Dreadnaught

My fridge will be in the open plan living room/kitchen, under the kitchen island. It will be a larder fridge only; the freezer will be in the utility room. I am now planning to surround the back of the fridge with sound-absorbant foam panels. I got the idea from @ProDave. And I will buy a decent fridge with a low decibel rating. It is helpful that all appliances now have a decibel rating (although I am not sure how definitive are the figures). I know that even quite noises can become intrusive in a well-insulated airtight house as the background noise levels are so much lower, but hopefully these measures will do the trick.

Ah yes. Fair comment. I have been lamentably lax with my blog posts. Should get back to them. Foundations are done. Timber frame is up, roof is going on. Windows are on site and I am just about to install them. Roof windows too. Hope I will be superficially weathertight (without external cladding) within a a month.

It took my hours of reading (and learning) about screws before I settled on which to use to install my windows (DIY-max install of six big-ish IdealCombi windows).

From your photo, it looks like the one's nearer the ground are suffering more. Is that so? Is it restricted to one region or set of planks or are they all showing symptoms? Are you just unlucky in that you received a bad batch of planks from the production line?

I am generally a fan of buying direct from manufacturers where I can. I tried with Celotex and got nowhere. In the end I used a local insulation firm after comparing prices. I bought a flat-bed lorry full at Christmas for my foundations. I was pleased with the price.

Be aware that back-to-back holes for faceplates might compromise sound proofing.

I had my planning fee refunded. I was asked to approve an extension just prior to the decision being made and after being told what that decision would be (a "yes"). I obviously politely declined the extension request, waited for the decision, and then sent a request for the refund. Out of politeness, I told my planning officer, with whom I had good relations, that I was going to do all of this in advance.

Welcome @bungledlow. I am building in Cambridge. Let me know if I can help in any way. Good luck with your build.

I have corresponded with Thomas on this and he said the following: He ordered through the DE site (the German version of the site as the English version did not work very well). They automatically refunded the German VAT once the consignment shipped (less a small arrangement fee). He then received a message from the courier to the UK VAT and duty. He said the duty on 13 rolls of Vana was about £10. He said it was still a lot cheaper than buying in UK. Hope that's helpful. And thanks to Thomas for sharing his experiences.

(Note that Signify, above, owns Philips Hue). (Both Google and Apple are already selling Matter-based products).

Members of Matter (and many others): Members of Thread (and many others):

A roofing supplier like Bauder would happily give you an opinion. They designed the detail of my flat roof with lots of roof windows. Contact your local area representative.

If you can, wait a year for "Matter" to become widespread standard for home automation. It uses Thread as a communication protocol for lighting, which is superior Z-wave/Zigbee, etc., and I think will be widely adopted. With Matter, you can use Google, Apple, whatever ecosystem you like. It is what I am going to use for my build, inside and out. And I have stopped buying any other home-automation kit for now (despite my natural instincts) while await the Matter roll out. Future proof. The Matter standard: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter_(standard), https://buildwithmatter.com, https://csa-iot.org The Thread protocol: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thread_(network_protocol), https://www.threadgroup.org

My soil survey was done by a company Peterborough. Let me know if you'd like their details.

I'd like it please.