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Once we'd exchanged on the bungalow we knew that completion would happen and so we didn't waste any time in interviewing and hiring an architect. We got 3 different architects to come round to see us (it was supposed to be 4 but the 4th didn't seem to be interested as after I phoned and left a message with details as to what we wanted I got a voicemail back saying he'd received a message about an extension or something rather than the complete demolition and self-build we're doing! it goes without saying that I didn't call him back). All 3 came to site to have a look around and for us to get a feeling if we'd be able to work with them. we then got quotes and all were pretty similar but we chose the chap we thought we'd most like to work with. After an initial consultation he came up with a few sketches which we were completely not what we wanted and we also questioned as to whether he even listened to us at the initial meeting. We were thinking of phoning around and trying other architects but we went for a meeting and explained how we felt and he said, no worries I'm never going to get it right first time and we took aspects from each of the sketches and discussed it all and now we have final plans that we absolutely love! My mum is getting on in years and she lives alone about a 50 minute drive from us and so I broached the subject of her coming to live with us which she loved the idea of. I thought it'd be great for her to be able to see her Grandchildren every day and also meant I could be near if/when she needed help with something as otherwise it would be about 3hrs out of my already busy life to pop and see her to fix her computer or put up a shelf or do whatever! so this would be a win-win for both of us. So the architect has designed in an annexe to the main house for my mum to live in which keeps her separate so she has a semblance of independent living but as her health declines I am nearby if required. Anyway, on to the plans...here is the site plan and the elevations we love what the architect has come up with. loads of glass and a fabulous entrance and full height hallway and windows that go from the floor (although the quotes from the window companies are pretty high and, in some cases, are about the same as the timber frame!). We also decided to go with Shou Sugi Ban larch cladding (https://shousugiban.co.uk/range/charred-larch-cladding/ - the Takage style of charring) for the main building with standard larch on the single story parts and entrance to contrast the black. it would seem that we have expensive tastes, but as this is the forever home we're willing to spend more to make it right so we don't have to do this all over again. All we can do now is hope that the planning officer loves it and signs off on it! Forgot to mention that we built a scale model of the house (not including the basement), plot and surrounding trees and hedges. it was fun to do!

A few months back I promised (to @SteamyTea I think) to share further details about a side-project involving monitoring and controlling our MVHR unit with a Raspberry Pi. I was hoping to mature it to beyond beta stage before presenting it but, frankly, it'll probably always be in some unfinished state of development as between my extension and nearly-3yr old daughter I don't find much time for 'playing around' (as my wife calls this sort of thing). So, I thought I'd just share what I've got now in case it's of interest of use to others. As background, our MVHR unit is a Titon HRV 1.25Q HMB Plus Eco which I believe is towards the lower end of the range but I got it cheap (£350) on eBay (an interesting story involving a development of 50-odd houses all fitted with the wrong model MVHR!). As a seemingly basic model it comes with potentiometer-controlled fans speeds and boost timer, absolute humidity detection for boost, automatic summer bypass and provision for switched boost inputs. It uses a Recair heat exchanger which, being their party, could well be common with a lot of other manufacturer's units. There's no fancy screen or controls, although Titon do make such a device but I'm not sure it works with our model. Furthermore, it's something like £150 and my Northern genes made me think I could do better with a Raspberry Pi for a lot less than that! I'd like to show a detailed schematic showing all the component parts but as I don't have one I'll just list them: - Raspberry Pi Zero W (a cut-down, low power, version of the Pi with WiFi) running Raspbian as the OS with lighttpd (web server), rrdtool (stats gathering and graph creation), a couple of 3rd party tools installed for reading the sensors and a couple of scripts (attached) pulling it all together - Shelly 1 smart relay connected to the MVHR boost input (the Pi could handle this but the Shelly has been in for a while, hardwired to boost switches in the kitchen and outside the bathrooms, and has been left in for now as it works without issue) (Incidentally, the MVHR unit itself is powered through a Shelly 1PM smart relay which is connected to my smoke alarms such that if there's a fire the MVHR is switched off and I am sent an SMS to alert me of the fact, but all that is separate to this Pi stuff described here) - Four DS18B20 1-wire temperature sensors taped inside the MVHR ports to measure supply, extract, intake and exhaust. A fifth is dangling in the loft space as, being outside the thermal envelope, I've always been curious what the temperatures are actually like up there - One AM2302 humidity sensor (unfortunately not 1-wire and so requires different software to read and its own connection to the Pi's I/O port) As things currently stand, the attached script (capturetemps.sh) reads all the sensors every 5 minutes (trigger by cron) and records their values, and various calculated ones too, to an RRD round-robin database using rrdtool. I've always been a fan of graphs - not entirely sure why - and so via creategraphs.sh (and rrdtool again) it also produces some charts for whatever time periods are required, examples of which are shown below. Speaking of time periods, it currently stores - and produces graphs from - readings at 5 minute intervals for 3 months, 30 minute averages for 6 months and hourly averages for 5 years in a 12MB database. First off, system temperatures are recorded for all the ports which has been very reassuring in terms of the actually knowing this MVHR malarky actually does what it purports to do in terms of providing a supply of air at a temperature near to that being extracted (sometimes higher!) despite what's going on outside: These temperature readings are also used to calculate the efficiency of the heat exchanger which again appear to show it broadly working as advertised: The two calculation methods are as described by Paul Heat Recovery, the second of which (Method B) aims to factor in heat losses (or indeed gain) through the unit itself and hence be more accurate. I also measure and graph instantaneous power consumption (figures obtained from the Shelly 1PM 'smoke alarm' relay I mentioned that the MVHR is powered through): The system isn't yet fully installed (10 vents out of 12 done), balanced or properly configured and so the trickle (~8W) and boost (~42W) figures shouldn't be taken as necessarily relevant although that said we've been pleased with the performance at the current settings and so wouldn't be surprised if they don't change too much. This graph (not this actual one as it hasn't happened for a few days) also reveals when the summer bypass kicks in as it jumps the line up by ~5W. There's also the loft temperature graph which doesn't serve much purpose other than curiosity, and use up the fifth-of-a-pack-of-five sensors I bought: Speaking of curiosity, the novelty of looking at graphs will wear off one day I'm sure but one important reading I am logging is the humidity in the extract duct: This one has been particularly interesting, and indeed useful, given that the large 'spikes' correspond with taking showers and so are easy for the script to detect (it currently looks for a >5% rise in any five minute period) and request a 30-min boost via the Shelly smart relay. It hasn't missed a shower yet, and I am confident it'll work well for cooking as previous experiments show it being quite easy to pick up simmering pans. The script also looks out for an absolute value also being breached but it's only been running for a few weeks and so I really need to see a full four seasons, particularly when windows are closed in winter with washing drying indoors, to determine what sort of value would be suitable for that. Given the freedom and flexibility of the script it could even self-adjust over the year if need be? That's pretty much it! It's been good fun, a worthwhile learning curve and I think it'll have some utility too. My next step is for the Pi to take control of the summer bypass as the thresholds for operation cannot be adjusted on my unit - confirmed by Titon as being active when the extract temperature (dirty room air) is >22°C and intake (fresh outside air) >15°C, but not if the intake air temperature is greater than the extract as the heat exchanger serves to cool the incoming air slightly in such a situation. I think I'd like it to kick in sooner as 22°C is a bit warm for my liking on still summer nights where even the thought of 'cool' air being pumped in could have psychological benefits even if it won't actually cool the house down much given the volumes involved. Longer term I might even use the Pi to control the fan speeds too (reading the datasheets for them show they accept a 0-10v speed control input) but that might be overkill as I'm sure in time I'll be more than happy with just having fixed speed trickle and boost modes. If I can expand on anything I'd be more than happy to do so. And if there's any 'real programmers in the house please forgive my scripts as whilst I'm aware there's something called 'programming style' I'm not following anything other than what works for me as an untrained tinkerer! capturetemps.sh.txt creategraphs.sh.txt

Same as a petrol saw. Take finger off the trigger and it slows, hit the chain brake and it’s dead stop. I take it your BiL is certified then ..?? Or is he teaching you his way ..?? Chainsaw 101 for you - any time you put that saw down, or stop it, chain brake on. No Exceptions..!

You might think I'm nuts but I want to live on my own in a " hut "in the woods, all I want is a water source, some solar pv, a compost toilet system, an outdoor shower and a wood burning stove, I want total peace and quiet with no neighbours. I already live on a boat but I'm dealing with multiple restrictions , licences, permits, noise and PITA neighbours , so I'm ready to take the step to real isolation. However I can't find any legal way to do it, even if I buy woodland I can't live there and even wrecked abandoned houses in far rural locations are way above my budget. It looks like its not possible for me to legally live like this in the UK, which seems daft to me because I certainly wouldn't be bothering anyone else and in fact using less rescouces than most. My best plan so far is to buy some isolated woodland and live in a shepherds hut and see what happens. Living in fear of being found out isn't ideal.

A long time ago (about 15 years) in a county not so far away I met and married my wife. Soon after we had a couple of kids and started thinking about our future. When I was a teenager my parents moved us abroad and built their own house and I think that sowed the seed for me as it seems that I've always wanted to build my own house and would sit down and watch Grand Designs back in the day and be drawn to the idea of it all. So about 10 years ago we decided that we wanted to build our own house but weren't in a position financially to do so but I was always keeping my eye out for something with potential and signed up to self-build websites and plot searches just in case something popped up. As life went on we sadly lost my Grandmother to the sands of time. The upshot of that was my inheritance (every cloud does have a silver lining I guess) that gave us a bit more capital to allow us to widen our search a little. Then about 4 years ago we found a house within 1.5 acres that was ripe for knocking down and starting again. it would've stretched our finances but we could've lived in it for a bit to get those sorted out while we planned for the build. We put an offer in and it was accepted. We were so excited about it all that we got an architect involved and paid for surveys to be done and drawings to be made only for the sellers to let us know while we were out of the country on a family holiday that they'd decided to accept another offer on the house and would no longer be selling to us. talk about a kick in teeth! we were shellshocked. But, life goes on I guess and a year later we found a steel framed agricultural barn with 4 acres of land/woodland that had planning permission to convert to a residential property. offer made and accepted although with the old adage of once bitten twice shy we decided not to get ahead of ourselves and didn't shell out for architects etc at this point, although we did spend a lot on solicitors fees and also a contamination survey so it was not cheap as we moved towards an exchange of contracts. The barn had agricultural access over a 3rd parties land but no residential access and as the seller's solicitor tried to get that access it seemed to be apparent that the owners of the land (the Catholic Church) were against the development as they slapped a £200,000 price tag on the access (about 1/4 mile of farm track/bridle path). as we weren't paying that we thought the negotiations were ongoing with the sellers and the Church until one day out of the blue I got an email from my solicitor saying that he'd heard from the seller's solicitor and that they were no longer proceeding with the sale. this was 2 YEARS after the offer was made. it seemed that we were destined to never find somewhere to build.... ...but never say never as about 2 weeks later we found an old 70's built bungalow that had outline planning permission and full planning permission for a replacement dwelling in 0.8 acres of land surrounded by woodland. it was perfect and we had our offer accepted and started the purchase process. little did we know that we couldn't get finance on the property even though it was a habitable property no one would offer a residential mortgage as the construction of the house was 70's prefab and the banks wouldn't lend on it. I even had a bridging loan company refuse to lend on it despite the inherent value in the residential plot and land. it was crazy and the house was put back on the market while we tried to sort something out. fortunately, our family were able to sell an overseas property to allow us to get the funds to not need a mortgage and we exchanged and completed in October 2019. We're now living in the bungalow as we await planning approval for the new designs our architect has drawn up, but that will be the subject of another post. thanks for reading and I hope you find our journey interesting. I'm sure it'll have many more ups and downs as we progress but we're hopeful that at the end of it we'll have a house that we can live in for the rest of our lives.

Thanks for the info! In my bathroom I currently have a sonoff basic (tasmotised) with a temp/humidity sensor which has an automation if the humidity level goes over 90% ie when having a shower, turn the bathroom fan on. I'm planning to do the same with the MVHR, I will be keeping the motion sensor for the wc (to please the wife) and I will possibly attach it to another sonoff basic which I can automate to work only during the day. Like you, I like to overcomplicate stuff, but I need to keep things simple for the family

Right ..!! Dropped the head, used the feeler gauges to get it level, 50% speed on the first layers and it seems to have sorted it ..!

Makita (and others, I think) do a portable band saw: https://www.makitauk.com/product/dpb180z.html

Literally a hand held bandsaw? Like this: https://m.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200437678_200437678

I have not yet found a SS one. The original one, supplied by telford with the cylinder lasted about 10 years, and the bladder went. If I could buy a SS one, with a replacable bladder I would (or would if I expected to be owning the house for very much longer) It seems daft that the UVC is SS and let down by a bit of mild steel rubbish. How anyone thinks that is going to last a long time with potable water (i.e. there won't be any rust inhibitor) beats me. The local plumber recons the merchant where this one came from less than 2 years ago will be open on Monday. If so we will have a discussion.

how much more is a SS one or one made in EU,not china

Don’t bother go and get a quick lift off lid complete lid brackets the whole lot £17 just not worth messing about.

My Titan/Screwfix one stops faster. Pretty much instant.

There are several different adhesion problems. Is it coming off after several layers have been printed or are you having problems with printing the first layer? That would never work for me but perhaps I misunderstand. I use blue 3M painters tape over glass and normally print with 0.3mm layer heights. I start by zeroing the Z axis and levelling the bed so the nozzle height is around 0.15mm above the bed, but I find that only works for some filaments (Filamentum for example). Some cheaper filaments I have to go down to 0.1mm or even 0.05mm or the first layer doesn't print well - the main problem is with small shapes such as the outline of holes getting pulled off if the nozzle is too high. If the first layer prints well then I don't usually have any issues with the print coming off later. My default speed is 50mm/s with the first layer printed at 25mm/s (50%). If you get an issue with prints warping and coming off the bed later in the print that can be a cooling issue. Try reducing the fan speed. Some stock fan shrouds only blow air from one side of the nozzle (typically they blow backwards towards the rear of the printer) so if you get problems with the front edge or front corners lifting but not the back edge or corners (or less in the back) that could be a clue its a cooling fan issue. I've had to drop fan speeds as low as 20% before. You can also set it so more layers are printed before the fan turns on. You can also print a fan shroud that blows from all sides. Adding a brim around a print can also help hold it down. This also helps if you have problems with the nozzle not priming correctly. Sometimes adding a brim changes the order in which things are printed on the first layer and that can also help (eg the small outlines get printed later instead of first). I've heard that wiping the blue tape with IPA improves adhesion but I've not tried that. I've also used hair spray and the Pritt Stick and water method, both work but I find the tape easier although recently have had issue with the tape only lasting a few prints.

oh yes, rings were knackered =no compression, glaze busted the bore ( which was not too bad) new rings, and lapped the valves in. Was surprised the injector was ok, pitted with rust and seized into the head but the spray pattern was good. Straightened a few bent bits and it started first turn !!!!!! It lives again ?

haha, that’s exactly what I am doing today, all stuff out on the drive, sweeping up, crap on the trailer ( for when the tip opens) and all tools back in their proper place, gosh it’s great being retired, think I will walk the dog after lunch ?.

This is why I love mechanic ing (playing) with my 54 year old car, 60 year old tractor and 64 year old dumper, fully repairable, all bits available and no “specialist tools” to work on them. (Just finished re building the dumper engine with thanks to @scottishjohn for his help).

That pretty much sums up the unofficial (pre-meeting) debate, most were in favour of just letting it go, but one was being officious and trying to make a fuss. TBH, I could see why when I went up there, as it was pretty clear that the original mobile home had been very carefully hidden, surrounded by old sheds that had only recently been knocked down. This was also clear on Google Earth, with older imagery showing that the place had been surrounded by timber sheds until a couple of years or so ago. I reckon the reason that most decided not to raise an objection was because they all knew the former landowner, a local farmer . . .

As stated earlier flip flops are easier just shake you foot regularly.

Chainsaw 102 Keep your trousers outside your boots (otherwise your boots fill with chippings)

All I will add is that PPE, should not be a substitute for having your brain turned ON imagine being in OZ and using a saw with flip flops on, it should give you the thought to keep the saw away from your feet, so just because you have a good pair of boots on don’t get complacent that you can swing it about like a sword. The majority of accidents are caused by poor work position or body placement, you should be in a position that you cannot physically contact your body if you make a cock up. I notice this all all the time with these diy YouTube vids with an 8 stone girl holding a circular saw, they just haven’t got the arm strength to stop a kick back hitting them straight in the groin area, which is one of the most cut areas with a circular saw, better to re position so the saw is to your side and cannot make contact with you in the event of a kickback. Same with a chainsaw. With a chainsaw one one of the biggest cut areas on the body is the back of the left hand, it is physically impossible to cut your left hand if you have both hands on the handles, the damage is done when a log moves so the operator decides to hold it still with his left hand and bingo, he’s cut his left hand. I would say another very dangerous task is cutting wood on a log pile, while you are cutting one log you do not notice that the tip of the bar comes into contact with another log resulting in kickback. Far better to lift every log log onto a saw horse and cut individual logs rather than plunging into a big pile.

Just out of interest, what do the Planning approved drawings show... a gap or no gap? The first thing to note is to build in accordance with the approved drawings and if changes are needed to the drawings as a result of this gap, then that could potentially warrant a revised application.

That is a good result! With some of the LPA’s down this way, they have stated we’d have to build out the PD works before submitting a Full application for a replacement dwelling within the Green Belt plus any increase. This is obviously a massive inconvenience along with substantially additional and abortive costs, but the LPA aren’t too concerned about that. On one particular project, which were extensions to a dwelling within the Green Belt, we did finally reach an agreement with the LPA. We presented them with outline drawings illustrating what could be done via PD, which they came back and said to not worry about submitting a CoL application but just submit an application for a 50% increase. This did involve several emails and telephone conversations with the original Planning Officer but ended up going direct to the Head of Planning.

A petrol chan saw won't stop the chain instantly just by releasing the trigger. That's what the physical chain brake is for.

We had a similar situation Architect had no idea of regs Only picked up by BC on his first visit To close to the road Not ten mtrs from the house Ditch used for more than 70 years for discharge of two septic tanks Not suitable for our NEW treatment plant Caused me a lot of problems

This is the sort of thing that is available up here, seculded but not totally isolated. This one needs a lot of work though https://www.hspc.co.uk/Detached-Cottage-For-Sale-Rowan-Cottage-Strathnacro-Glenurquhart-IV63-6TH

Doesn't the "hutting" movement in Scotland make this sort of thing easier? Other than that I'd buy a sloping site and build underground / into the hillside. Get a South facing slope. Dig it by hand over time. Cheaper than the gym. Dig a few extra holes for nosey parkers...

Thats a bit of a shame about Loxone as it's willingness to sell direct to public kept me interested in it. You do need to have a bit of a think about what you are truly trying to achieve - - home automation? or I just want the light to come on in the bathroom when I walk in ? = £15 PIR - full piped music to every room with wall controls? or just a multiroom audio system? (Alexa, Google Home, Sonos) - heating control to each radiator? or just a simple thermostat from the phone? (Honeywell Evohome, Nest, Tado) ....as I'm sure you've found there are 100s of options now for various parts to the HA environment but very few systems actually manage to pull it all together cleanly. What I did in mine was go for open ecosystems (i.e. APIs, backed by longevity, open standards etc) and ended up with 'Home Assistant' running on a Raspberry Pi as 'the brain'. For lights - fitted Z-wave throughout, dimmers, relays etc but would probably take a serious look at sonoff / Shelly / ESP based solutions. I still like ZWave but the comms between the units can sometimes be a bit slow whereas the sonoff devices I have don't miss a beat. For sound - At the moment Google Homes, have had Alexa, Sonos in the past... would probably take another look at Sonos now there are some cheaper IKEA/Sonos speaker options For Environmental - Fitted Honeywell Evohome, again, never skips a beat but would certainly investigate other options as it's costly. Wiring - did exactly the same as your thinking, wired all switches and lights back to a central location so I can chop and change the brain as needed. Confused the hell out of the local sparky but makes reconfiguring things easy peasy. Put plenty of cat5e in (or cat6) in, still put a shotgun coax in to each TV point, wire it all to a central point. So far my only regret is not putting more cat5 in to the house, theres a few rooms where I've had to cable round a bit to reach a socket. What happens if the brain dies? (Can I replace the proprietary system? Is the open source project still around? do they still make the hardware?) What happens if I move house? (Can I convert to 'dumb'?) Who would maintain the house/system going forward? etc (Simply fit and forget or required regular patching/software updates?) HTH. MM.

@JamesP Bypass only opened when extract air is above the 'indoor temp' set-point, as far as I know it doesn't relate to outside temperature. Other than if the outside is too cold (based on your 'outdoor temp' set-point) Hope this extract from manual helps.

You can DIY the insulated raft fairly easily. I did most of the raft myself, the only outside help I had was: 1. Operator for the excavator 2. Groundworkers to do the concrete pour and powerfloat. Everything else was me with a little help from the missus and father in law. Altogether it took me about 6 weeks, the main reason being the excavation/stone subbase took 2 weeks and it was peak storm season which was a nightmare to work in and I made a couple of mistakes which cost me time. My slab is 180m2, if it had been good weather and I'd planned the lorries how I thought rather than what the plant operator said then it could probably have been done in half that. I made mistakes aswell which cost me time, think I covered them in the thread previously referred to.

I know you've searched, but have you read the posts about Loxone on the site? Quite a few detailed threads about it in the past. I installed it to run my lights, external blinds, heating, and various temperature monitoring jobs about 4 years ago. It's mostly been pretty good, although their business model seems to be moving more and more in the proprietary direction. Lots of people on the Loxone Google group use Loxone as the centralised brain, and a combination of communication protocols like DMX, KNX and IP to control things far more cheaply or more flexibly than using all Loxone modules. If I were doing it again today, I might still use Loxone, but I'd probably buy less of their proprietary stuff. They're definitely continuing to move away from a self-installers market, too. I believe the UK site is now closed to direct purchases, so if you wanted to do it yourself, you'd need to find a Loxone partner willing to retail the gear to you (which I understand several will do). Timing-wise, it's a shame you aren't thinking about this a year or two from now, as there's a very interesting development coming down the pike from many of the biggest players in the space: https://www.connectedhomeip.com/ I know it's a bunch of companies about which we should be wary, but apparently it'll be security focused and open source. We'll see, I guess.

that is my thoughts as well, no hassle in the future. Not sure about the gap but a cat won’t fall down a 50mm hole!!!! My brothers neighbour built up to his boundary and ended up with facia and guttering over his patio, He did not complain as he is very laid back, during heavy rain it over spilt onto his patio do they had to add even bigger guttering to cope, if it were me I would not be happy.

If you overhang what happens if they move and the new neighbour wants to build the same extension as you, they would want you gutter and facia taking back onto your own land. I have dealt with this this a few times in London and it doesn’t make for good neighbourly relations, I would say you need to keep every bit of your extension over your land. Most i I came across with this problem did a re-design and had a parapet wall on that side so a vertical face to the wall with no sticky out soffits

After a lot of agro with my printer (blown fuses, failed bearings *2, crap prints) I've just finished printing a batch of visor headbands for the NHS. Part of this project.. https://national3dprintingsociety.co.uk/medical-am-covid-19/

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Bloody hell how quick do want it to stop, my petrol ones run on a lot longer than that. Get the the flip flops on and stop worrying

Backwards is fine if you take your time and go through it forwards as a proper check before committing. Most of us do it in circles.