AliG

There are 3 outstanding warrants, 2 from 2008 the extension and a larger conservatory and 1 from 2012, the kitchen. There was a 4th one for a new set of doors which was signed off straight away. I think you can apply for indemnity if there was no warrant ever applied for not sure if you can do the same if warrant was applied for but completion never received. I would rather get all fixed though as that will mean definitely no issue selling the house. My solicitor insisted that I had to have all the warrant drawings to go with the deeds of the house. I didn't know that was necessary. I just got them from the council. This is the first house I have ever had work done on, I didn't't really know what was involved at the time. I just thought that the builders got the completions when they were done. You live and learn.

I have sold my existing house, but none of the people who have previously done work on the house ever got the completions signed off. I am on Scottish regs. A couple of years ago BC came out and gave me a list of things to do. I had all of them done, but then when I called them out again recently a different person came and started asking more questions. I really need to get these things done in the next 4-6 weeks, we are supposed to complete on the sale on December 8th. I actually applied for the completions in April, but somehow the BC department lost the applications done over the internet and they didn't come until last month. Now they say they are waiting for the person who inspected the original work coming back from holiday to see what they say before they will issue the list of things needing done, they aren't exactly the easiest people to get hold of. The issues I think are. 1. Missing SVP - The drawings show a SVP terminating above the roof. They also show a Durgo AAV in an upstairs WC. connected to the same line. BC asked where the SVP was, is an AAV enough, or does every line need a SVP. There have been no issues with the drainage. 2. I had some work done on the kitchen that needed BC sign off. This meant I had to upgrade the smoke alarms from when the house was built. The alarm company have fitted a smoke alarm. BC asked for the spec, I am thinking it maybe has to be a heat detector? 3. The games room drawings show two smoke detectors, but only one has been fitted. I cannot find anything in the regs that would suggest I need two. 4. There is a downpipes that goes through the garage it enters the front wall of the extension goes through the garage then exits the side wall before going down to ground level. I am sure it was agreed to by BC at the time and the previous inspector said nothing but the new inspector has brought it up again. She said that she wasn't sure if it was allowed. 5. Loose banister - I have tightened it up by, not clear how solid it needs to be. I think the main issue is number 1, I can always get new detectors added. If they change their mind on the downpipes there is no where else to put it except across the front of the house which would not be great. Thanks for any help

I'd want a block plan showing the area of the houses and the area of the land and the recommended area. I wouldn't be surprised if they were misstated to make it seem like the house uses less of the land than they do. I think this kind of plan is necessary. You might want to compare the area to what was shown in the sales particulars. The parking plan and the block plan are different. I think the parking plan needs the distance to the pavement on it, I would not be surprised if parked cars in front of the houses overhang the pavement. I would think there is a 6m minimum or something like that. The height needs to be shown. I would also want to see this in context of the other houses at either side. I was asked for the first and second thing by planning for my house.

I looked at the Starck rimless on Megabad when I was ordering my WCs. In the end I didn't go that way as I thought they looked a bit odd, it looks like they have a rim at the back but not the front. The Villeroy and Boch ones look exactly the same. They promote that they are easier to clean. I really don't think that toilets needs cleaned right up under the rim. I am not aware of toilet rims ever causing a problem in the long history of their existence. So I think it really just comes down to personal preference. Maybe they flush better by swirling the water around faster. Again I don't find any issues with current toilets so went with what I thought looked better.

I have lived in a string of timber frame houses both whilst with my parents and now on my own. They pretty much all had cracks like this, some worse than others. They simply need filled and painted over. When you say they are due to "settlement" do you mean that the builders say they are nothing to worry about but they will fix them or they won't fix them as settlement isn't their problem? Shrinkage cracks is probably a more correct term. Unfortunately different builders have very different interpretations of what they need to fix after you have paid them, some use the "pound coin rule" i.e. they will only fix a crack wide enough to get a pound coin into and will refuse to fix this kind of cracking. You could quite rightly argue that it is due to the plasterboard not being fitted in accordance with the manufacturers recommendations. The reality is that all the houses I have lived in which have been built by developers have had the plasterboard installed exactly like that. More of this kind of cracking will almost certainly appear again after two years. I try and fill them when I am redecorating but it is an annoying fiddly job. They often open straight back up which might be a reflection of my decorating skills.

Totally misread it, I thought you had somehow lost the trim. This appears to fit http://ao.com/product/uim600-newworld-microwave-stainless-steel-26817-50.aspx Also in order of price, the last one is a Bosch combi which is nice but more expensive. http://www.cameokitchens.co.uk/product.php/24061/aeg_mbe2658sb http://www.cameokitchens.co.uk/product.php/24062/aeg_mbe2658sm http://www.cameokitchens.co.uk/product.php/24059/aeg_mbe2658dm http://www.cameokitchens.co.uk/product.php/21603/bosch_hbc84h501b

It's not the one with the black sides, but here is a stainless steel Lamona trim http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Integrated-Microwave-Frame-Kit-Lamona-/142519546723 As an aside to @ProDave's question, Siemens now do full size ovens with a built in microwave, we have gone for two of these rather than a full size oven and smaller microwave. They aren't cheap though! Luckily our kitchen supplier had some of last year's model at a much lower price. http://www.cameokitchens.co.uk/product.php/21774/siemens_hm678g4s6b

I just cut a hole in a plasterboard wall to find out what is behind it and it is narrower than the vertical gap between the two sheets in the corner picture. They don't look flush either?

According to data from the ONS government productivity is flat over the last 20 years whilst private is higher, although less good recently. However private must have been doing even better if you were to subtract public from the numbers. To be fair productivity is a very hard thing to measure, it is really just the remainder in nominal GDP calculations. If you take away population growth and adjust for imports and exports then what is left is productivity. A few things have hurt productivity recently. The recession in 08/09 as well as the recent drop in North Sea oil output which has quite a disproportionate effect on GDP. I think the other recent effect is the creation of large numbers of minimum wage jobs such as cleaners and sandwich shops. IF people made their own sandwiches and did their own cleaning it would not be captured in GDP and productivity would appear to go up.

Productivity growth is down, not actual productivity, and it true that some countries have better productivity than us. Trying to do some DIY, so don't have time to address all points. I totally agree that some services have to be paid for by the government. There American attitude to healthcare is nonsense. When you consider what doctors get paid then people on low wages simply cannot afford to pay healthcare out of their own pocket. Further I don't feel that people should be penalised for being unlucky and getting sick. For example if you get cancer the government pays your healthcare, but if you get dementia they don't, this doesn't make a lot of sense. However, when you consider for example the efficiencies that have been gained in dealing with many service companies such as insurance where everything is done over the internet, I am sure there is a lot of opportunity to modernise the provision of government services and do more with less money. Patient records should be digital for example. Part of the problem is of course ever increasing demand along with ever changing priorities which make it difficult to make long term plans for improvement. Regulation is definitely necessary for naturally monopolistic industries such as utilities and railways as it would be economically crazy to build competing systems, this does not however, mean that they should be run by the government. This seems to have worked well with many utilities such as telecom. It seems that no one can run the railways well, although usage has massively increased so something must be working.

@MikeSharp01 yes those adjustments would make some sense. But these start to become a planning value uplift tax, something I would be in favour of as it would encourage land to be released for building as the council would get more money. Your amendments would also discourage land banking. The problem is that all these points are brought up by the proponents of LVT, but the reality is that when they run the numbers, people in council tax bands F, G amd H end up paying massively more. It should be remembered that these people already pay massively more towards council services via the central government grant which makes up most of local government revenues. I do worry that under these systems where a few people more and more disproportionately pay for government services then the incentive to run them efficiently all but disappears as most people who vote don't actually contribute towards what they are voting to be spent. Industry has become massively more efficient over recent years and adept with doing ever more for less. The one industry that seems to be immune from this is government. They seems to require ever more money and people to provide ever less service.

When I was in the supermarket this morning I saw a headline about LVT and decided to start looking into it. This seems to be an increasingly popular suggestion from some people and is particularly gaining traction in Scotland. There are positives, it might encourage development and would be hard to avoid, but reading between the lines the proponents to me seem to really be pushing for a wealth tax and an almost communist policy designed to make land worthless. We do need encouragement for houses to be built and this would bring land values down gradually over time which is a much more sensible way of doing things than an overnight shock which would have all kinds of consequences, clearly billions of pounds have been loaned against current land values. I am not convinced a LVT would help building. It seems to me that the main impediment against building is that local politicians are scared of voting in favour of building. Hence planning committee decisions are often over ridden by central government. Often they have no basis under planning rules. Changing the planning process would be the best way to improve housing supply. It should not be politically affected. There is a notion that a LVT helps to stop tax avoiding. To be honest I don't know how much tax avoidance goes on. Certainly as far as I see I earn money, it gets reported and I pay tax. In general tax avoidance seems to be more involved with self employment rather than high earnings. I have a friend who is a self employed IT contractor who paid himself via employee benefit trusts and paid no income tax at all for a few years until it was cracked down on. I am also a believer that incomes should be taxed less and assets more to encourage work which adds value. But I don't see the proponents of the LVT suggesting a flat income tax at the same time. CGT is much less than Income tax which I believe is odd. A LVT in conjunction with lower income tax might make sense as it would improve tax compliance. Considering that this tax seems to just be proposed in isolation it appears to me at least that it is politically motivated.

Yes, I asked the builder about being in early as we don't mind living in a couple of rooms whilst they finish off. He said that the problem was the paths needed to be finished to get a temporary habitation certificate.

I have a contract, but it has never been signed by me or the main contractor. Implicitly we have agreed to it by working on the house. I have this kind of contract, effectively it works out as a cost plus contract. The builder estimates what things will cost at the start, but this varies if things cost more as you go along. It is very difficult to price up fro architects plans, unless you wait and get all the structural engineer input. Even then issues arrive during construction. For example I have way more steel than expected in the house when we started which is by far the largest cost variation. With this kind of contract there's a good chance that the house ends up costing 5-10% more than expected due to changes and unexpected costs. I am sitting at just over 10%, but I have a block built house on site, a timber frame house would be a lot less likely to have variations. The builder bills me monthly and gives details on any variations, waiting until the end would be crazy. To save money I have found the best thing to do is go through the estimate and make sure it all makes sense, effectively you become your own QS. For example the initial price for screed in my house was very high so I asked him to get more quotes. I also changed the spec of insulation from PIR to 400mm of glass wool which was much cheaper. You will find that the builder just orders everything up from the local merchant and as a cost plus contract he just wants the easiest place to get them, not the cheapest.

Lots of progress, we are aiming to be in on December the 8th. The people who are buying our house have asked to be in sooner, I just don't see that being possible unless we move into a hotel or rent a place for a couple of weeks. I think almost all the decisions on the house are made so my stress levels are falling. Main stress now is getting completion certificates for an extension on our current house in time for the sale. The builder never got final completion and a couple of things need to be done. The lounge is almost done, just the fire to go in. Stonework has to go in around the widows, must make sure the builders put the insulation in first. Some of the upstairs bedrooms are basically done and plastered. Loving the upstairs hall, it almost feels like you are standing outside. First couple of bathrooms being fitted out. Hall from the other side. My daughter's bedroom has been plastered now. Shower frame. Rest of bathroom framing. Zinc roof going on above the hall.

I don't know about WBS but where I work in London the traffic has come to a standstill since they installed the cycle highway. You can almost taste the air, it is absolutely disgusting to spend time outside. I live in the area and worry what it is doing to my lungs, I have to constantly clean the window ledges which get covered in a fine black dust. Roll on EVs for London basically. I think changing taxis to be EVs will make a big difference as they make up an enormous proportion of central London traffic. At least Uber's are mainly Prii(apparently that's the plural)

I think you've done an excellent job on the interior layout. A few minor suggestions, . 1. The space between walking into the en suite is a bit narrow. It might be better with the WC and sink swapped around. 2. As drawn the space to get into the walk in wardrobe is also very narrow. Personally I aim for never walking through a width of less than 1m if possible. 3. As mentioned you might want a hall cupboard. I would maybe make the wall end before the last stair to give you a wider hall. also remove the wall jutting out into the kitchen at the other side of the stairs. You could make the cupboard at the utility room a hall cupboard, the distance from the bottom of the stairs to the utility is the same to both doors at the moment and you have a lot of conflicting doors there at the moment. 4. If you made the garage very slightly wider and made the door wide it would turn into a double for little extra cost. Obviously depends on how much space you have. People have mentioned the orientation. A view is nice, but I currently have an east facing kitchen and hate how dark it is after 12. Can you see the view from the ground floor? If you don't want to rearrange the whole ground floor I would maybe consider swapping around the living room and study so at least you have a roomy can sit in at a different time of day and get some sun.

Hard to say about dormers without knowing the roof pitch. The lower the pitch, the less the roof will intrude. Bedroom 2 and 3 are large enough that they can probably take a lower height area, in bedroom 1 it looked like it would really intrude. Not sure from a design perspective it would look great to have lots of dormers.

Corner window might be good for views, I hear that they are mighty expensive though especially as it may cause structural issues. Changes make sense, was I right that the headroom was going to be very low in the bedroom, are you adding a dormer to fix that? I wouldn't put wardrobes between bed 2 and 3 as it pushes the main room area to be under the lower height area. I'd put them at the side, especially in the smaller bedroom 3, I or even put them under the lower height ceiling, although it may be too low for this. It depends on the roof pitch.

A few simple suggestions. 1. Lose the vestibule It is too small to be of any use, we have a larger one currently and still stand in the hall whilst people walk through. I have done away with it in the new place. Without the vestibule you will have a much larger and more pleasant area in front of the stairs. 2. Could you put the washing machine in the hot press? Depends on if you like to hang washing outside, but if you use a dryer, then keeping all the washing upstairs is a lot easier. 3. I would always rather have fitted wardrobes in bedrooms if possible. 4. What was the architect thinking with the chimney up the middle of the wall in the bedroom. Does the lounge really need such a big fireplace taking up a lot of room. If it does I would try to route the flue out the wall, not up the way. Decide what fire you want before you start, it has been a nightmare trying to get fires to fit with all the flue requirements. 5. As mentioned try to get larger walk in showers without doors. 6. Move the door into the kitchen/dining room behind the stairs. Walking in facing the island so close to the door will feel quite unpleasant and will be bad for circulation. It's better to enter the middle of the room with the option of going right or left. The dining area will also probably be the quietest least used area so better to walk into. You could then have a straight stair and wider hall. 7. Turn around the WC and enter from the hall. You can then lose the rear hall and incorporate it into the utility room. 8. There are currently no cupboards downstairs, there will be space if you lose the rear hall and rearrange that area. 9. Put cistern and pipework under the eaves in the upstairs shower room. 10. How low exactly do the walls go in the bedrooms? If that roof slopes at 45 degrees in the master bedroom then you will end up at floor level at the end of the room. You might have to cut a metre off the room. I would not really want to end up much lower than 1.2/1,3m at the side wall. That room might be much smaller than it looks. Even the other bedrooms may have an issue.

I too am at this stage, just about to order up the flooring. Most wooden floors I walk on in new apartments have a slight spring to them which I assume means they are floating over a small thickness of foam insulation. I quite like the way this feels, maybe it is just personal preference. I spoke to a flooring company and they said they would stick the floor down and I spoke to the builder and he said that he would float it. I think that people historically preferred to bond it due to concern about lack of heat transfer but as has been said I wouldn't;t worry about that in a well insulated house with low flow temperatures, so maybe it is just personal preference now.

YEs, but I would do the same. I doubt people will notice much more than it is a nice hob and it's too late once they get there. I would consider one with a frame so that some idiot doesn't drop something the edge and break the glass. Guy across the road has been airbnbing his house for a year. It looks to me like he is getting an enormous return on its value, but he just told my wife he will probably sell it as people are destroying it. One thing he noted is that people seem to think towel rails are actually hand holds. Perhaps an idea to anchor them to the walls like they are

That probably describes me except I think I am a lot more positive. Nothing gives me more joy in life than helping people. You can't take it with you and we're all going to die eventually. Once you accept those things there's a lot less to worry about. I notice a lot of the guys on here seem to be retired and have a lot of time to help people out, I am sure they really enjoy it. The media has a lot to answer for, they seem to have taken the view that misery sells and scaring people gets clicks. Politics has also taken the same tack, scaring people into voting for you. I wish someone would come out with a positive upbeat view of the future. In fact I will. Despite what people say and the move to measure everything relative to what everyone else has.. People have never been richer, had a higher standard of living, lived longer or had more opportunities than they have today. Perhaps someone needs to point that out.

Yes stuff is never as important as it seems at the time, and things can nearly always get fixed. I have a lot more perspective as I get older. Although in fairness often fixing things costs money and I can see that it would be enormously stressful if you don't have the funds to get things done. I am very fortunate not to have to worry about that, yet it doesn't stop things being stressful. I always think of the guy on Grand Designs who built the house where the roof was an upside down wing. He was so clearly making himself ill, I really feared for him.

One thing I have found is that things often take way longer than realised, especially when dealing with other people. You need a schedule of what work needs done when and then another schedule of when each decision has to be made regarding the work and when quotes have to be requested and orders made. A lot of items need at least 3 months notice, so you can find yourself having to make snap decisions on things that you thought were months away or scrambling around to find someone who can do a job next week and not charge an arm and a leg for it.