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A lot has happened on site in the last month. But nothing really seems to look different yet. We start with the soffit and fascia. A 15.1 metre run, in 4 pieces. Why the house grew that extra 100mm I don't know. I blame the boss and the architect! It can't possibly be anything to do with me! What a pain this was to get straight - the process was to cut the splines down to the right size, both at the edge and bottom (the 'alien' was good for this) and then insert some reinforcement timbers to allow the fascia to be nailed at 600mm centres top and bottom. I used a few shims to get it to come out right, but far fewer than I feared. The gable ends were a bit of fun. It took 3 of us to manoeuvre the snake-like soffit flat board and capping fascia in to place. Only six full lengths and four parts to do... Won't take long, honestly. Next we installed the felt support trays and over fascia vents for the first time. It turns out that my planning isn't infallible and I hadn't allowed for the correct thickness of slates at the bottom of the roof. Oh well, lesson learned. Testing a sample slate on the roof with the shim in place to demonstrate the loose eaves slate issue was actually fixed. Still waiting for slates. So let's look at fibreglass valley pieces... I have a few batten offcuts in place to stand on and hold on to in various useful places so I can reach to put up the supporting battens for the valley. I'm now hoping the other side lines up with this one! The first pallet of slates! A bit of a problem with delivery and quantities, so I had to collect them with my long suffering trailer. The wheels didn't fall off, but it was a close run thing. The slaves (or do I mean family?) hard at work grading slates. The table was a maths lesson on the Gaussian distribution later that day. Thankfully medium is most common. I really need to work on getting the junk pile sorted out too. I have no idea why I have an old toilet and radar antenna on site. Meanwhile I made a jig for cutting the eaves slates, using the thin slates. Tests have shown the grinder breaks fewer slates than trying to cut them by traditional methods. It looks like I need more practice, but not at current slate prices! The first few slates on the roof. It's going to take a fair while... Just over 10% done with this side now. Going to need more slates and more people to finish in anything like sensible time! I don't think it's looking too bad so far... Only 1850 more slates to go on the house.

It's always been something called "...... Black" when I've specced them tbh - my biggest issue with coloured window frames is that they seem to age pretty badly.

We went with 7021 (black-grey) for both outside and inside of alu-clad windows. Not your standard anthracite grey, but not quite black either. Due to be fitted next week, so if you want to see some photos send me a PM.

Sorry, another lighter grey here I'm afraid but Slate Grey (RAL 7015). Who knew there where so many shades of ... oh, well, never mind... I think it goes pretty well with siberian larch, if you're letting it silver naturally. I believe that all of the aluminium trims pop off, so if you did want to change the colour in 5 or 10 years time, it would be a ball-ache, but doable.

@soapstar, here is a photo of the meter box with the meter, mini CU, and all-weather sockets beneath.

Soapstar, that is a very common setup - some have two meter boxes, one as above plus the meter in it and the other with the CU and feeds off to other locations.

Yes, I now have a meter installed in the meter box shown in the photo (and two pairs of all-weather sockets beneath). When I have built my house, I will add a 80A fuse and run a cable underground about 15 metres to the plant room in my house, which will contain a second CU for the electrical distribution around the house. I believe it is OK, yes, but I am no expert and am following advice from this forum. I believe it is the 80A fuse that is key in this set up.

So, technically, YOUR car was NOT insured. You had in fact insured a different car that you did not own. The fact you are not on a charge shows the police have accepted it as a gernuine mistake and providing you now correct the insurance it should be the end of the matter. Why do I get the feeling that had the car been stolen, if the insurance had spotted the mistake, they would refuse to pay out because your car was uninsured?

We wanted National Trust olive green, but found they use more than one shade, depending where it is. Foolishly we picked a colour on my iPad, ral 1000, informed our window manufacturer and they sprayed them. Upon delivery I nearly had a fit. They looked very “yellow” and the wife said can I repaint them? . “Not on your nelly” I replied, I hate painting which is why I paid to have them sprayed. It turns out they go well with the rustic bricks and everyone compliments the colour and we have grown to like them (thank goodness). Funnily enough the colour appears to change with the light. So, the moral of this story is, if picking a colour, go see it in the flesh, not on a devise and in natural light (We were lucky).

I always thought preplumbed cyclinders where a bit of a rip-off.

Cheers @ToughButterCup I work in the construction industry so understated the process and requirements but I don't work with houses, extensions etc so am trying to understand the feasibility of having a concrete floor over an existing cellar in a 160yr old house. I would like the same floor finish throughout, on the same level - I guess I'm trying to suss out if it's possible / cost prohibitive. I'll make contact with some Structural Engineers and see what their thoughts are. Cheers

you will need to remove all the original floors to get adequate insulation in to make the ufh viable, do not believe any of the BS that the suppliers will tell you that 10mm insulation boards on top of a cold floor will be perfectly adequate for your ufh, it will obviously work but you will spend more money heating the ground than heat entering the room. Any reason for ufh ??

They sold their honey, And p*ssed the money on a beautiful pee-green float. That is I think an "Exclusive" colour that cost a few hundred extra on the MAMIL ("Sportline") version of the car. I'd say the aesthetic works on the Mediterranean Coast of Germany, without seeing it in the metal - which I have not done. It would get lost in the underwatered (very) giant hosta. In the full range 11 out of 15 are white, blue, grey or black. Like windows. And two of the others look like grey or black as well ? . Mine's petrol blue, which is darker than that looks on my screen. (At this point, half of BH turns out to have something that colour.)

RAL 1023 Skip Yellow

Petew W makes a good point, Frenchdrain is a good solid solution. To be safe just make sure you don't make it too deep. Say max depth to top of foundation. If you have clay soil the French drain could dry the clay out too much under the found, it will shrink and could cause movement. If you have a gravel / sandy type soil it could start to wash out the fine material thus reduce the capacity of the soil under the found to carry the weight of the wall. If you have a sloping site then you may only need a drain on the high side, you intercept the surface ground water there. Often you'll have new rain water drains with pipe bedding and this too acts as a French drain, sometimes when you don't want it to though. With a bit of thought you can get the right solution with a little extra cost, if any.

We were advised against black because it would have more of an issue with fading. RAL7016 as a foil on UPVC, it's a mid grey now, and if it fades it'll still be a mid-grey, lol.

As someone else above, we went for a lighter grey, "Pebble Grey" I forget the RAL number. Very pleased with it. SWMBO swears it is light green.

I am NOT a slave. Then again I had to cook your dinner later - perhaps I am a slave.....

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Stayin wiv toughbuttercup. Wot @Russell griffiths says goes innit.

A Google street car photo has been useful in my little boundary dispute. The 2005 photo shows a nearly dead hedge positioned where I believe the boundary should be. There is no sign of the hedge today, instead there is just an extension to my neighbour's lawn.

You mean changed again? ?

@ToughButterCup pm me & I will donate some earth sheathing to your cause....... Any idea when the name will be changed back?