newhome

Not quite the same but we bought the plot here from a small developer who had put the foundations in, couldn’t sell the house he had built next door so sold the plot to us. He later went bankrupt I understand. Had we known we may have pushed for a better price on the plot but the OH was so desperate to buy it we overpaid a little I believe.

Yes I would agree with that statement at the present time however when we started our build in 2009 the housing market had just collapsed and builders were trying to get every job they could, so prices were competitive. The state of the housing market can thus influence costs too.

Ah well I think most people would include everything apart from the plot in the per m2 price. My build including those things came in at 760 m2 including a detached garage that I didn’t include in the square meterage. Mine started in 2009 however so a while ago.

Bidonville has the last laugh with the plot prices tho! From pauper to princess in 20 years!

You sayin I ain’t posh?

There are a lot of costs that don’t actually go into the fabric of the house, eg planning permission, building warrant, connection of services, warranty, insurance, scaffold and plant hire, architect and structural engineer fees. Those can add up to quite a significant amount before you even lay one brick.

BT still don’t have my address in their postcode lookup and I’ve had an account with them here for 9 years!

Depends what standards you are building to and the choice of fittings etc. If you choose to fit everything as cheaply as possible and build to minimum insulation standards etc then the costs will be lower, but most people don’t want the cheapest of everything even if they choose budget items in some areas. I think there are economies of scale too, ie a 300 m2 house doesn’t cost twice as much as a 150 m2 one.

Did you have a look at guidance from other local authorities? I saw this for South Downs for example. I’m not suggesting that every interpretation is correct as it may not be, but it will help your case with VOA if you read some examples and understand how your conversion may meet the criteria noted. Croydon’s guidance / interpretation seems particularly poor in comparison to guidance elsewhere to be honest. WOULD CIL BE CHARGEABLE ON A CONVERSION (E.G. BARN OR GARAGE CONVERSION)? A conversion could be CIL liable unless it can be demonstrated that the building to be converted passes the ‘In Use’ Test. In order for it to pass the Test, evidence of its lawful use, for a period of at least six months without a break in the past three years (the three year period ending on the day planning permission first permits the development), needs to be provided. Evidence may include time-stamped photographs showing the building in lawful use; sworn statements witnessed by a solicitor, of people who can confirm the use claimed; tenancy agreements and utility or other bills relating to the use claimed. Business Rates or Council Tax bills will only be accepted as evidence of lawful use where it is accompanied by an additional form of evidence. If the building to be converted has not been in lawful use then the floor space will not be offset from the CIL liability. Some guidance in this link too, and many others: https://www.roythorne.co.uk/site/blog/development_and_planning/community-infrastructure-levy-and-rural-developments

That photo was from an utter shitfest of a gshp installation. Makes my heating ‘installation’ seem almost normal! https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=207&t=1095847

Ah yes, I have experience of camming out. I just googled so now I know what it is (after the first attempt autocorrected to coming out and took me to LGBT sites lol). It happens all the time to me. I can even manage it with a manual screwdriver in my attempt to ensure that it’s screwed in enough. The drill ones are more difficult as you’ve got the weight of the drill to contend with as well as trying to get the screw in straight. I always find that it wobbles around madly until it catches, and then it sometimes doesn’t go in straight. All things that you do without thinking if you’re experienced I’m sure. I can do flatpack furniture mostly, assuming you don’t need another pair of hands to hold the bits up. A to Z instructions and youtube generally works for me. I prefer bolts to screws as they seem easier since there is something on the other end to hold it together rather than relying on creating the hold with a screw into wood for example. I haven’t heard of sex bolts but I find cam bolts / locks clever little things. At least with bolts you can take them out and try again having not wrecked the wood along the way. My only task in assembling any flat pack stuff in the past was to sort all the fittings into piles of the different types, plus read the instructions as the OH invariably didn’t bother with those and went straight to assembly. I never attempt to assemble anything unless I’ve read all of the instructions at least twice, checked that I have all the bits, and watched YouTube videos lol.

You’d be wearing the iron rather than clothes here!

You were too slow! Maybe you could find a better price for Dave or maybe they stopped selling so many when this happened

Well I'm not keeping it here forever. There is more than enough junk here as it is. What I don't get though is years ago when you went to the tip there used to be people who would swarm round your car looking to see if you had anything useful they might want. Things were taken and less went into landfill. Nowadays there are people at the tip to actively prevent people from taking anything useful so that it all goes to landfill pretty much. Go figure!

Oooh I know what those are cos when the meters were boxed in and I needed to remove the boxing I'd tried every size of phillips screwdriver under the sun to try to get the screws out with no joy. Sent a photo of the screw to my brother in the end (before I knew this was such a friendly group ) to find out what I needed and he informed me that they were torx screws and no phillips screwdriver in the world would remove them. Bought the right torx screwdriver AND used the drill for the first time and they came out sweet as a nut. Epic!

Ha ha - I'm with your Mrs tbh! I wrecked one of the decent screwdrivers the other day taking the top off a paint tin . The last time I needed to make holes in the bottom of planters I wasn't sure how to use a drill (didn't think about hammering in a screwdriver!) so I burnt holes in the bottom with a butane gas lighter. I could hear the OH calling from the grave saying WTF are you doing!! It worked though!

What the heck is that!! Caming out I mean. My money is on the wife . To be fair that's how it would have been in our house which is another reason that he didn't want me to touch anything. He would have 'suggested' something, I would have taken it as a criticism and then world war 3 would have ensued. For a quiet life we both agreed to do our own things. I did all of the organisational stuff, and he the more practical stuff. Now the practical stuff is down to me too so I have to get on with it if I can. To be honest one of the main difficulties I find is lifting or moving heavy things. Either he would do it or sometimes it was a 2 person job. Now it's just me I have all sorts of things on wheels to try to shift things but sometimes it's impossible. I've just about managed to suss out using a drill to screw things in. Badly I'm sure but I can just about do it. I have no idea what drill bits to use for anything so it's all trial and error. Can't tell a masonry drill bit from a wood drill bit. I've fecked a good few up already getting it wrong lol.

You’re all heart @Onoff

What are the benefits of external blinds over internal blackout blinds (apart from the dubious benefit of seeming to be much more expensive)?

Make sure it covers personal accident / loss of limbs then

My scaffolders were criminals!!

Handbags or bolt cutters? Never in a million years did I think my life would change so dramatically!

You can still proceed to a hearing if the mediation doesn’t work out I believe. The court may prefer it if you have if have tried to work things out using the service.

Ha ha, I knew you’d say that about the price. On you go re finding it cheaper

This? https://lp-varaosaksi.fi/Expansion-tank-45-l