newhome

+1. That’s a pretty nice house to bulldoze!

Ah yes, I would only gather things I thought might be edible from photos and had a decent ‘kitchen’ rating. I’m not going to try things that taste rank, edible or not! I remember going to Bedgebury Pinetum on a field trip during A levels years ago. The different types of fungi in the pinetum was astounding. Earthstars were my best find. Pretty unusual. Not seen any since. I think these days there is a no picking policy there, but when I was at school (more than a few moons ago ?) we took a bus load of it back to school.

Right, I’m going to gather some when I next see some (don’t see many on the beach!) and post them on this thread for yay or nae. Just have to hope I haven’t upset anyone enough to walk into a death trap ? ?.

I’m surprised you’re not into all that @Onoff being from ‘up the valley’. Thought you would know your horse mushrooms from your death caps! Or is it all just magic up there? ?

We used to go early in the morning at weekends when I was a kid. There are a couple of fields on the right as you drive through Otford that were full of them. Still alive to tell the tale but I’ve never been confident enough to randomly do it myself since. Be my luck to choose something deadly!

When you say you spoke to a few builders what type of houses have they been building with it? It doesn’t sound like something that mainstream builders would be using so building for individual clients maybe? Being an early adopter of a technology or product is always a bit of a gamble so I can understand the need to do full due diligence especially when there’s a house involved! Where do you stand with the product in terms of getting a mortgage, warranty, insurance? Not necessarily for you but if you decide to sell?

Thanks! There is a thread on here that mentions Velox once but the member who posted the comment doesn’t appear to have been on for a while @JimG.

We’ve had a few spammers on here hence the nervousness if someone mentions a company in their first post. If you’re legit then all good ?. Any plans? We all love a good plan on here to bring it to life. We have a few ICF builders on here although I’m not sure if any have used or considered Velox.

Welcome to BuildHub @Tim Alsop. Have you started your build yet or just at the planning stages?

I’ve always fancied having a go but like @Tennentslager have been put off by the fear of death!

Love that part of the country! Welcome to BuildHub.

Know that feeling well! Builder capitalised on providing quotes that were too vague alongside our naivety.

Maybe they could skip the 20 pages on the motorised shower head to speed things up a bit

One of the things that caught us out was what was included in each quote. For example, erection of timber frame kit. They were given the materials list and then supplied the quote. When it came to the sarking it was ‘not included guv’ even though it was in the list so we paid extra. So a detailed quote is really needed to catch everything, but builders tend to be pretty bad at this and self builders without experience don’t know it should be there in the first place so things get missed. Add to that the things you miss from your original estimate, the things you pay more for as ‘a little bit extra won’t hurt’, and the materials that cost more for a variety of reasons when you come to buy them, and all of that squeezes the budget. Then there are things you have to replace. Here it was a custom made cill as someone smashed one. The cost of having another one made and transported here was way out of proportion relative to the main order. Other people have broken windows, ordered windows that didn’t fit, smashed their new hob etc etc and that all adds to the cost. Plus the optimistic ‘I’ll be done in 9 months’ and then you are not and have to secure an extension to the site insurance that costs way more than if you had just added a bit extra to begin with. I did alter the spend on the kitchen and bathrooms to suit what was left in the budget so did land on budget as I economised in those areas. Do I regret it? Kitchen not really, bathrooms I wish I had spent more on so cost control is important but decide wisely.

Don’t give up! She went away knowing that you had done some research and wasn’t going to be put off by her pessimistic view. You really have to be resilient as there will be several knock backs and disappointments I’m sure. Keep your eye on the end goal and work towards it.

Ours were really fussy about fenestration (we added a window to balance the look). We also wanted a bigger window in the front and they told us that it would need a whole new planning application so we left that as we didn’t want to start from scratch.

The next generation of cold callers .... https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/how-to-complain-about-being-misled-by-a-solar-panel-sales-pitch https://mis-sold-solar.co.uk/?gclid=CjwKCAjwmJbeBRBCEiwAAY4VVTqL7NsZ4fLAv96uuEzgD9QPTqzDYmf6rQv1jJ6DSWnOoLSvowGsFRoC48wQAvD_BwE

As above but in brief heating oil prices tend to mirror crude oil prices in general and if you could predict that accurately you may be able to retire ?

Just a note of caution in relation to the VAT reclaim. HMRC have refused reclaims where the build doesn’t tie in with the approved plans so ensure that what you have built matches what your PP says well before you send the VAT claim. People have obtained retrospective approvals for the changed PP but have still been refused the VAT reclaim as it has been decreed that the build wasn’t lawful at the point of submission. For the cases noted in the tribunal (these appeals failed) they were quite big variations in what was built but it’s best to bear this in mind so as not to give HMRC any chance to refuse the claim.

The mods won't care about your amp pics being on here. Not like you're in the building trade! They look great. Can see where you get the core skills from. That bottom photo tho! Looks like you lost it one day and went psycho with a sheet of PB!!

Have you now entered hell? Just as your bathroom looked to be starting to move into the final stages too! ?

Ha ha, well @Onoff has been advising so no wonder your OCD has become more extreme . I bought Mapei jasmine and Mapei beige to be used in different bathrooms to suit the tiles. I threw a hissy fit as they used the beige in the wrong bathroom while I was at work and now that they are all done you can't really tell the difference between the 2 anyway once it's in situ . The tap you hated initially . Ah well you can see that you have decent skills because you've made it all look fab despite not knowing how to tackle it. Let's see a pic of your day job stuff then. I bet that's super nice if you are paid to be doing that sort of work by hand.

Jasmine suits the look anyway I think and as you say once you have painted the doors cream it will blend right in. Pure white is a bitch to keep clean anyway so you’ve probably done yourself a favour.

It bloody passed that was all we were interested in ?. There is a limited space at the front to deal with such a gradient so it was what fitted the bill and also provided steps for those that didn’t need a ramp. TBH you would need to be seriously deranged to live in this house if you were in a wheelchair.

Wow, that looks great. Love the tile choice too. Goes really well with the worktop. It’s really starting to look good now. You must be pleased now that you’re on the home straight and your efforts are paying off.