AliG

Looks like a lot of the stuff my pool does automatically. Guess you might call it routine maintenance. TBF the guy who put mine in says a lot of owners have staff who look after them as part of looking after their house or garden. https://deependpools.co.uk/pages/service

Just a quick update. Due to COVID the guy was not able to get out and service the pool, we would have had an emergency visit if anything was required. The pool went over a year without being serviced and everything continued to work perfectly, meanwhile I just saw an installer online recommending that if you have one of their pools installed it should be serviced every two weeks (every week if the pool is outside)! Admittedly I do have to drop the cleaning robot in every two weeks and then pull it out when it is done, but that is it. If any of the chemicals run out, I can just swap them over in seconds. So I think for the Dryden Aqua DA-GEN system that I have which automates pool disinfection then 6 monthly visits are fine which massively reduces running costs.

The kitchen people supplied a 670mm wide cupboard for our laundry room that the washer and dryer are inside. The cupboard was also deeper than normal and all the other cupboards had to set a little away from the wall, so you do lose a bit of space. It looks tidy when not in use, but I actually find the washing machine door behind the cupboard door to be a bit of a pain and often wish that there were no doors on the cupboard. Basically I don't like the way the washing machine doors bangs into the cupboard door when open. Also the cupboard doors are a bit in the way when loading the machine. You can close the door when the washing machine is running, but if you have a heat pump dryer it requires ventilation so the for has to be left open. One thing to watch is what side is the door hinged on and make sure that the cupboard is hinged on the same side, unless you have a split door like you have shown. One thing that I don't like in our room is that the washing machine happened to be hinged on the side closest o the door, I don't think it would be so annoying if the door was on the far side as you come into the room, whereas the door is between you and the machine in our layout. TBH I am not sure it is worth it, it is after all a utility room, no surprise to see a washing machine in there.

We had to but they were approved yesterday. It has created a 4 month delay between getting Scottish Water and planning's approvals. The 4 month delay would not have been so bad if it was not on top of endless previous delays in the planning process.

I did this when I emailed the head of planning on the 27th May. What I didn't expect is that the planning officer would not actually do what he said he would do in the response to that complaint. There is also the issue of being somewhat at the mercy of planning which is an arbitrary process. The architect was extremely nervous of me complaining and then the planning department becoming more awkward or refusing planning. This makes it much more stressful than a business transaction where you can take your business elsewhere or can exert pressure via social media complaints and so on. I think this lets councils in general away with acting in ways that no business would ever get away with. I am sure I am not the only person told not to complain in case it goes against the application.

Yes the redesign is minor, it’s the wasted time and stress that’s the problem. There is also the matter of extra costs due to the timing. Luckily we can cover them, for some people it would probably be a deal breaker.

Original plans for comparison

I found this https://www.kbbreview.com/22153/opinion/gas-hobs-are-going-nowhere/ Apparently gas is now 33% of hob sales.I would assume that most of the rest are induction and not plain electric. Assuming that kitchens/hobs are replaced on average every 20 years then I would guess we are at around 20% induction versus 1% in the US. Of course new gas hobs will be banned soon enough

Can anyone find the data for induction hob sales or penetration in the UK? When I googled these hobs I found an article that said only 1% of hobs in the US are induction. Its a funny country, for some technologies they are way ahead and for others way behind. The number of people who still write cheques is bizarre. This lead me on to various induction pro/con pieces. I can only think the people against them have mostly not used them. Actually it reminds me a bit of reading about electric cars in the mainstream media. When we stayed in an Airbnb a couple of years ago with a gas hob it confirmed my feeling that they are a nightmare clean. What I did not realise however, was that the flames comng up the side of the pan could easily make them dangerously hot. I would never have one. The suggestions that I read against them included - Too slow to heat up and hard to control - Nonsense People don't want to buy new pots - Fair enough but not that expensive and they don't last forever. As an aside hang used cheapish Tefal for years we have switched to Circulon Momentum and I love them. People think gas is cheaper than electricity - yes but due to lower efficiency they cost as much to run. In Italy many houses have a maximum power draw of 3ish kw. This seems very problematic if true.

I saw that. Our kitchen designer was very against an inset hob as she said that you have to allow a small gap around the hob which is difficult to clean. Thus she preferred it surface mounted. I don't have any experience of an inset hob to back up her argument. I thought it would be neater being flush. No hob and no seams would seem to solve these problems.

I think they ask you to put the pans on lifts so that the top does not get so hot. One of the videos from the US suggested that this means there is a limit to how hot the pans can get. I think you can just see the lifts under the pan here. https://www.tpbtech.uk/products

Lol, I am hoping to get another 10-15 years from my current kitchen. At that point it will be seriously considered.

I found Invisicook in the USA where a 4 burner is listed at $2600 and seems to just stick to the underside of any heat resistant top. The controls seem to be on a separate panel or app. A company called TPB makes them in Europe in porcelain countertops. The controls are also in the top. I would guess more expensive. Probably talking an extra £2-3k over a normal induction hob.

Funnily enough I cannot find a cost listed anywhere

After the whole fiasco with the water main here are our new amended plans. We had to make the hall smaller but luckily it was very large to begin with. We had to lose a hundred mil off a couple of the rooms also, but the upstairs bedroom/drawing room actually got larger when the hall got smaller. In a developer built house it would probably be another two bedrooms, but my mum wants another lounge as they don't need more than two bedrooms really.

Big news. The variation and carport planing application are now approved. The planning officer sent me an email saying that he would process both the variation and carport approval at the same time. The comment deadline for the carport was 11th of June. The Monday after this it went to awaiting decision and was approved on 28th of June. So that was good. But despite putting in writing that he would do the variation at the same time, it did not come through. Last week I started to try and figure out what was wrong. Called and emailed the planner - ignored. My mum emailed him from her council email address as she works for them part time - ignored. Called his boss - phone permanently on voice mail. Called the planning helpline which is not supposed to be open but is - Told they would send the planner a message to contact me - ignored Called again - Told to try the head of planning as they couldn't contact the planner. Emailed the head of planning and left him a voice mail - ignored or at least no response to me Called the planning helpdesk again - Told me it was pointless and they would transfer me to complaints Decided that now it was only 4 days from the determination deadline so I would wait for that before making a complaint. Emailed the planning helpdesk as this seemed to get a better response previously than calling them - told that the deadline had not passed yet, but in light of the fact the officer had put in writing that I should have had it done over two weeks ago they would email him. Approved two days later This was one of only two variations from May still outstanding. The average time to approve a variation is 3-5 weeks. With a promised expedited time due to the Council's previous hopeless efforts it took 8 weeks! I will be drafting a formal complaint now it has been approved.

OK, I have one upped myself. I give you.... The invisible induction hob. This I like.

Sadly I don't know what kit he used and would just resort to Google. Some useful information here https://guildofglasspolishers.co.uk/truth-about-d-i-y-glass-polishing-kits/ My daughter's friend scratched one of our TVs and I managed to buff it out using a magic sponge, you might try that first. People recommend all sorts of abrasives on line such as Brasso and toothpaste and T-Cut. I did get a headlight refurbishing kit, which used some kind of abrasive paste, a few years ago from Amazon to fix my brother's yellowing car headlights and was amazed how well it worked.

It may be that you can polish out the last of it. When we had minor scratches in ou windows, the builder used a glass polishing kit to fix it, might work in this case if it has embedded itself into the glass.

Quite a few Scope's came up, but once I put in King's Lynn I got Scopejoinery which seems to just be a handmade furniture maker

As people say you could maybe kit out the utility room as a temp kitchen while you think about things. Realistically if you order a kitchen you might need to wait quite a few weeks for delivery anyway. We have an expensive kitchen from a fancy showroom and I feel that I am being fleeced by their prices. But they have done two kitchens for us and both times it has gone like clockwork and they have finished the whole job inside a week so I feel it is worth it. However, kitchen cabinets seem very much of a muchness to me, they are all basically 16mm laminated chipboard plus doors. There might be small differences such as the thickness of the back panels etc, but the basics are pretty much the same. I think the quality of the installation has much more of an effect that the brand of the cabinets, so if you think the carpenter would do a good job then I would go with that. I looked up Scope. I would imagine they are expensive and only for people who want a certain look. For me being "hand made" is not an advantage, but you might like that style. I would just look around at kitchens and find a style you like then price it up from various places such as Wren and get a deal you are comfortable with and your carpenter is happy to fit. As to the fridge freezer, I have been in the same boat, a lot of freezers are too small and also awkward to get large items into like a turkey. We historically have tended to have hardly anything in the fridge as we shop regularly and as much in the freezer. Having had two American fridge freezer we have moved to a separate fridge and freezer both 600mm wide, But tbh I think it was more a style choice as they could be built in and I fancied a change. As someone mentioned there might be only two of you, but how often do you have visitors, my wife's American family overload the fridge when they come. A small point is that the running cost is pretty much proportional to the size. So a standard fridge freezer might cost around £40 a year to run, an American one will be more like £60. I wouldn't really let running cost drive the decision though. The pandemic has really changed how we shop and store food. We have taken to freezing way more stuff such as bread and ingredients. It has slashed our food wastage, but means there is now more stuff in the freezer and less in the fridge. Really it depends on your shopping patterns and how you want the kitchen to look.

Siemens do a 60cm combo oven and microwave now. We have two of them and basically use one as the microwave and one as an oven but it gives a lot more flexibility. For some reason we have had a few small power cuts recently and it’s the only time I have wished the ovens were Wi-Fi connected.

There was an article in the papers yesterday about sourdough bread being too big for toasters. The fact that this is not a problem as almost every house in the country has an oven with a grill that can also make toast seemed to be missed.

I used all five rings on the hob for the first time ever the other day. Felt like Gordon Ramsay

I think it is very easy to buy kitchen equipment just for show and then not use it. I fancied four ovens because it looks good and see this a lot in houses but in reality couldn’t imagine ever needing four ovens so we have two. The kitchen company originally designed our kitchen with Gaggenau built in fridge and freezer at around £6k each. I changed to much more standard ones at about £1k each, still not cheap. We are of course all guilty of buying things we don’t need because we fancy them and everyone is entitled to spend their own money as they see fit. As long as this is the case these very helpful companies will come up with lovely looking things for us to spend our money on.