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This made me chuckle: https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/celebrity/kevin-mccloud-over-budget-living-in-caravan-and-pregnant-20190823188449?fbclid=IwAR3osgx3IdXoPDJoniPIIfXa5V3xjXbMUsKhnaQtTtjkITzPbeWFPvzzBPg

This was the question folks. Can we keep on topic please, as we've already had one train-wreck of a brexit thread go 'bye-bye' and I'm getting an itchy trigger finger already just by the way this is picking up pace ( in all the wrong directions )? I will ask that anyone who hasn't got anything relative to the OP to say, types nothing at all So simple an idea, it's almost perfect. This is not, nor will it become, a 'Brexit thread'. Go to the pub and discuss that over a few Stella's. Mods shall lock this for 24 hours to allow some time for reflection.................."Strike 1"

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When I was young we lived in France and were looking for a house, some of them had bidets in the bathrooms. I asked my older sister what they were for. "Washing the babies in" she said. To which the French Estate Agent relied, in perfect English. 'No, they are for washing the babies out'

I personally would dig around your mdpe to get a bit of movement, then bring it up through the floor into either a cupboard or a void in the wall, then connect an mdpe stop valve then a reducer from mdpe to hep, then onwards and upwards. Bringing it through the wall will require multiple mdpe bends which are bulky and make an ugly fitting, I wouldn’t use hep outside as you will need to insulate it heavily.

I'd keep as much of the pipework internal as possible to minimise risk of freezing etc. Come through the wall in MDPE, stopcock, then Hep2o Provided you follow the instructions you can safely use brass compression fittings with Hep2o, best with copper olives. I used a 20mm -> 15mm standard brass compression fitting to go from MDPE -> Hep2o. JG Speedfit also make a dedicated fitting for this but as you say, the 'recommendation' is to not mix the brands - but I expect it would probably work... best let one of the more learned folks advise there.

Exactly. The issue is somewhat similar to - and related to - calculating the 'area' of a house. Hence the RICS Code of Practice on area measurement. (2018) Our house has two areas which will never be used by anyone - tucked under the lowest part of the roof (not part of the Net Internal Area) annotated in their diagram as 'Unusable Space' I hear @SteamyTea's voice in my head saying "Whats that supposed to mean?" Here reproduced without permission the RICS definition of Nett Internal Area https://www.rics.org/uk/upholding-professional-standards/sector-standards/real-estate/code-of-measuring-practice/ August 2019

Would that be to store the regalia or to get more people in. Thankfully webcams are very small now and no need to carefully store, out of harms way, VHS tapes.

I am of the opinion that any spend associated with your self build either directly or indirectly should be factored into any £/m2 calculations. Be it tools you buy, rent you pay, fees you pay - all of it. The way I see it is, would you have spent that money if you weren't building a house? If the answer is no then it is a cost arising out of and attributable to the self build. I can't help but feel that people tend to massage the numbers in these sorts of threads, maybe it's because self builders want to convince themselves they have spent less than they have. Why is the plot cost routinely omitted from these figures? It's clearly a cost arising out of choosing to self build. It is the easiest and commonest way to massage the figures to make them look more favourable. Even the magazines routinely seperate plot out from total build cost. I am including everything, I expect to break even at best on final market value but I'm ok with that.

I got a really good head for my husky strimmer, it’s been put through some serious work and is still going strong 4 years in. I know at the time I went into the shop I asked for a heavy duty head and the one he gave me lasted a few weeks....... he admitted he had given me the wrong one and gave me the upgrade at no charge. Some identification marks...... and the best line I have found so far. As you can see from the head it’s got no damage to the holes and the plastic is wearing well for the abuse I put it through.

Looking in from afar, it seems that you'll be getting the house you want for roughly the same £/m2 that a volume developer (or Graven Hill's equivalent) would sell you the identikit house they want for, which doesn't seem a bad deal if you are happy to take a bit of risk and do a bit of graft. That said, it's a bit frustrating that they seem to be taking the piss with the whole idea of self build for the masses, particularly when a fairly priced golden brick model could be a great idea for replication across the UK. And like some of the other posters on here have alluded to, if those wee 3s are going for £413k how can the average family afford live in that part of the world? We might have more rain but at least shelter from it is (relatively) cheap in Scotland.

In more general terms: The prices have gone up a lot at GH. Below are the prices of equivalent plots for each phase as I've been tracking them. 100k, Phase 0 (Pioneers, The Street) 230-250k, Phase 1A 300-315k, Phase 1B Given we paid £255k for 500m2 in Phase 1A, a golden brick of £62k, and actual already at £245k before getting weather tight... That leaves £20k remaining from our budget and we're not finished getting weather-tight. We'll be making no 'profit' as is typically marketed. And that I think is the point, and why GH's prices are high: People are so starved for land to build around here that they are willing to pay such high prices They don't want those who see the project solely as an investment I commend them on point #2 in particular, but it doesn't excuse foundation costs being x2-3 the norm nor the absolute inane bureaucracy they put in place. I'll stop there, GH does no good for my blood pressure!

The snag is that there is some sort of universal law that dictates that stuff expands to fill the volume available. Add an extra cupboard and it will just end up full of stuff, so needing another extra cupboard, and so on, ad infinitum...

On my side of the bed so the wife couldn’t steal it.

The Plant Room. We ended up putting more in it than we originally anticipated so it's a bit cramped when you need to access/service anything. Can't swing a hedgehog never mind a cat!

I knew a chap who developed MS. He started out using suction fit grab rails primarily to determine the perfect position but also that he only needed something to help his confidence in keeping his balance rather than putting any great weight on. Once he knew exactly where he wanted the rails he had some made up to best match the match the wall colour that they were fastened to (his wife’s idea). If memory serves he had them made from a resin like material that came in any colour you wanted but was also quite grippy.

I'm not dealing with the "thick northern racist" thing, through I think that is perhaps an underlying cultural perception for some at the BBC - see for example the 'personal' twitter feeds of some presenters and staff. The Guardian has no external regulator, and would need a team of dozens just to keep track on the pratfalls imo. It has cost them their reputation. Now, on the BBC being held to account - imo they are tenacious in refusing to correct when challenged, and get a large number of things wrong. For example, you remember this graph from the Euro Election months ago, on the BBC - where they got a 'majority for remain' by pretending that the Tories were not pro-Brexit. From this page (now removed): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48403131 To hold them to account for this took three rounds of complaints, and a threat to go to OFCOM, before they switched from dead-bat tactics to admitting an editorial "misjudgement". And this for what they finally claim is a minor mistake. The history is here: There was another one iirc last week where the BBC extensively reported on "the need to stop eating beef" as a prioirity to stop climate change, entirely out of context of the actual international report which also included many other things as equally, or more, significant. No time to round that up now. This concerns me as they are the UK's media monopolist, with around a 40% share. They are just not very good at news istm, and refuse to be held properly to account short of extreme efforts. Not good enough for a tax funded setup. Ferdinand

Regarding press bias - all news outlets have a brand that they filter the same story through through whether it's sensational or sober, left or right, etc. You, as the reader, choose the brand that aligns with your views and bias and will often reject other news brand's interpretation of the same story as wrong. Regarding accuracy, the press is primarily in the business of processing and selling content quickly and don't have the time or expertise (or desire) to deeply analyse every story whether science based or 18th century classical literature - story gets written, sub editor plucks a headline that may or may not reflect the content and away it goes. So you'll always find endless examples of poorly researched, interpreted or written articles in any paper on any subject. Unless you want your news delivered in a peer reviewed journal, 18 months after the event, then this will never change.

For you reference , here are 4 quotes I have so far for 160m2 house are (all with 200 L tanks): ASHP (NIBE 8kw) £13,873 including UFH ASHP (NIBE 12kw) £10,680, UTF £4294 with option for ASHP Stiebel-Eltron 7.5kw £11,768 ASHP (Pansonic Aquarea 12kw) £12,368 (no UFH quote) - in this they are quoting £3600 for the labour install which seems bonkers to me ASHP (Unknown!) £11,250 , UFH £4700 They are all expensive, but there are not many installers to choose from around here. 3 are MCS registered. 2 have given RHI year paybacks as ranging from £1200 to £1500 year.