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Over the last four years or so, we have had our fair share of ups and downs. But this is an up. And now, GCNs are very welcome. From a twinkle in our eyes in the little local-stone built cottage (to the left of the photo) to a contemporary orange (coloured) box... which will be silvery grey in a while. Like my receding hair. Lots more to do, but hey! SWMBO reminds me we started when POTUS was being sworn-in , and just moved in by the time he had been sworn at long enough to be kicked out. Is there a lesson there? Probably not.?

We did it! Today we received a completion certificate for our new house - our home! It took us 61 weeks from breaking ground - and these included a very wet winter seasons, a change of builders mid-project, difficult neighbours, sacking the PM, a lockdown, tons of remedial works, and another lockdown! What a journey - feels surreal! Could not have done it without you lot here - love this forum totally Before and after pics are below

The argument is being presented by the Press/Euro as a fish issue. That's not the issue at hand it is sovereignty, the minute you use that word all the liberals get up in arms and start conflating 'sovereignty' with xenophobia/racism/nationalism and whatever else you would care to dress it up as. The argument needs presenting in a way that is better understood. The EU want the UK to sign over access to a resource 'owned' by the UK (and by extension UK citizens) into perpetuity. Forever. Why would anyone in their right mind agree to sign away a valuable resource that belongs to them forever? I am sure the Eurozone will be granted fishing rights, but it will be determined by the UK government on behalf of UK citizens and for the benefit of UK citizens. Would the EU sign over oil drilling rights in Greek waters over to Turkey into perpetuity? Don't be daft. This isn't about fish, its about protecting UK resources for the benefit of the UK taxpayers.

This will be the last entry for our self build blog. Our plan We originally commenced a self build as there was no affordable housing for us to get on the housing ladder. The approach for the self build, was whether we could build a better-quality house than what we could purchase from a developer for the same cost. This was later refined to achieving a lower mortgage if possible. For the self build we decided to split the project into three chunks. 1. Obtain outline planning, purchase of site – this allowed us to know that a build was possible. 2. Put in services, access, design – this was the first actual work and made an area of croft ground into a valuable plot for lending purposes. Commence the build over two years - using subcontractors and our own materials to eliminate any margins and ensure tight control over the specification. Doing this would allow us to complete the project and prevent us being stuck unable to finish it. What did it cost? The total cost for the project was just over £196,000 (net of VAT). This includes the land, services, professional fees, overheads and the actual build costs. I’ve summarised all of my costs into a pie chart below. How was it funded? · A small electricity grant £1,550 · We obtained a croft house grant for £38,000 · The final mortgage of £74,500 · The remaining balance of £81,950 was funded by savings from employment, which started when we were 23 and finished when we moved into the house in July 20 at 33. · Most of the work we carried out was decorating and general labouring, therefore contributed a small amount of sweat equity to the project. What is the final result? The surveyor provided a valuation back to the building society of £265,000. This was pleasing as sometimes self builds can be more expensive then the total project costs or just about breakeven. Prior to building we were aware of building cost being measured per m2. However, during the build process I realised that this method of reviewing the financial performance of a self build had room for error, as the calculation could be skewed depending on the quality of the finish. For the purposes of our project this would be £1,420 or £1,230 excluding (land, professional fees and overheads). I came to the conclusion that the best method for us is calculating the final cost per month (mortgage, utilities, council tax, insurance) to live in the house. I set a target of £500 per month and I am pleased that we have been able to achieve this. I feel this is a good measure as I wouldn’t want to live in an expensive house that has a huge mortgage. Often at the end of Grand Designs and other tv shows, the presenter asks whether they would do it again? For us I would say, yes, of course. When I look around, every single item in the house was researched, compared, purchased and gradually put together. The thought, time and energy that we have put into this build has created a much deeper connection to the property. Our blood, sweat and tears are in the very fabric of the house. The hardest part of the process was when we were focussing on saving as much of our income as possible to ensuring a low mortgage. We made many sacrifices to ensure we reached this end goal, but we knew these relatively short term sacrifices would have long term gains for our family. For the actual building of the house, we chose a two year build schedule from starting on the foundations. This allowed us planning time between build stages and made the build process more manageable. It also allowed us time to do some jobs ourselves such as fitting insulation, interior decorating etc. We enjoyed taking time to do the jobs we were confident in doing well ourselves. Perhaps we could have taken on the more tasks, but I’ve come to the conclusion that it made more sense to work a bit of overtime and pay a contractor to do the work well, rather than us doing a job slowly and at a reduced quality. In the future, we would consider another self-build, perhaps in thirty years when I will be semi or hopefully fully retired. So until then… See you next time and thanks for reading.

Level playing field springs to mind!!!!

Our is 3000 x 2400 With the boiler and tank and washer behind the sliding door Another 1000 ish on the length would have been better Next one ?

@Thorfun I've got @joth's unused DALI extension and have been playing with Loxone+DALI as well as tunable white functioanaltiy ? Thoughts so far: - As Joth said we've also seen that most mid-range light fittings than a designer would specify have a DALI driver option for small difference in price. - DALI is easier to wire (230v + control line) than using centralized dimmers. - Each fitting is a seperate DALI address so you run out of addresses very quickly. This is an issue because the Loxone DALI extension only supports 48 addresses and costs £430. One way you can get round this is if you have a group of 8 fittings they you know you are never going to want to operate indpeendant you can get a "DALI expander" device which will broadcast one DALI address to n light fittings. (I'm yet to do the maths on how much you save though) - Tunable white fittings are really interesting, but they are impossible to use with Loxone in any easy/practical way unless they come with a single DT8 driver. The ones I've been loaned come with two DT6 drivers which means you use twice as many DALI addresses, and you have no way of controlling color temperature easily in Loxone because from Loxone's perspective they are two different fittings, one 2700k and one 5700K. - Not looked into or decided what approach to take with RGBW stips yet. Could use loxone RGBW tree extensions, or could use DALI DT8 RGBW drivers.

1.9m x 4m - two doors (to kitchen and to garage) - a washing machine - a butler sink and under-sink unit (with a drinking water tap) - a drinking water staged filter - a water softener - a boiler - a HWC - 2x tumbe dryers (stacked) - UFH manifold - 6x wall storage units - an extra base unit (leftover from kitchen as bought an extra one in case the main one did not fit) - a plastic movable 4-drawer storage unit. - The cat's sleeping place The utility is the warmest room in the house (+29), so is the officially designated "cat's spa".

Huh? This isn't about people coming to the UK from outside the EU. Its about British people being unfairly treated compared to EU nationals. . If you are worried about immigration to the UK from outside the EU you probably shouldn't have voted fot Brexit. As I understand Brexit is and will make it easier to come to the UK from outside the EU. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52752656 "UK migration: Net migration from outside EU hits 'highest level' https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/work-visas-and-migrant-workers-in-the-uk/ "For the first time since 2006, the majority of people moving to the UK for work are from non-EU countries, accounting for 56% of all work migration in 2019."

A single female in her early 20s with an uber budget? That'd be new. Thanks for the offer... I think I'll look into buying a cardboard box ?

No I mean is there a rubber cone washer in the cistern on the end of the bolt ..?? Bit like this ..?? Good squirt of CT1 down the centre of the cone stops it leaking past the threads.

+1 on this. It's surprising how many things that looked good in renders and mock ups at the start of the project looked wrong when standing in the room.

Washing machine Tumble dryer Sink and sink units for all cleaning products Wall cupboards for more stuff (no wall cupboards in kitchen) Space for ironing board to be left up permanently Pulley (cloths dryer) in it's own alcove so it is not in the way whether up or down. Passage and a door at each end, this is the access route to the garage. Manifold for downstairs UFH And finally WC. Not everyone likes the downstairs WC in the utility but we could not see a way to get a separate WC without wasting more space downstairs with another corridor. Also a Scottish building reg is you must allocate space for a downstairs shower if you are not providing one. That space is allocated in the utility room, which if we ever did make a downstairs bathroom the room would be divided in 2 so you pass through the utility room to get to the downstairs bathroom.

Thanks Dave. Rendering to do on the west face front needs cladding too - but we now have a magician plasterer and a good chippy - but they are ragged raw with too many customers, MVHR second fix early next year - so spring 2021 ish ? Thanks. I post the difficult stuff partly to help write it out of my system and focus on the future, but also to encourage others. I have not lost my loathing of east winds yet @jack, I need to learn to be a bit more pleased with our progress: I look at the niggles all the damn time.

The Chinese Cater machines arent too bad, but i have doubts on how long the cabs will last. The Rhinosarous (excuse the spelling) 08 has the loudest small engine you could imagine. Used Kubota etc are good value and will last but look out for worn drive sprockets and tracks - no tread is fine but badly worn or twisted tracks will come off easily. The small JCB machines are not what they used to be ... . Decent machines are making stupidly high prices at the moment and many fake sellers on ebay offering too-good-to-be-true machines as long as you pay first and they will arrange delivery .... err, NO!

Ah, thanks. That suggests it doesn't much matter then. The boards don't have a chamfer, so both sides are the same.

good. Pakisatan type countries have abused this for years with the vile arranged marriages.

Very well done, you must be proud of what you have achieved ?

That's quick - good job.

Cheap plastic rectangular one. Leave the joist. https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/23011376431 fitted in 3 minutes. Multi tool and mastic. These are the sort that I put in. Also use them for dirgos and base of internal stacks.

As usual, @Russell griffiths is bang on the money. My Kubota 206 alpha held its value over 4 years. Dealer-serviced and over-maintained. Considering the rental cost over the same period, it far more than paid for itself even adding the VAT and repairs in. Two repairs: broken track clips and a new door (smashed by someone else), and new tracks exchanged for the old ones. Do your due diligence on the dealer. Find out which hire companies the dealer supplies and then ask the hire company what the dealer service is like. Then, ask the hire company . Then find a site repair guy - preferrably a one-person band, and ask him for his opinion of both the dealer and the hire company, and ask for his rates. Then ask him if he knows of a decent second-hand digger. Take him to see it and get him to test it for you. It'll cost you, but save you a potentially massive bill - not all to do with the digger either - delay on site is a right pain in the Bottilcelli. Sometimes mechanics only work on one type of machine - and thats fine - but if your heart is set on one (say Volvo) don't be deflected from your choice without good reason Here's a purchasing checklist we put together a while ago. Probably needs updating now..... A bit of a slog, I know. But it worked for me.

is that an RDB? Diagnostics here, gives timing indications etc RDB 535 Fault Finding Chart.pdf

As Tony said, you buy a 600mm wide dpc and put this under the frame, leave it draping onto the block n beam, then later on you install the dpm and join the two with tape. Of more concern is what he has drawn to stop the sole plate getting cold, you mention a row of bricks, this should be improved to prevent the cold causing the sill to rot out.

Part of my process was about convincing myself I wanted to go with loxone at all, or any automation system for that matter. So initially I was making low risk dabbling and then looking for the best value (cheapest) system I was comfortable with. But by the time we'd spent lockdown / my covid recovery building up the cabinet I felt I needed a lighting design that would do it justice and got cold feet about my own "grid of downlighters" which is where I got a professional designer involved at the 11th hour. She was truly amazing, put much into helping us and I learnt a lot.... But now I was really fully invested and the additional cost of DALI suddenly looks much less. So my real advice would be to get familiar with both and then get the lighting design nailed down (and even, all fixtures bought as lead times on some of it are terrible right now) and only then commit to exactly how many channels of which sort of dimming. Aside from Dali Vs dmx, in the end a lot of the fancy lighting placement means I needed a lot more "remote drivers" than anticipated which actually means I could use centralised constant current drivers a lot more than I have. E.g. https://m.aliexpress.com/item/4001200401126.html

I can simply get an assement of the present value of the remaining cash flows, plus savings from self-consumption for the remainer of the expected life of the panels etc. Rgds Damon

From what I can make out there's two leak points. There's a drip on the end of the LHS bolt. Also coming down the threads of the big, centre, plastic flush assembly. I'll back off tomorrow and reseal. Thinking CT1 on the steel bolts where they pass through the cistern and then Jet Blue Plus on the thread of the plastic. Doesn't appear to be any tracking across the underside of the cistern. I'll do the other bolt too. Poor photo: Geberit it ain't!

I’ve owned a number of diggers over the years but they have all been shiny and new. This time I needed an older one as it would only be for personal use, I found that there was a couple of sweet spots for pricing £10-12 grand will hold a great deal of money and you will sell them without losing a huge amount if you kept it for two years. £7-8 grand exactly the same as above still good and will have a good re sale below £5 grand was just trouble, getting old and tired, still loads of life but more problems starting to appear. I would stick to kubota, yanmar, hitachi you might find the re sale on the Chinese one is a lot less and you will take a big hit as the first owner. Remember the vat, you cannot claim this back unless you obviously buy it through a vat registered company.

The flame sensor is that black thing entering the aluminium casting top left above the capacitor. Just pull it out and look at the end, wipe any soot off the "window" in the end. It will take less time to do than it took me to type that.

Outward opening also saves on some internal floor space.

As long as the voltage is the same and the head physically fits no issues in swapping out actuators

I've only refurbed one room here and even being on this forum I didn't quite grasp the importance of air tightness otherwise I'd have designed elements differently. It'll certainly influence what I do on future rooms. A refurb is always imo harder than starting with a clean slate of course as you have to constantly work around other people's screw ups! It also took a visit to a highly insulated, low energy house and an understanding of it's construction to make me see (as I now do), the light. Basically I renewed the ceiling joists: I infilled with pir: Foil taped the joints: The went over the lot with a membrane: That shows the membrane concept. At that point it was pretty toasty and airtight. (Still cold bridges at the joists). All this is a bit moot as I have bfo cutouts for downlights, speakers and a ginormous, ceiling mounted body dryer. I've always had a plan to reinstate the insulation and membrane at these points but it's more work, a lot of which could have been avoided (not so much the body dryer mind). I maybe SHOULD have counter battened and used low profile LEDs. Lowering the ceiling a tad with counter battens would too have helped with tiling and decreased the room volume a bit meaning less to heat. The walls followed with battens infilled with pir then a taped vcl. Ceiling vcl joins the wall vcl joins the floor vcl: The only saving grace to all this is I hope to eventually have a warm roof and ewi effectively wrapping all my mistakes in a thermal envelope.

The biggest problem is running out of energy... just paint it all magnolia and we'll worry about it later.

The only consideration we had to make was window treatments with tilt and turn windows. We put in extra timber under the plasterboard in case we wanted curtain poles but ended up with blinds on most of the sashes. As was previously said this sort of thing needs to be thought about earlier especially if you want something like roller blinds concealed above the reveals. I think tilt and turn windows often pose problems.

Once the plasters on the walls its too late to worry about design issues. The design needs to be agreed with the client before the build starts. Plan things like service runs, location of plant room, levels of insulation, the use of modern technology to heat water and space heating, solar PV, light and shade etc. MHVR, ASHP. Fabric First .... The list goes on.

I decided to get my mate Mandy to take a look at my before and after work . He turned to me and simply said “ This is the way “

The one I fitted just has a high level alarm. The backup pump ones are for larger pump stations serving more than one property. They are very onerous with servicing and maintenance. Easier just to just buy a spare pump and change it if it breaks, or buy it after / if it breaks but you cannot use the downstairs WC for a few days.

BUT can it get you a beer from the fridge.

If there was a big gas leak in a super airtight TF house could it break free and float away? ?

Sorry bit of thread drift on my behalf will keep it on brexit .

was this intentional or a typo?

More Brexit madness... If you are an EU national and live and work in the UK your spouse and any children you have will still be allowed to join you in the UK after Brexit. No need to meet any particular immigration rules. I've no problem with that. However if you are British and married to an EU national you won't be allowed to return to the UK after Brexit. Well you can return but you spouse and children will have to meet the strict immigration rules including those relating to jobs and salary. So we are discriminating against British nationals.

Nah... Thats just 'Shabby Chic'. All the rage these days I've heard! Or 'Distressed Industrial'.... your choice!

Mug! Cancel the order and split the winnings with me for my fine advice.

I am going to become your Agent when people go looking for a Project Manager. Just goes to show how many of the others on here dick about. Well Done.

Houston we have a problem ! ?

Ffs ? It’s a bloody inspection hatch not the spacex escape hatch.

Too much contact with Zoot.

hive .... good description. Lots - too much almost - good stuff here. This place can sting you though. Dont switch your due diligence button off, eh? Welcome.

That is unfair to the point of being libellous. Shall report you to the Admin. Oh, you are the admin... Doesn't @ProDave keep his downstairs bathroom in there? Different thread required.