newhome

Is this what you mean? This was mine going into the timber frame and quoins in front. It’s not quite finished In the second photo but we had to have a disabled ramp put there and the paving bridges the gap I think you’re meaning. Plus there is a very thin threshold drain between the paving and the door.

I put a cross by the items that I didn’t include and added a total to the bottom of the invoice with those items excluded. I didn’t want to strike a line through the invoice in case I wanted to copy it later or whatever. I claimed for pedestrian gates as I counted them as ‘boundary’ so I would include a main gate. It’s surely just the electric motors you can’t include as most gates can be automated? My claim (sent Feb) hasn’t been processed yet though so I can’t say whether the approach has been successful or not yet.

Although there are other issues at play there that can’t be addressed by simply finding someone a place to live. Mental health issues for one.

I think there should be exceptions dependent on the size of the ground floor and the target market. So what would traditionally be a starter home could be exempt because the risk that accessibility may be needed in those properties is less than homes targeted at the retirement sector for example. I don’t know why absolutely everything has to be on a one size fits all basis.

Ah well it’s good to know that. It was difficult for us here when faced with 2 or 3 quotes as we were new to the area and managed all the requests for quotes ourselves and we didn’t know anyone (didn’t have an architect as it was beyond that stage when we bought the plot). It was very tempting to always choose the cheapest quote but sometimes it was counterproductive.

?? I’d take the pigeons over that! Ugh.

I guess people want to live near their friends and family for the most part. It didn’t bother me when I moved up with my husband but now that I’m on my own I will return to the SE once I retire. I do love the fact that there are far fewer people up here however and I know that my downsized property is likely to cost more than this relatively large one, but I can’t envisage staying here on my own forever. Different if you have family around you.

I think one of the issues is the one size fits all approach to building regs so every new build home must have a downstairs cloakroom that can fit a wheelchair in. That means that some starter homes have a downstairs loo almost the same size as their kitchen. The first home I bought was pretty tiny with a small living room and a kitchen downstairs and a very small bathroom and 2 beds (1 single, 1 double) upstairs. If it needed an accessible cloakroom to be added that would have been the living room pretty much gone leaving a kitchen come living room I guess. If you ask millennials if they would rather have a separate living room than a large downstairs loo I imagine the majority would say yes. It’s not that I don’t see a need for accessible houses, but there are many issues with affordability of housing today and some of the building regs do nothing to help address this.

You can track prices here (scroll down to the graph). Would seem to be pretty consistent at this sort of price. https://pricespy.co.uk/home-garden/white-goods/fridges-freezers/fridge-freezers/logik-lsbsdx17-stainless-steel--p4523005

Ha ha - I is a laydee and don't use that word!

Well hell, you’re a country mile ahead of me. I can’t build or cook

So here is the i in team. Post ‘approved’ by @Nickfromwales

Go on, you know you want to! I'm still thinking of the mug someone has at work about the I in team ......

Not that I know ANYTHING about Mitre Saws (or any other type of saws actually) but I saw this posted somewhere else: I can confirm this is a red coloured Scheppach HM80MP.The stand is a red coloured Scheppach UMF1600.

Is that the word 'faster' you've chopped off?

I can't help with the man hours etc but with a huge amount of hindsight here where the plumbing and heating is concerned I've learned that possibly more important than pure cost is that the person you use has a solid reputation and the job is done right both in the technical sense as well as the finish. I note that you appear to have immediately rejected the larger of the 2 quotes. I think you said that you had IT project management experience so if you were faced with 2 quotes at work I doubt you would immediately reject the larger one, you would set about understanding why they were different before doing so. Often the devil is in the detail so a bit of investigation can uncover assumptions made in a quote that you will need to validate before accepting it. The quote seems very scant too with little detail. I would want a more detailed Statement of Work with full clarity around the work to be done and milestones etc. even if I had to draw it up myself. Maybe you have that already and it's just the summary you have pasted here? So what are the makes and models of the things they are supplying for example or were they noted in the tender information? I would still want them present in the quote for the avoidance of doubt. For info a plumber I had out here charged £35 a hour (although Nick says he was a cock ) so I think your £40 a hour figure is in the right ballpark. I think I had about 7 plumbers out here in all during the build and my attempts to get the heating working, and some were most definitely better than others, so do ensure that your man is the right one for the job! Do you know either of the plumbers? Do they have reference sites for you to look at? Do you know any plumbers yourself who would be a known quantity who you could ask?

Would they allow a halfway house? So leave the WC door off @Temp‘s design making it a single room but with the WC separated by a bit of wall. Then once signed off you could stick a door on afterwards if wanted?

I think they were knobs not to double check everything with you personally, especially as they are supposed to be the experts and customers will have a massive range of knowledge from none to expert. Plus everyone will use different language to describe things if it's not totally clear. Ultimately however it will come down to what the judge thinks so make sure you have a well worded claim and a compelling argument. You don't buy a pair of trousers with a leg measurement from waist to floor for example, the leg measurement is clearly noted as 'inside leg' leaving little room for misinterpretation. Maybe you could open an enquiry with another supplier with 'my openings are XX, can you please provide a quote' and see what you get back from a different supplier? Might strengthen your case if they interpret your words as you expect them to, and good to be able to cite that example in your claim if it proves to be the case.

Yes, local price variation is what’s important not a generalised percentage.

Just up the road from me. @Nickfromwales you could have gone to visit while you were up!

Good luck Christine! Sounds like you are old hands at this! Might you consider starting a blog on here to put some photos up so that we can all see how you're getting on?

We went for one a bit further away as we wanted quite a large kitchen island and the more local one couldn't seem to supply that size in 1 piece, plus they were a bit more expensive and had less options to choose from. Both places were still cheaper than the kitchen places. Mine is actually quartz rather than granite. It took 4 blokes to lift the island though!

Bought my granite from an independent specialist and there was a better choice and it was less expensive than the kitchen supplier. The kitchen supplier would also only supply it if we had their guys to fit the whole kitchen and my hubby did all of that so we didn’t need them.

My mother has a Magnet kitchen. It wasn’t worth the cash in my view. It certainly hasn’t aged well.

With link to help find it (2 can play this game) About 80 miles from me in fact