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As per my previous post, we submitted a S73 application to vary the planning conditions around occupation timelines. I'm pleased to say this has finally been approved! Our application was validated 1 August 2025, and wasn't decided until 12 December 2025. Given the simplicity of our application (no design changes), we're shocked it took so long. No one had any objections and consultation comments came in promptly; our case officer just made a complete mess of things. She also only worked 3 days a week, which made progress ridiculously slow. No extension of time was requested until the very last few days. At that point the case officer said something like: "Everything is all done, I'm just sending it off for approval. So can we agree to an extension until x date?" Presumably just trying to swoop in at the last minute and make us ineligible for a refund! I simply replied saying that given everything was wrapped up, I didn't feel we needed an extension. She didn't reply and we got the decision letter a day later! So finally we're able to move on. We'll next be submitting another new application to vary the design slightly. Ideally we would have done both in one go to save on time and planning fees, but we had to get the occupation conditions done by a very specific time frame and didn't want design changes to hold that up. Excited to start finally seeing progress though!

Yes, there’s a lot going on right now. It’s been a mixture of challenges and progress this past fortnight. Floor tiling The original plan was for the floor tiling to be done during the first two weeks of November but the screed not being quite dry enough delayed that. Contractor sickness and the need for the tilers to try to juggle their other booked work around ours have led to us being about 3 1/2 weeks behind now and still not quite finished (a few tiles still to lay and about half the house to grout). The overall impact on our plan is not to severe though as we managed to schedule the decorating in early to gain a week back and overlap the tiling with second fix plumbing. A big plus is that the quality of the tiling is excellent. In years to come, we won’t remember the delays but we’ll be constantly reminded of the quality job the tilers have done. Tilers: Lee and Steve Kitchen floor down - kitchen units arriving! Bathrooms Speaking of quality, we have a first rate plumber working on our bathrooms, namely: my brother Chris. He came over from East Sussex for a couple of weeks to do the work and the logistics meant he came ‘sight unseen’ which added to the challenge. We are trying to maximise the space by fitting a generous master ensuite, a family shower room, and a guest ensuite into a relatively compact area of the overall house footprint. This means a lot of plumbing has to go into the wall between the master ensuite and the other two bathrooms. The soil pipes, whose location we had decided on during groundworks, proved not to be in the ideal place, but Chris managed to find a way to make it all fit. We dropped one wall hung WC in favour of a back-to-wall, floor-standing model with a concealed cistern because there was simply no way to fit a wall frame into the studwork and line the soil pipe up. Chris has made great progress so far and we are particularly pleased with the mural wall panels that he’s fitted to the two showers. He’s also sorted out half a dozen minor jobs in the plant room, and set up the supplies and waste for the kitchen and utility rooms. Great work Bro! In the master ensuite we have now got some boxing-in to do which will hopefully double up as built-in storage, then Chris will be back in the New Year to fit toilets, wash basins, shower screens etc. Cladding Alan and Chris, our two chippies who have been with us throughout the build have been progressing the Brimstone Ash cladding. They’ve made a great job of it too. All the high work is now done and so our scaffolding should be coming down within the next week or so, with luck. It would be nice to get the house clear of scaffolding with the cladding complete before Christmas. We’re delighted with how the cladding looks. We won’t be treating it in any way though as we are happy to let it fade to silver naturally. Chris and Alan our carpenters: Between cladding, they found time to fit the 'real' front door back on (Norrsken tip was to replace it with a temporary door while the 'messy' trades were in and out of the house.) The door looks great - but I am not sure the pipe insulation on the handle adds much to the aesthetics. On the subject of doors, we went for 'slam shut', requiring a key to turn the latch from the outside, even on an unlocked door. This may well be a recipe for locking ourselves out of the house repeatedly. I am having second thoughts but Mrs P. is more relaxed. I asked Norrsken is there is anything we could do to change that at this stage but they haven't been able to offer any solutions, so I guess we are stuck with slam shut doors. MVHR commissioning Patrick Chester from Heat, Space and Light came along to commission our MVHR system. He confirmed that we appeared to have connected all the supply and extract valves correctly(!) and the commissioning and balancing was very straightforward. We've had great service from Heat, Space and Light for a competitive price - highly recommended! We have a Zehnder Q350 ComfoAir unit and Patrick took me through the basics. Compared to our previous MVHR the Zehnder seems incredibly quiet. In normal operation it’s using just 20W. Patrick also showed me the heat recovery stats. On the day of the commissioning the outside air temperature was 2° C and the inside air was 15° C. After passing through the heat exchanger, the incoming air was registering 14.5° C, so that’s a pretty impressive exchange of the heat from the air going out to the air coming in. Patrick balancing the ventilation system Electric second fix… …is also under way. More on that next time… Focus for the next two weeks Floor tiling - finish off. Cladding - hopefully complete in the next fortnight. Joinery - make a start on the door linings and doors. Second fix electrics - should be progressing, batteries due to be installed next week. Kitchen/utility/pantry - make a start on fitting the units. Dashboard: Contractor days on site this fortnight: 45.5 Contractor days on site since build start: 441.5 Budget: No change - over budget but within contingency. Plan: Still on track to move in by Easter 2026. Issues and worries closed this fortnight: None Current top issues and worries: Will we have the kitchen units ready for worktop templating w/c 5th January?