newhome

That rules you out of being selected then! ?

Plenty available in Scotland http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/scotland/grants-loans

It was in a bedroom actually which is even weirder .... Stuff of nightmares!

Dead level. Why do you need an angle there? Water will just run down and collect at the back of the bath. It's not like the shower where the water would run onto the wet room floor (assuming that's the way you angled it).

Lol @Sue B is that the black and white footballers’ wives bedroom with the vanity unit? I can still recall how tasteful that was! You’re just looking at the tip of the iceberg with this thread. There is another epic one that started way before. Apparently there was also a previous thread on ebuild too! ?

The floor is done!

Depends if they’ve conveniently been running a separate company for the kitchen sales I guess. Sounds like @Weebles found several companies listed against the directors.

Something like this maybe if not square tiles. https://www.diy.com/departments/self-adhesive-natural-wood-effect-vinyl-plank-0-83m-pack/307355_BQ.prd

Maybe you could lay self adhesive tiles yourself @zoothorn? Straight on top of the existing lino?

If you put walls up in the snug could that be a study / bed 3? Mine is a 5 bed but we decided not to put the stud wall in to make bed 5. It’s an open plan upstairs seating area currently but has been designed so that a single stud wall and door opposite the family bathroom would make the 5th bedroom again.

Could you maybe contact the kitchen supplier direct and explain what has happened and see where they are in terms of providing your kitchen / if they’ve been paid anything and if your order can be transferred to another supplier of those kitchens? The guys who are no longer trading are just the middle man presumably (but sadly the ones with your cash).

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/somethings-gone-wrong-with-a-purchase/if-a-company-stops-trading-or-goes-out-of-business/

Future proofing is always a jolly good idea ?

Bath already christened! Shower, bog and basin are the choices left! Shower’s big enough for 2 though so a lovely @Onoff @pocster duo followed by the body dryer ?

The other thing to note is that the more trades you have one site at any one time the more complex it becomes to manage especially if one trade is dependent on another. If time is on your side you can mitigate that to a degree by building in some additional time at the end of each main task so that you aren't frantically trying to reschedule something as soon as something slips. You can still generally use that time to do some of the tasks that you intend to do yourself if it becomes available (assuming you will be getting hands on at any point). And a follow on trade with always blame the previous trade if something doesn't work out as envisaged. Goes with the territory, although that's not project planning per se. You can mitigate that to a degree by getting the follow on trade to attend to have a look before the previous trade disappears. Easier said than done though ...

+1 to the excel suggestion if it's just to track milestones. You can work out the critical path, add key milestones etc if you wish but having completed a build I can say that mine were less accurate than predicting the lottery numbers . There are too many variables and unquantifiables to make it really meaningful and you can't really learn from previous experience as this is a one off project for most. As long as it's used as a very rough guide that's probably the best you can hope for. A better idea is to work out the budget as accurately as you can and constantly check where you are against planned spend at any point. I suspect that for most people budget is a rather larger constraint than slippage against timeline.

I quite like the rustic look of the walls of the original house as it happens although that doesn't help you in terms of insulation. A dig up the floor affair like @Onoff has managed would seem to be the way forward although I dare say that there will be some blood, sweat and tears whilst that is going on, and you'll be pretty much living in the kitchen for a good while. Won't be an overnight job. As someone else suggests a small area to use as a trial to see what's underneath there would seem to be the first thing to do.

Sorry to hear this. How gutting for you . Don't suppose you paid any of it by credit card? That would afford you some protection. Failing that you will just join a long list of creditors I imagine sadly.

You can buy a cheap staircase from somewhere like Stairbox for circa 3 hundred quid so not sure where the 4k comes in although it would need to be fitted of course. For that money it would be MDF / ply so would need to be carpeted but they do real wood options too although that's clearly more expensive. A few people have bought them from there, @Hecateh for one. You would need to fill in the back of the staircase as it would be open but with your woodworking skills that shouldn't be too much hassle for you.

I think the floor dig / insulation plan is for the main living room rather than the kitchen (photos a few up from here) which is part of the original house (kitchen is an 80s extension). Not sure where that leaves insulating the walls of that room as @zoothorn seems to like the original rustic look both internally and externally (I think!).

Will give you a grand for them . Someone needs to keep on at them on Twitter. I had to stop when they asked me some technical questions that I clearly couldn't answer (ie did I have the @MyEnergiLtd edi, @PowerDiverter or Solic 200) but someone could pick up the mantle surely? What supposedly scientific company can quote figures of 90% and 50% and then say "please don't get hung up on the specific %ages"? Of course people are going to focus on quoted percentages as their heating solution depends on it. There's a heck of a difference between not accepting charge until 50% depleted (as per the manual) and accepting charge when "still nearly full" that they are now claiming is the case. Still nearly full is 90% plus in my view ... @JSHarris would you say that yours accepted charge when "still nearly full" before you added your switch on and off to the system?

Yep, and similarly for any purchases bought on a credit card. Time it right and it can be circa 2 months before you have to pay it off the card interest free.

It’s what we did for our build. I don’t see the benefit of using a non VAT registered builder for this TBH unless he is stacks cheaper. For one thing any discounts available to your proposed builder must surely be available to a VAT registered builder too and then you can get the VAT back on top of that discount. Worth asking for a couple more quotes and pricing up materials and comparing before you commit in truth.

Yes he would and you could reclaim the 5% for both labour and materials during the reclaim (assuming it's an eligible conversion). It's slightly different to the self build form. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/487887/VAT431C_form_and_notes.pdf

Bloody hell. Grout day approaches with frightning speed