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Here's a selection of photos so far. Loads more if anyone's interested just let me know. I'm slightly photo crazy and have taken about 2000+ pictures so far.... some for the fun of it and some so I know where things are, e.g the drain runs! B519 16 31D House Plans_proposed A1.pdf

A quick update on this. I needn't have worried - Wooden Stairs delivered and fitted the stairs on time and budget. We're very pleased with the result!

£15K up front sounds (feels?) too much. But, but but.... You want to start, you need , neeeeed to get started, he's been good to you so far. There's tremendous pressure on you to get going. Won't it be good to get into the new house? I'm new to this lark too. And if there's one thing I have learned it is that this sector takes the mickey if it can. Self-builders are often seen as a money tree. Trust your instinct.

I agree with most of the advice you have received. I would add if the builder is not VAT registered you have a major problem and if this is the case you MUST have all invoices addressed to you and YOU must pay for them not the builder as you you not be able to recover the VAT on the materials.

For my ground work, and then the construction and erection of the frame, I paid in stages in arrears. When I got the same builder to supply and fit the windows, I paid 50% of the window cost up front to them, and the remaining 50% and the labour for fitting once they were in. But by that time there was a lot of mutual trust between us.

Calm and straight to the point that you're not prepared to pay £15k upfront. If he gets annoyed or upset, you may have bigger problems down the line when/if you have to pull him on anything. You have every right to know why so much money is needed upfront as it's your hard earnt money not his Maybe it also sets the tone that you want a working relationship with him and you will ask questions when you need to

The Harold Lloyd approach - A Pair of Glasses and a Smile. Whisky in the pair of glasses if necessary. (tempted to whip that over to off topic for a caption competition) F

Others will comment on the 20% upfront. You need to keep it sufficiently in step that the money reflects the work that has been done, and the builder does not have large amounts of your money in excess at any time ==> problems if he goes bust. But equally, you should not rely on large amounts of his money to be funding your working capital. You also need some sort of retention for leverage if mistakes get made. It also depends if eg you are buying materials. If so, then the Builder's risk is reduced. Settling bills promptly carries huge kudos. You may want to read the "Saving Money" thread. Significant savings are possible - I reckon I have essentially paid for the labour on the current approx 25k project by the money saved by buying materials well. And I also have the air miles for a Business Class return to Japan :-). Ferdinand

So much routine plan stuff seems to be on the basis of 'here's the general idea - insert standard details as necessary' - which is fine for traditional pattern housing. As soon as anything departs from the norm then details are often sadly lacking - and are made up on the fly by the project manager and the contractor.... resulting in cold bridges, mis-alignments, re-work etc. Seen it too much on projects where I'm the electrician. Now need to avoid it on my own project.

Looks like a very expensive stud/pipe/cable locator to me. I've had mine for around 20 years and it still works fine. Cost around a tenner, IIRC. A posh one now might set you back double that. I think the screen is just a mad gimmick that will give people a false sense of security, as there are things that no detector will find, like plastic plumbing. I thought ahead when fitting ours, and stuck strips of alloy tape down everywhere there is a run of plastic pipe, just so they show up when using a detector.