curlewhouse

Interestingly enough the "museum" aspect of the countryside is one I actually had to remind our national park planners of at one point during our fight, er, I mean "the planning process" with them. When they queried if we were having electricity and telephone (they were worried about "wire clutter") & I actually said that although we want it kept looking nice and traditional probably more than even they do, "the village is not a museum" .

When we first started we spent 2 days at the NEC show and went to most of the seminars of relevance to us over those 2 days. Really useful. Yes, most of the firms there are by nature high profit. But certainly when first starting out it was well worth it for us to go. You can browse, learn what's available, compare methods, ask questions, get prices.... and then go off and find the best prices once your back home. We found them very worthwhile and interesting. Once we'd started the build there was no point in us going to them, but they were great for helping shape our ideas and having a look at actual materials and so on in the early stages. It also makes you realise just how many people are interested in self build/custom build.

More times than I can recall. Ive dropped a block before on my toes been saved by the steel toecap, and saved stubbed toes when tripping or catching on things. They also allow you to kick things with impunity ? . Whilst my hard hat is still in its wrapper, I definitely will replace my steel toecapped site boots with new steel toecap ones when they wear out

I hoped to avoid this by using BC and warranty from same firm - (and even ended up paying for a more expensive warranty, imagining that this would be far simpler with the same firm doing both - Wrong!) which failed dismally, and indeed only last week I got a new query about the drains being laid in a bed of gravel - and had we done it! Now this is almost a year since their own BCO looked at them, bedded in gravel and told me fine, you can fill them in! The warranty inspectors supervisor has made it very clear he doesn't like SIPS, and the inspector himself didn't even know what they were! As JSH says, there seems to be no consistency at all, and "rules" are inserted almost at random and against logic it seems from many of the examples we see on this forum. As for planners, we locally see a big difference in their approach depending no the wealth of the individual. Example, one man wants to develop a derelict house - he is refused permission as it would mean building a new access track across a field. Next, Lord X's close relative (yes really) applies for the very same house.... and is given permission! As a parish councillor I recently saw a case given permission before going to consultation (as it happens it was fine and we would have happily agreed it anyway). By sheer coincidence the owner is also a millionaire. Now let me be clear, not for one second do I suggest anything untoward, that would be ridiculous frankly, but I do think there is an unconscious bias - which could be solved by sticking to the same rules for everyone - the same for BCOs and warranty inspections.

I know it's shot vertically (I forgot) & the wind makes it a little hard to hear, but this is an update as regards the windows etc. Meantime, our lovely warranty people are being difficult again,asking for photographic evidence of *things they've already inspected* which are now buried or behind walls! ..... they *really* do not like SIPS!

Had to re-read A Brief History of Time immediately after the first read to get a grip on it (well, I think I did, sort of! )

Can you get any indication how long this work will continue? I suspect it may be temporary. I used to live in an old station house beside a railway crossing which once a year was lifted and relaid on a weekend night. They also parked there to access the track further down as at the time new cabling was being done. This then attracted assorted toe rags to steal the cut up cable! (I got a couple of them caught). The worse part was once when working on the line they set up a new (at the time) safety system which "whooped" loudly every few seconds to show it was live, then changed tone when a train was approaching - so this damn thing "whooped" every minute or so all through the night until they finished around 5 a.m! However these were all temporary things. The plus side was I got to see the trains .

I should update this - annular ring nails were used. Because of fitting a cabrio type window which we had to wait for, part of the roof facing west was unfinished for a a few months - our West aspect faces out over a valley several miles long and we get the wind directly off the moors opposite - there is nothing between the moors and our roof. We went through 2 periods of gales like this, with a huge vee shape missing from the slates, facing directly into the gales which if I recall right were around the 60/70mph gust mark. We had some actual sleepless nights listening to this (as it nearly tipped over the caravan we were in) and imagining the roof ripping off .... but not one slate so much as budged. The roof is finished now, but that test of strength when it was at its most vulnerable has given me a lot of confidence in it.

Talk to your postman - ours just went back to the depot and got one of the staff to add it!

Yes, I was almost tempted when I saw that the road could be named for £150

When we had a woodburner I also had a little side business (legit and registered) selling firewood. Now, one of my main selling points is that all the hardwood being sold for logs in my view is not renewable - the argument that the replacement tree takes the carbon back up when the felled tree might be 200+ years old is greenwash in my view. you might as well say coal is as trees will take it back up in another 20 million years. I sold nothing but softwood left over from clear felled forestry plots - which would have otherwise rotted in situ, so the trees were 25 to 30 years old, and were replanted within 6 months. We of course had in effect free firewood and despite claims "you cant burn softwood it tars up" (heard at a seminar at the self build show at the NEC from an "expert"). heated all of our hot water and central heating by softwood for a 4 year period before we moved house. So our fire was on every day (at night in summer to heat the day aheads DHW). I swept the chimney theoretically every 6 months but probably nearer 10-12 months and we had no issues. The wood was well and truly seasoned. With softwood, the only downside was that naturally you burn a lot bigger quantity. We burned truly vast quantities. But then its vastly cheaper to source, was genuinely replanted quickly and the cycle was about 25 years as opposed to 200. The business just grew with repeat custom and I only packed in when my prolapsed disc eventually got to painful to continue and my day job kept me busy enough anyway. I could give customers double the volume they'd have got with hardwood for the same money and ended up having to turn prospective customers away - very often with new customers at first I'd see their chimney with tar etc on the outside, clearly having been sold unseasoned wood (every customer I ever had came back for more). The classic case was "tree surgeon./gardener" types who would cut someones tree down for them then flog it next day as "seasoned" firewood. During that time I was contacted (probably because I had a web site) by firms from Eastern Europe offering me containers of hardwood at very good prices - Speaking to someone from (IIRC) Latvia, they said that near them ancient forest was being felled for export as logs with no replanting just sort of slash and burn. So I'm completely unconvinced that log burners are any solution, despite having ran one for years. I think for some of us in rural areas, burning waste softwood or genuine hardwood woodland management leftovers is sensible, but certainly not hardwood logs in the quantities I see being sold. A few years ago I saw a farmer get a grant for the logging machinery (as did I) and go on to fell all the trees in his hedgerows! No doubt sold as "renewable, green" fuel!

Fitting a Wunda system and whilst downstairs is a 100mm thick screed, and air temp thermostats in each room, the upstairs bathroom is to be fitted out with those EPS foil faced panels. The supplied probe can be mounted in its own little box to measure air temperature, or in the floor itself. I wondered what peoples views were on the best option? It occurs to me that it is the air temperature after all which matters the most, and as they show the probe has to be let into the EPS then I'm not sure how good a reflection the heat there will be in relation to the air temperature. There will be ceramic tiles on top. Its available as a probe so you can use it safely in a wet room . Any thoughts to preference? In this plan position B wall mounted would get the wet room (no door)/shower area temp , position A would again wall mounted and I think give the whole room more accurately and position C is where Wunda suggest the probe goes if I fit it underfloor.

In our case, our friendly local postie got it added for us - might be worth asking? I think the fact that your council thinks its worth £150, mine thinks its worth £100, then if you don't pay then try it for £50 speaks volumes.

Our plans have them at slight variations between 1500 and 1600 centres apart. Our architects construction notes say a no more than of 1800 so I'm guessing the 2000 is a maximum.

Had to laugh yesterday as I got demand number 4 from our council for us to fill in a form for us to beg their permission to call our house what we want (there are no street numbers as there is no street) . Their first attempt about a year ago when we started building was to try it on for £100 and when I ignored that another form was sent asking for £50. The funny bit was they addressed it to the house, and the form explains that unless we pay the bribe we will not receive mail or deliveries at that address! . I know that whilst in the scheme of building a house, £50 may not seem worth arguing about - but my attitude is that we worked for that £50, and these days I'm in a job I love but which is poorly paid (the self build is part of a reassessment of our lives we made, I was making good money, but in a stressful job and hardly seeing the family - I'll probably live years longer now, albeit without the foreign holidays and new cars - but we've never been happier!). I've always paid council tax anyway, and to enter the name on a computer would take maximum 1 minute, maybe 2 if they are 2-finger typists like me. I've also become acutely aware during this process that lots of little back office types feel a God given right to take money from self builders (I call it the "Grand Designs" effect, where the people manage to magic many £000s over their budgets, and I think that's led to the belief we're all rich. Whereas a good number like us, self build because we can't afford someone else to do it, and if you've got a little land, its cheaper than buying a ready built house - we certainly could never afford to buy the house we are building) . So as long as I can, I'm digging my heels in on this one. I've found sadly that this self build turns (for us anyway) into having to fight authority at every turn and nag/push or threaten people to simply do their job. Only last week, to get our deposit back from a company that had let us down and wasted over a month of our time I had to threaten a very large window company with court and they went to the wire delaying it before coughing up. I really wish it wasn't like this. As it happens, thanks to our friendly postman we are on the post office database and as the months have gone by I see our address appears on more and more firms address finder systems. We are also recorded with the banks, CC companies and so on and I've not had one issue getting deliveries or services or financial matters sent to the house. In fact all our mail goes there now ready for when we move in proper. Its interesting that on the form I am required to give the house name, then justify that name in a box next to it! Now I understand that sweary names, and the like are not allowed, and that's probably for the good, but for some little clerk to decide even what we call our home is an invasion too far. What's next deciding on our interior colour scheme, the name of our cat? (we haven't got a cat). Do we need to be micromanaged in this country really as if we are not grown ups? Or is it just another nice little earner? I'm not a fan of intrusive government. As it happens, our choice of house name (originally Curlew House because its the symbol of this national park, Curlews live here around our house, and it's my favourite bird - but we found about 3 others so changed our mind) is Todcroft - and that's because the next house down the road (my parents) was originally called Todcroft, we found that on a really ancient map, so there is a historical reason, and I cannot find another beyond one in Cumbria. But, that's none of their bloody business, and I really resent the idea that I have to ask some clerks permission. If they claim it needs their supervision/input then how come all the horrible twee/generic house names you see where there must be hundreds with the same name? I may have to pay the money in the end. Though I'm unsure of their legal right to demand it actually, they do have power under Public Health Act to maintain the record of street and house names, I can't find anything in that act saying householder must pay for it, so if they can evidence that then I guess I'll have no choice. But I bet they won't refuse to send a council tax bill to the address once it gets habitable! I reckon if that's a fair fee, then to enter that name in a database will take maybe 2 minutes, they must be paying their clerks in the region of £1500 per hour, which somehow I doubt. Meantime, today I am fitting downpipes. There is snowfall here again today but it is marginally above freezing, so the snow on the roof is slowly thawing. The sun is shining and its easy to see that if our windows were fitted, we'd be getting lots of thermal gain on a day like this. As you can see, the patio doors are fitted, facing West, but the 3 big South facing windows in this room are still to be fitted - within the next 3 weeks hopefully. Lesson learned for the windows is that big firms are very definitely not necessarily the best or offer the best value. By now using a local firm we are getting triple glazing for less than the price of double from the big national company! U values also better of course, but what has been nicest is any easy "can do" attitude from them - for example the big national firm said they did not make doors as wide as this and we'd need slim side panes made up - this local firm said "no bother, of course we can make them for you in that size" ! Big difference.

We ended up with little choice but to use Buildstore and they were frankly awful! Paperwork lost, hung on to until it was out of date before they'd do anything with it, (so you'd have to get new payslips etc), not even having processed the very first part until I chased them up after 3 weeks - only for them to let slip that they'd done nothing. Their way of processing applications seems to be in a haphazard manner - that was certainly the impression we got when being asked for documents we'd already sent, or to send new updated ones and so on. The building society themselves are lovely as a couple of times I contacted them to explain what was happening and ask what they really wanted - they basically contradicted what BS (such an apt set of initials) were telling us. If you must apply via BS, insist they tell you what documents they need in one go - with us they asked for them one at a time (after weeks of this I challenged them and they claimed the Building Society was doing it that way - which seemed so unlikely that I rang the building society who confirmed that they had sent a list of everything they need in one go to Buildstore as you would expect - and I know who I believe! ) dragging it out for weeks and weeks more unnecessarily, when we could have simply sent in one pack of documents. Once past that point though it has been OK, with stage payments released if not quite as quickly as promised, only a few days late. Trouble is BS have pretty much a monopoly for some types of self build and know it so there's no pressure to get their act together. If I had to use them again, I'd contact the building society itself much sooner and call BS bluff about the document drip feed "method". So they will get you there, but you may have to keep pushing them to get on with it.

I took your advice and bought a roll of compriband to try. I'm well impressed and have ordered more rolls. As the stone is random sized, the gap varies considerably, so the ability to buy different expansion sizes makes it the perfect solution. The soffits themselves are of the ventilated variety though I'll still leave some air gaps of course, but with mesh to stop insects. Where we are, there's a good 10+ miles clear down the valley between our house to the moors opposite, so we get a fair old blast from the prevailing wind off the moors so I'm quite happy we'll still get ample ventilation in the cavity.

Still doesn't add up to the "total" I'm afraid. I'm surprised at them not getting back to me yet as their customer service thus far has been pretty good. Always very yup beat and keen to help when you phone, and it sounds unscripted.

The monetary amounts in that video bear no relation to our actual tariff it should be noted, since Good Energy do not "do" smart meters so it's basically showing a default tariff Now that takes me back!

Got our first electricity bill the other day for which I'd had to submit the reading because the supplier we are with (Good energy) don't "do" smart meters yet. The bill seemed rather high - we knew it would be because of the current situation we are in with the window company letting us down so we are having to run fan heaters 24/7 , but it seemed even higher. So I added up the monthly totals the meter records and compared this figure to the overall consumption figure it gives - and they don't match. The month-by-month consumption comes out a lot lower than the supposed total. When I queried this our supplier says that this is why they are not yet using smart meters electronically for readings as they think there are a lot of teething issues still to be resolved & they are waiting to see which models work best (but since they themselves don't actually install meters I'm not sure how correct this is), hence why I had to physically read it and call the reading in. Anyway, naturally they want the highest figure to be right and I the lowest, but given that if the meter cannot do simple addition then indeed *both* could be wrong, Ive queried it with them and they insisted they won't check it unless I produce photographic evidence (because naturallly I'd lie over a few quids worth of electricity! Which slightly peeves me tbh ). So instead I videoed it. Currently they are "deciding if it needs to be checked or not". Has anyone else had such basic issues with a smart meter as it being unable to add up properly?

Building inspector *and* my builder both said highly impressed with my garage so far! So there Though it is block, not brick (will be covered with timber eventually anyway as being National Park it was timber outer or stone - timber being much cheaper of course).

Or, have it set in your ceiling held in by neodymium * magnets and on a securely fixed coil of hose rather than rigid pipe so it can be simply pulled down to clean ? *Wow, spelled that correctly first time!

I'd disagree that there are not useful things you can learn in 3 months. Take a look at your local FE college, ours does 10 nights of beginners bricklaying, plastering, decorating skills and so on - each course is just £50 an absolute bargain working out at £5 for 1.5 hours teaching! Whilst you won't be building the house, you may like me end up building garden retaining walls, (plus my blockwork garage), doing lots of joinery, and so on, on jobs where you can take time over, whereas on the house build proper, time is of the essence so best left to the pros. Plus, a better understanding of any trade allows you to talk more knowledgably with the experts - it's surprising how a few key phrases gets you a bit of respect and can help you in other ways - it also can go a long way in the builders/plumbers/electrical merchants I have found, and I have no doubt at all I've had better service for being able to "talk the talk" (don't go in neatly dressed! I even got trade price at one electrical wholesalers despite paying cash by wearing a very worn and scruffy "Mira Showers" sweatshirt which had belonged to my electrician father before he retired - complete blagging that I'm a professional electrician without actually saying it - I'd noticed previously that they give the cash cowboys trade prices even though they (for obvious reasons) don't have a proper trade account). Having said that, I tried to get onto our local FE college night classes in bricklaying for 3 years in a row but they were so undersubscribed they never ran them . There is also another thing to consider - perhaps you can be too practical. During this process I've found various trades asking me to do bits of prep or saying they need this or that done before they can proceed/continue, which I don't think can happen in most builds they do as most people these days probably don't even own a screwdriver - I was commenting on this and both my wife and my father think it's because they know I'm very practical and see me plumbing, wiring, building and so on and try an exploit it a bit. Youtube is also your friend. There are some amazingly detailed instructive courses put on there by people for free. I learned to lay blocks, lay my dry screed floors in the smallest rooms, and am currently plastering! All learned from several hours on YouTube. As regards the comment about tidying the site up - that's great advice, because believe me no one else is going to do it! If you can and are in a place that's allowed, burn waste wood etc. and look for creative uses for waste - it's surprising what people will take if you offer it for free to get rid of it. We have the whole house up and so far I've not had to pay for a single skip.

Well my old back injury came back and bit me over the weekend (nothing I'd done, just a chronic condition for which I'm on painkillers permanently and which flares up worse occasionally for no apparent reason) - and I'm off work unfortunately, laid up, so this has given me an opportunity to post this. Our patio doors were fitted by a very efficient and friendly team, who left a couple of offcuts, and as is my wont with these things, I decided to fire test them (yes, I know I videoed it vertically ). This is with a MAPP gas flame, so running at a temperature of 2020c in air. Best I could do was to get it to ignite for a few seconds, smoke then go out. Almost irrelevant when one lives in a timber framed house of course, as we all know wood burns, but interesting nonetheless I think. Yes it puts off smoke, but then with modern smoke detectors, this is no bad thing and the occupants should be long gone before temperatures reach this level or the smoke becomes an issue. Our house has smoke detectors in every room of course, plus passageway upstairs. In fact, for the duration of the build, and before the mains powered detectors are connected up I've even got battery ones in place temporarily for safety. They are so cheap now, its worth the peace of mind.

Moira, don't worry, in fact your post made me go back and look and of course you are correct! My ventilators actually only ventilate the underfloor cavity and only appear to be in the walls because they have telescopic extensions ... as I should have remembered since I fitted them . So the current high level of air flow coming out of the top gap is coming in via the cavity openings where I have not yet fitted all the cavity closers. After that the only real in-flow should be via the weep vents at the sides of the ventilators, sills etc. So thinking more about it, the incoming air flow will be greatly reduced, but I still need to block a lot of that top off to keep it in check and keep out all the creatures that would no doubt end up accessing our cavity via it. Compriband does seem an ideal solution, with a wire mesh gap at one or two places to allow some flow to ensure it doesn't get damp.