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After some snow and heavy rain, I can see my design in action, physics doing what physics does. This is the 1st pond that has now overflowed with run off. This level has raised about 400mm. Although not finished. This has now overflowed into a gulley / pipe, that when it's finished will be concreted and form a better overflow outlet. The last pic is the new pond and the darker green shade in the water is the overflow water entering the pond. The new pond rose around 150mm so around 1500l.

thanks, our saving grace is a small pension from when women retired at 60, not enough to cover everything, but does keep the wolf from the door. I'm just a bit annoyed that I've paid many 1000's in NI & tax over my working life, never claimed and now can't get anything. It is good that people who are desperate can get help, but not us until we are destitute. hey ho 🙂

Fantastic! This is something like my ambition for our rainwater management, just on a slightly smaller scale, and with rainbox planters as the very first stage of the rainwater's journey from guttering to pond. I shall be using your picture of your miniature stream to demonstrate to HWMBO my stream plan!

Like ducks to water then

Good progress. Nice tidy carpentry. A couple of suggestions if you like. Solitex is top stuff but at a top price. If you haven't bought it yet I would recommend something like Glidevale vp400 or Fakro S65. I used the VP400 on my garage and was very impressed, better than the Tyvek supro on the house. Look for a weight of 160g/m2 at least and a sd of less than 0.015 is my tip. Tape and seal all joints in the membrane, as fastidiously as you would a an airtight layer and return it to the external windtight layer around the rafter tails. I would bin the idea of Metac between the rafters. Its very expensive and itchy job to fit. Blown cellulose would be a much better option in my view. Much better for airtightness too. Ecocel in Cork did ours but there companies in Dublin too. For the airtight membrane I used prodomo extra membrane and tapes from Prodomo in tralee. The black tape is the best. There is some on Donedeal at the moment. I just picked up 3 boxes for a bit of a discount.

A local company called TimberTech up the road from me in Ireland - run by two brothers. You know its good when all the trades know them and can't recommend them enough! Did want MBC back in 2016 but just didn't get my act together fast enough! They moved to the UK! Don't have twin wall stud and cellulose but did get Kore passive raft and have decent Architects drawings for insulation and other details to get the performance I'm after. Just picked up today some Gutex woodfibre board I'm thinking of using and Bosig Phonotherm for around the inside of the window openings. Waiting on a date for window measuring, a quote for the brick/blockwork, brise soleil bracket details to send onto my structural engineer and dozens of other details I've to talk to TimberTech about tomorrow as they finish in a week! Roof is on and felt/batons next week, tiles after Easter. The Velux rooflights arrived too and are big and heavy. Another Blog post coming soon I think! If anyone is in Ireland and wants to check them out they are here: http://www.timbertechhomes.ie

But they are not. I have found I can best explain it as two circuits which interact at a heat transfer 'box' in the building. A sketch on a blackboard helps but I'm not doing one. Anyway, it is 2 circuits passing through a shared box. Improvements or corrections to this analogy are welcome. Air source or ground source grabs energy from outside, heats up a liquid and this is circulated into the building. Once in the building, the warm heat supply has the heat taken from it in a plenum or a radiator or a tank by warming the internal circuit of liquid or air. 2 separate circuits. For air to air it is rather simple with internal air being blown over the heated pipes, either straight into a room or through ducts. Air to air.(but liquid moves ig around) Air to water. Ground to air (via liquid again) Ground to water. There are other circuits of air through the heat pump or replacement water flow in the ground but that might show as another loop on the sketch. Phew that was hard to write. Easier at a client's white-board. There will be some corrections or clarifications needed.

Aaaah, THAT sort of erection. My bad.

The size of the windows was the biggest surprise for us too! Progress is looking good! Love the window seat idea

no job yet, lots of interviews (no age on CV), then when they meet me I get, you are too experienced, you wouldn't be the right fit for the team, you would probably get bored with your experience, your qualifications are out of date, even 'we want someone who will stay 10+ years - as if they can guarantee anyone will do that, and the last one this week, we are a small company / team and we are concerned you wouldn't fit in. Nothing overtly about my age as that's illegal, but lots of vailed hints to that end. I tried to talk to the dept of stealth and total obscurity yesterday, total loss, not entitled to anything as we have savings.

Thank you, he looks to be suffering greatly at the moment, 1st bowel cancer around 17 years ago, which recurred another 3 times, now has a stoma but it’s spread to a kidney and he’s lymphoma too, horrible to see, he didn’t even have the energy to talk to me other day when I was visiting 😞 he’s done so so well bless him. I’ve got him to thank for my interest in DIY and building, he was a builder back in the day before the cancer got him

Northern Power Grid is anything from £650 up to £10k (ex VAT) for low voltage G99