I think I just turned the sheets around to get a high edge to fall into each gutter, you should lay the sheets in a specific way to so that the exposed edges are not facing the prevailing wind, but to get them to fit into the gutter on both sides of the velux you need to break this rule..... my roof FACES the prevailing wind so it did not matter as the wind NEVER blows from either side as I am in a narrow glen facing the prevailing wind. But it may be something you need to consider. I can’t think of why the flashings I used would not work with box profile, but I would need to see the exposed flashing again to be sure that it would work 100% No you need to get the edge of the tin to line up with the middle of the inner gutter, remember that the tin has two different edges, a high edge and a low edge, you want the LOW edge to fall into the gutter, depending on the spacing between the box profiles, (wriggly tin is better as it gives you more options ) you then want the the next sheet of tin to fall with its edge exactly in the centre of the gutter on the other side of the velux......... this is where it may get tricky because you are using box profile and there is NO GUARANTEE that the pre set spacing of the box profile will match the width of your windows....... if it does not match then it’s not going to work FULL STOP. Ok have a think about what I have said and come back to me if you have more questions. I think your your going to need a bit if luck as it will be pretty unlikely that the box profile will match your existing window widths but here’s hoping...... photo of slate flashing kit, note the skirt is rigid and you want the flexible one as shown in my earlier photos.

What about just some handy work @nod

3 to 5 ACH is indeed likely some of the time but surely a house with minimal leakage for building regulations not to require mechanical ventilation (5 m³/m²/h, I think) would have a much lower air change rate most of the time in practice. 50 pascals corresponds to a wind speed of around 8.8 m/s (just under 20 mph) which is relatively uncommon even in exposed locations. Also, a blower door test blows (or sucks) on all four walls and the floor and ceiling whereas wind tends to, in effect, blow on just one wall and suck on the opposite one. IIRC, a rule of thumb is that the actual ACH, on average, is likely to be about 1/20th of the test result. Of course, what's of interest is the typical ACH during the worst bit of the heating season. Still…

Hi and welcome to the forum. Looks like a nice project. Good job you didn't specify which Christmas you intend to move in.

Well you are a cheap date!

@lizzie Hi Lizzie, I would be really grateful. I haven't seen anything as nice as yours. I am going contact the chap that did your blinds soon. I loved so many things about your house that I hadn't been aware existed.

Our Robomow Rx20u (£450) is cutting the grass of our rental as I sit inside and type this. I hate gardening with a passion which is why I bought it. I set it off manually a couple of times a week as it doesn’t have a rain sensor like the big expensive ones. Lawn is about 250 m2 and has a very complex edge pattern. In terms of the cut it does miss the edges which is not ideal. I bought a cheap Makita strimmer which uses drill batteries and it takes me about 15mins once a month in summer to do the edges. Shame you can’t use a strimmer - edging shears would take ages. However, you could let the robot mower do the majority of the lawn and then just run the mower round the edges once a month. Should say also you’re not going to get stripes with a robot. I believe most of them just make random passes across the lawn like mine rather than an up / down pattern you would make with a mower. I love mine as it saves me from doing one of the jobs I most hate, money well spent.

I used sand under my AstroTurf (as most people do I believe) and it was fine with dogs. My dogs (I had 9 at one stage ) weren't on it 24 x 7 but I used to spray it with Odourfresh on occasion and that seemed to sort out any issues. A hose end sprayer is perfect for that. I use Odourfresh here for spraying the patio area where the dogs go now. They're not allowed on the lawn here as one of my 2 dogs digs the lawn making it even worse than it is! She never dug the Astroturf . I also use Odourfresh in the laundry when I wash their beds, pretty much anywhere I want to freshen up as it's a disinfectant as well as a deodoriser. Odourfresh, Some people use diluted biological washing powder in a watering can to clean their Astroturf although I haven't tried that (guess it might work for patio areas too), and there seem to be a load of specialist cleaners now but I haven't tried any of those. Artificial Grass Cleaner For some people moss and algae seem to be an issue but we only got a tiny bit of algae in one corner in winter where there wasn't much sun. Using an algae remover soon sorted that out. Never had any moss. The odd weed used to grow in the astroturf but I'm talking a handful a year, not the millions that seem to appear in my gravel and are a never ending job to address! There are a ton of posts about Astoturf and dogs in the Facebook group linked below as many people with dogs have swapped to AstroTurf, mostly to avoid the mud issues in winter. Our Astro actually came from the main ring at Crufts. Crufts used to have a deal with the company they used whereby the company would supply new Astroturf to use at Crufts and then they took it back after Crufts each year and sold it off at a discount. I think we got a third off the normal price. Link to Facebook post As others have said however the key to success is in the prep. Don't cut corners on preparing the ground before laying the Astroturf or it will end up an expensive mess.

Hi chaps thx for replies. nod- Yes I definitely do. Whilst in 'theory' I could cut timbers (chopsaw), fit together/ c'tex fill.. & in 'theory' fix 3 prefab'd walls to slab & so on (even the dividing floor being timber & me being skilled enough to cut to correct lengths, I could in 'theory' put up too) I'd not even consider attempting. Bc Ive no experience in doing such a project whatsoever, I'm totally on my own: the stakes just are far too high etc. I have an ameinable builder you see, whose done £5k of work here (chimney rebuild mainly, & other stuff). Ive mentioned if I could do some parts, & he agrees no problem suggesting an 'itemised' quote I can "pick & choose from". He totally understands I have a ltd income, & couldn't afford the whole thing pro done, & sees I have some wood skills too. We get on well. Maybe asking if he can leave the wall c'tex to me.. is asking a bit much as Id get in the way I guess/ fk up their flow. Ok so let me just ask you guys on this- the foundations. I'm sure my builder would help marking (or someone competent if not him) out the footing outlines for me. Ok let's assume I get 3 footing trenches dug in correct place/ depth & width etc. The process from here to have a bed on which he builds the walls: is it feasable to organise 1) the concrete pour, 2) the next bit > up to having a surface > my builder then comes in?

This is our second year with the mower. I left the mower out all winter in early spring simply used the app to re-program it to mow on a schedule. It just got on with it. It does occasionally get stuck, the app warns me. One new issue, this year, is we have a few tough weeds growing in the lawn and the (small) mower is not able to cope - it either bounces back off them or get stuck. I sprayed weed-killer last weekend - partially helping. One way you could help with edge trimming is to have a course of paving blocks at edge of lawn - you can then let the mower overlap cutting above the blocks - in effect have the boundary wire closer to the lawn edge. While this controls the height of lawn you will still need to tidy up as the grass will grow over the edge on to the paving. So no perfect solution, if you are requiring that perfect edge you might be better off employing someone to provide that rather than invest in a mower. Or recalibrate your vision

I think the message is don't level it and turf it straight away. Give the made up ground some time to settle, then level it and seed or turf it.

Hi @lizzie, just a reminder of the discussion here... Edges - not completely, you still need to strim. I get away with strimming 2-3 times per year. Our ground is lumpy and sloped. Works OK. Check the spec for degree of slope.

Depends what colour the stripes are ?

Yep sorry - just re-read that.

You can. https://www.goartificialgrass.co.uk/artificial-lawn-c25/10-00m-to-19-99m-c44/wembley-stripe-30mm-artificial-grass-p867

Wow thats an eye opener on the dog turf thank you! I was contemplating opening up a new robot mower thread too! Might well do that tomorrow.

@joth yes, getting from CSS. Just over 5k iirc which is for 2 half winders. The annoying thing is they appear to be a middle-man business as the actual staircase is manufactured in Sweden.

Run some very hot water through them and look with an IR camera.

Walk on glazing! . Fantastic price only 4 units left . PM me for details and mention voucher pocster1bonus