Leaderboard

Many times I during the last 3 years I could have happily put a match to the bloody thing & walked away. I had some very dark times & wished I had just sold the plot after getting planning permission. However, now, I cannot imagine not having done it. I walk around the spaces inside with a real sense of pride & excitement at what it will be, one day. I am dog tired & have no money, but I will have the house of my dreams, something I could never have afforded had I not done it myself. Of course, it has cost far more than anticipated, I will be about £50k over by the time it is finished. A result of inexperience, circumstances and yes, optimism bias.

Optimism bias will blot out any negatives that KM or Grand Designs dish up. I've been thinking about @JSHarris point about it here, . I don't think we would - knowing what we now know - have started our build. But then I remembered Robert Frosts poem: The Road Not Taken. Another way, perhaps earthier, would be to say Curiosity Killed the Cat Had we not started - damn the consequences - I for one would never have forgiven myself. So for us it's a bit shitty now, no money, knackered, lots of mistakes to live with. More stress -in spades - to come. I know that now. And how many people do I know would give their eye teeth to be as privileged as we are?

Just got the first draft of our completed pre-construction PHPP and I did a little happy dance on opening the PER tab: What this says is our 8kW of self-generation (vertical axis normalized to ground floor footprint) is enough to offset our energy demand (horizontal axis, normalized to total inhabitable floor area) and achieve their new-ish "PH Plus" category. So far there's only one in the UK that has achieved this (that I know of) so exciting times ahead! (if all rather arbitrary I'll admit, sure). Anyone else gone through PHPP and got PER charts for comparison?

I also don't get the forever house. What is the objective? Things change as you go through life. Moving is fairly cheap and if you are lucky enough to always move somewhere more suitable, why not? I spoke to an older couple today who have a fantastic large detached house on 1.5 acres but they are looking for a new house which is central, easy to heat, lock up and leave, no garden maintenance. What they had before suited them with young children, but now has become a bit of a pain, so time to move on.

More expensive than pVC ?

Summary of planning rules here.. https://www.thegreenage.co.uk/tech/planning-permission-for-wind-turbines/

I certainly wouldn't and it's finished and we've been living in it for over a year. I liked the technical challenge of designing a low energy house but to me it's still just a house. The idea of a forever house is something I have difficulty understanding.

There used to be a launderette in Falmouth (top of Trelawney Road) that was also an off license as well as one in Penryn that shared a frontage with a fish and chip shop, not a good mix that one. From memory there was also one in St Day that was half butcher's shop half launderette. The best mix of premises I have ever seen was in Mallow, Ireland, double fronted premises, one half a bar, the other a funeral parlour, saves moving the body for the wake.

I’ve done renovations and new builds, Knocking it down and starting again is the cheapest option!

I really like the idea of a video wall. Mine would be a view of the garden, with a night vision capability so that we can see the nocturnal wildlife as well. I'm sitting here with a pan tilt mount, a couple of 1080p video cameras (with an IR capability) and some IR floodlights, trying to work out how to arrange them so we can sit indoors watching the bats, hedgehogs and occasional visiting otter in the late evenings. Ideally I'd like to add audio too, and have just ordered an ultrasonic microphone to see if I can rig up a broadband audio system, with a frequency converter so we can hear the bats (at the moment I have to go outside with a hand held bat detector to hear them).

Make no mistake self build is hard If it was easy everyone would do it Grand designs sort of skips past most of the bad bits Building the dream is closer to what your likely to experience But I think most would agree that the ends justifies the means I’ve taken apprentices on that thought it would be like DIY SOS Drinking Tea and playing tricks on each other I think we all need to go into this with our eyes open The contractors aren't your friends They are being employed by you and you have the final say on everything Betting having Grumpy old Bob on your build that knows his job inside out Than Jim who’s a real nice guy But turns up when he feels like it and doesn’t have clue

You knocked out the traffic lights in Truro, which is 50 miles from you. And they blamed it on a windfarm and a gas plant, now we know the truth. Shall we call it the 3C event.

The Solent area has it's own micro-climate. Was wet and windy all day yesterday but has been gusting to over 50 knots since the early hours with intermittent downpours. Definitely a day for indoor jobs!

Welcome to THE forum - there will be people who understand in depth along shortly. Sorry @PeterW this post crossed with yours and was not intended to insult.

Thank you NSS

Yes the TD is know as the towel fluffer here. That is it's sole purpose.

Ultimo and Roper Rhodes do bathroom furniture via showrooms, but Howdens also have it in their catalogues.

For a start, I would NOT have speced a 12A relay to switch that load, I would want something a bit larger to be sure of reliability. Some designers just do not seem to be able to design properly for high power loads. A friend of mine (the tiler) has a solar PV diverter. I forget which one, other than it is no longer made. It failed. It was much the same sort of failure, the load to the immersion was carried through PCB tracks that were woefully inadequate and the fly leads off to the heatsink mounted SSR were also showing signs of getting hot and bothered. It was not difficult to repair and reinforce the current path.

Good job. False economy trying to fix old pipes...as I found out. Theres a certain satisfaction knowing everything's new and leak free!

Sadly, quite an appropriate comparison! It was the safety aspect of smart relays, hidden ones in particular, that made me a bit cautious hence why I went with the Shelly as it was the only one I found that's been through UL certification (that's not to say others wouldn't pass of course).

There is smoke coming from a chimney down the road from us. Someone is feeling cold and lit the stove in August (or they have elected a new Pope) We have shut the windows, no need for a night purge just now.

Where is the room for the 24 hour on call dog-butler? (Update. Got it ... that’s the Master Bedroom)

No. The duty is an amount in £. The tariff is the rate in % used to to calculate the duty. If you order something like a lorry load of bricks or timber the cost to you should be calculated as follows.. Total = [(Cost of goods + shipping + insurance) + duty] + VAT In addition there might be a fee (and VAT on the fee) from the customs broker (company that processes the goods through customs. For example they may have to store the goods while they contact you and collect your payment of duty and VAT).

40m2 is fine for a studio. I think the minimum to be mortgageable may be around 30m2. Normally work well in town / city centres or holiday lets, not burbs or rural.

Probably worth clarifying Don’t use these underground to change direction unless you have to Use these If you have a 45 degree entry to an IC and have to come in at 90 degrees to it, a 45 around 400 to 600mm away from the IC is preferable in case you need to rod as if they are too close together you can jam the rods.

Be interesting if it does apply to self-builders, as it opens up the opportunity to not have to pay VAT, perhaps, rather than have to claim it back on completion. This would seem to be sensible, as it would save admin effort by HMRC in collecting VAT that they only have to refund later. Mind you, common sense rarely applies when it comes to government, so it will probably never happen.

Hmmm: and they say that there are no old bold pilots left ? That saying must be wrong then. Shucks.

yes your devon pilot often did tree top fly bys above my house --waving at the wife i think nice to see an old piston twin being flown other than in a straight line

What you need I think is a Sun tracking recliner sat on a turntable within a Sageglass glazed greenhouse with MVHR.

You are nearly as inventive as me @scottishjohn but not there yet keep trying. Going to cut out 90mm diameter holes in the eps, then fit a 90mm fibreglass tube, then replace the bit I cut out into the centre of the tube. So in effect I will have little fibreglass load cells every 300mm along length of window.

Don’t think you want 450kg of window sitting on a couple of screws....... IMHO but I get what your saying ?

Not exactly a current discount offer, but I just had news breaking that Lidl is going to sell all their warehouse leftovers (stuff where only 4-5items are left in each district-so not worth it collecting them to redistribute to stores) in 4-5 selected stores(mostly the stores next to their warehouses). The offer will reduce items to fixed price from 20p-20£ max. For example they had a few TVs that sold for 200quid on black Friday which will come out for 20£. So it s going to be huge discounts, just to get rid of excess stock. should start in end of August /beginning of September and will be a weekly ongoing thing. I know of Bristol Avonmouth and Weston super mare store being on the list of getting this allocation. Might need some further investigation to find out which Lidl in your area gets blessed with this. Thursdays is the day (apparently) when the stock will be coming out. So I will keep my eyes open and report back.