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Item 1 on the latest list is complete 😁

An update (after the fact) Plastering finished in the open plan area this coming week (by others) DONE (see above) Remainder of stone cladding arrives and work begins to get the most inaccessible (high) parts put up before the scaffold gets taken away - this means cladding two 7m x 2m wide walls. It arrived and I did get the stonework done on the high parts Plumbing pipework ready for ASHP installation DONE Gabion basket and pad for ASHP to be installed on DONE Mist coat and first coat on plaster (SWMBO is at the ready) DONE Begin fitting upstairs UFH (Not done) Front door being fitted (January) by others DONE Take 3-4 days off for Xmas DONE and appreciated ASHP installation (January) by others, that will allow for hot water and the downstairs UFH to be available ... DONE Fit a temporary bathroom ... DONE Fit out utility room as temp kitchen ...DONE Its been a comfortable month in the house (in fact we are staying an extra few days while it is cold overnight!). We fitted an over bath shower, and done a lot of other work since. and that'll be part of the next blog entry.

@Marvin I think I have just about done all the reduction measures I can (except baths). I intend to add a bit more insulation here and there, but it will only make a marginal difference. An EV would make the biggest difference, but at the moment it would not be practical (or affordable) for me. I could get a lodger again, which would pay for an EV, but I like living in my own.

Thank you @Spinny. The debt collector will be along shortly 😆

Looks absolutely amazing, congratulations and well done. You must have worked so hard with huge diligence. A huge inspiration to all of us to keep on keeping on and eventually we will see off all the trials and tribulations. Amazing view through the bifolds (Although I love trees, it might perhaps be tempting to remove the central one to open the vista ?)

All very neat, methodical work. FYI you can't really sit stud walls down on to the thinner screeded floors, they need to go to founds over kickers, as you have, especially if there's any loads being transferred down from 'above'. No bullet dodging to ever be had there methinks so you're all good to just cut around these, and the lads are doing a sterling job of it too. Keep the bacon flowing, the grease keeps the elbows and knees lubricated

That looks like some really tidy work. Great to see people taking pride in the work they are doing.

It's got a nice ring to it but sadly it's not really fair on those who experience genuine bad luck that no amount of preparation which doesn't involve time-travel would have avoided. I'm thinking of those who bought, and largely paid for, a timber frame from a company that then went bust; those who planned their groundworks for the summer only to find that particular summer is the wettest on record (in contrast to us)... We can all think of plenty of similar examples. However, alongside Gary Player's gem: "The more I practice, the luckier I get", it's a great way to highlight that there's often more to apparent 'good luck' than meets the eye.

Very kind words but I am still expecting that we will hit the rails and run into the smelly stuff at some point, so let's see how we cope with that. In the meantime, the principal attribute of successful project management imo is "Be lucky". Not too big for a first tattoo Nick 😉

Really enjoying your blog. You're clearly doing a great job of the project management. I hesitate to ask, as you already have enough on your plate, but I'd be very interested if at some point when you have a minute to spare (🤣) if you shared some of your knowledge on how to do that well, what tools you use etc.

Defo best advice. We always buy a battered upvc door off gumtree etc local to the projects and only swap that out at the very last minute. Have one here atm covered in Passive Purple, so I doubt gumtree will work to get it sold back on now lol. For the sliders @Benpointer, I usually make a plywood shoe that sits over the threshold and keeps the slider open fully, making sure that trades step on that and not the shiny new threshold with muddy boots etc. You simply lift this on/off at the start and end of each day, and make yourself sheriff of the keys so no numpty can open it and wreck it for you. You need eyes in the back of your head as you get the niceties installed, as otherwise even a simple extension lead getting wound back through an open door or window will remove the paint off the frame.

So impressed with your progress so far. Lets hope that it continues in the same vein.

He's a very clever guy. Like so many good trades people, he very inventive and has a great eye for what looks right and what will work. We're very lucky to have him.

Including yellow rattle. It adds attractively to the mix and parasitises any grass that dares try to take over.

Hey @Nickfromwalesthanks for the comment last night, gave me some confidence and motivation to go at it again today, armed with a bag of STANDARD set adhesive 🤣. I had been using rapid, because the tile supplier recommended rapid to prevent the adhesive being sucked into the natural stone and discolouring. But, id rather a good tile job, than worrying about discolouring. Mixed the bag up in 3rds. My confidence really took a knock after smashing whole bags of rapid set downstairs for the limestone floor! and what a difference that made, gave me so much time to lay and adjust, getting it all perfect! And ended up doing significantly more. but yes, next time I’ll set the former to the height of the SLC minus 2mm for UFH cable, not the height of the tile backer board! the SLC has made the rest of the room a doddle to tile! So I forgive it for making my former a nightmare. Could probably have got away without the levelling clips, but they’re a nice safety net.

@LiamJones "if I were to do it again (I’ve got 2 more formers to do), I'd sacrifice a dead level room, to reduce build up at the edge of the former. The former is designed with built in falls, and by building up, I’ve destroyed this. I could have also gone 2-3mm lower with the self leveller and still achieved a level floor, given 3mm adhesive would still be applied over the top of the bare UFH in places. what a nightmare!"..... First off, a bloody commendable effort mate, just dust yourself down and get ready for the next one. Firstly, don't use rapid set adhesive you mad bar steward!! Standard set is your friend for intricate stuff like this. Secondly, my thought as to where this went wrong (imho) after it was all going so right is as follows. When you set the former into place on the woodwork you missed one vital step, and that was to put a 6mm (or x mm) layer of plywood down first to raise the former to meet your (predicted) top of SLC, that simple mate. On the next one, work this out to the mm and fit either ply or insulated backer board / whatever works, and then the world will seem a happy place and the tiling will be a doddle I fit the UTH wire with the suggested tape etc, but it then go around after, painstakingly, and mitre bond the wire flat to the floor everywhere it doesn't want to lay absolutely flat, and then you can put prob half the SLC down. Lesson learned for the next one, third ones a charm 👍

Well done. We got some eye popping demo quotes most didn’t even come to site, like you, we found that all they were going to do is smash the house to pieces and go to land fill although they would do it very quickly it seemed the amount of skips required was an extra to most quotes. We had asbestos in various places but removed ourselves with care and an asbestos skip. It was the kind your allowed to remove yourself with precautions. We found more asbestos than was listed on report we got, so got samples tested before removing but if a digger would have smashed through house this may have not been found. We did the demo ourselves, pallet break x 2 was invaluable on everything from roof tiles to plaster off walls and floor boards. A reciprocating saw was our second most trusted friend along with ooffa and doofa our crow bars. Ooffa had got it self lost but recently sighted between the walls at the front of basement, silly sausage, how did it get there! We have been able to store lots of wood and hope to reuse including our floor boards which I plan to make into parquet at some point. Bricks are going into gabions to terrace the garden. It was harder work and longer than we imagined but lots of money saved and satisfaction and very little to land fill and only 2 skips of concrete roof tiles, (so far) although lots of weekly drop off at recycling centre and managed to make money on selling copper and such like. We are now left with an open shell of a basement and chimney but we are now waiting for our sheep farmer to finish lambing to finish the rest and do ground work. Not long now.

Hi Nick, J here, my "mantra" for our move is less stuff not more storage, so not planning on having anything in the loft....we'll see how that goes! Seriously though that's one of the reasons we're comfortable with the old fashioned w trusses being provided as part of out frame kit. Always good to "test" the thought process though

I know 3/10 poor rant - needed more variety in the expletives Sorry I'll try to do better next time!!

The Commissioning chap came round yesterday, checked the system and listened to our tales of woe. He said that the flow temperature was 10oC lower than recommended and the water temp was only at 44oc when it was specified at 50oC. But apart from that, all was okay. After some tweaks to correct the temperatures, he left. The house is warm enough and Dad seemed to listen to his advice re maintaining a fairly constant temperature, rather than trying to turn off things then expecting them to warm up when turned back on. (Even though I had explained the same several times before - but then I'm just his daughter! What would I know........) So we spent £7k, plus a £7.5k grant from the Government, and from start to finish it took from 11th November till 3rd December to install and make it all work satisfactorily. Not really the best advertisment for ASHP's but if it keeps the old folks warm enough and saves some money from the old system, then I'm happy.

As promised, Black Friday did me well…

We want more info on the Interceptor 🙂

Easy peasy. now just think if you had your own machine how much would you have saved. 😉 go and tell the wife.

The bifolds are actually sliding doors. We did actually remove a smaller one to the right of it, and there is a tentative plan to remove a protuberance on the top left of the one that is left, but you can't see it in the photo. We have the field behind which we plan to plant replacement trees in for the 3 we have removed for the build (the walnut, a diseased horse chestnut, and the little tree).

Very well done to you both. You remain my inspiration, and valued source of “been there, made that mistake, here’s what I learned” advice. Looking forward to having a G&T on the glorious gin balcony!

Well, as a novice I am consoled by that thought, although I am sure some on here have said stud walls on screed was fine. Anyway, it's history for our build now - choices made and no going back - so onwards and upwards!

No major constraints! There is one condition we're applying to have adjusted though. The existing planning is for a larger site as a whole all in one application, which includes a second plot and some barn conversions. It was previously all owned by one person, then they subdivided it. There's a planning condition that says no part of the site can be occupied until all access, parking, etc. for all plots is done. Our plot immediately abuts a public highway so we really shouldn't be constrained by other people sorting out their access. So we've submitted a S73 application to split up the conditions so that we can occupy ours as soon as our access/parking/etc. is sorted, and vice versa. Should be a straight forward change I hope!

“Luck is when preparation meets opportunity”.

Great advice re lift and slide door Nick. We'll lock it shut for now because there's currently a 500mm step up from the back and a 300mm step down inside to get in through that door, so it's not an ideal access anyway. We'll make the ply cover for when the screed is down - early September 🤞

Nice progress. Why the Aquabox? Shit water pressure/flow from the mains?

You are doing great. 🙂 You are much more hands on self build than me. I basically started once the walls and roof were up. I wouldn’t be out of the ground if I had done the groundworks.

Yes. Rather than clog the blog I’ll respond in the original thread.

Great progress.

Looking great, you both must be very pleased with the progress. Keep the momentum up during this dry weather.

Hi Stoph, We used 50mm ducting for all the services - the electrician requested 100mm for PV panel feed or 2 x 50mm, so we went for the latter. They are all above the concrete footings with a lintel in the blockwork. You can see one on the right the attached photo (the other opening in the centre is for a waste pipe from what will be the kitchen). .

Great progress. You'll soon use the ducts up so don't worry there. Better to be looking at a duct, than wishing you had one. Another 4' down and you'd have had a basement lol.

Not sure why the BI can't use the tables any more but the SE was more cautious than the NHBC tables, see below. We haven't done any plasticity tests - was hoping to avoid the cost, which I guess we have done.

Great job - really at the coal face and making good progress!!

Don’t listen to tile suppliers They only sell the stuff

Uh-oh. Having been on an extended quiet period, my blog has gone beserk. This is one of those "push it into the indeterminate future whilst I think about finishing it" posts from about 3 years ago :-). Ooops.

The blue car is a customers Jensen 541 and the grey one is our Jensen FF arriving back from the painters ready for us to complete its restoration.

I would set that so it's only 2 degs below normal day time setting, otherwise being a low temperature system, it will take a long time to recover. If it recovers quickly you have the flow temperature set way too high. The way Grant do things from what I read, normal gas engineers install the heat pumps, Grant Corporate Engineer does the commissioning.

The people who commission the system and sign off everything for the Government grant are coming next week. We have instructions for everything except the Digistat! And the rest of the stuff, we are advised to leave well alone. Apart from adjusting the radiators. I agree with the wireless stuff - far better to have a wired system that we can control - with instructions! I hate Apps and it didnt work from my house so that was a waste of time. I guess there is some way of connecting it to Mums internet so I can control it remotely and I shall have to find out. Today Mum rang and told me that while the house was lovely when they got up, it had turned itself down to 16oC - ie, back to the origonal schedule at 8.30am. Luckily I was able to tell them how to boost the temperature, till I can get there and amend the schedule again. What a nightmare for them 🙁they can do without these programming issues. It is difficult to assess the energy use as it has been on and off since it was installed. We took the old heating system out on the 7th, leaving them with plug in radiators over the weekend. The system was finished on Friday 15th but we need a few weeks to really see if its helping. 16th may have been the day it heated the whole water tank as that is the biggest use.

I had similar site inspectors including one half way up the roof looking in the velux rooflights!! Very cheeky of them! Scaffolding is down so they have to content themselves with outside inspections from now on...!! Much colder these days, best of luck with your build too!!

Second hand is always a gamble, get someone who knows diggers to look over it for you. (I loved every minute of driving my JCB, best boys toy EVER).

The first SWMBO here knew about me buying a digger, is when I said "you know that digger on ebay I bid for just before we went out today, well I won it"

Take it steady. I slipped my disk in 1991, still gives me trouble.

Yes we have been lucky on getting out the ground but the roof cost have gone up. Not much is happening at the moment so next will be week 5 and 6.

Not sure I would pin myself to passivhaus, but instead follow the principles. A2A you still need a heater for the DHW, so I would stick to a normal ASHP. MVHR several ways to do it, the normal way with a duct and terminal in every room, or cascade, generally duct to each wet room and a couple of supplies only that suit the layout. You will have a demand activated fan through a wall or two for awkward layout rooms that do not lend themselves to being cascaded. An example of said fan https://www.ventilationland.co.uk/en_GB/p/brink-indoor-mixfan-co2-gestuurd-tot-70-m3-h/17927/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwkuqvBhAQEiwA65XxQNHSp3Am0ssSPnBCSOd5avKVIvBbL4-5yDgamc6Up--18SUdWGZUpBoCV34QAvD_BwE Get yourself a thermal camera and see where all the cold bridges are, so you can focus on fixing.

the wildflowers have started to bloom