Ralph

Yeah we opened up the cabinet carcass at the back for a 35mm x 550mm vent gap. There are units backing on to it as it's on an island but there's enough of a gap. The bottom is probably closer to the top of the drawer than I would like but I think it should be fine. The manual does say not to put anything light in the drawer like paper.

We just got our in the other night. The clips on our Samsung hob are spring clips so they just push out. We glued battens to the underside of the worktop on three sides but could not get one in at the back. There is slight movement back and forth but I think a thin bead of silicone will sort that. Moving the cutlery drawer worked a treat as well. One things I will say about cutting those Zenith worktops, the dust is hellish, really fine and you would not want to breath it in, smells like burnt sugar as well.

I went on Fiver and got this guy https://www.fiverr.com/tungduongarch to convert my plans to a 3D render for about £80, it was pretty good and very quick.

Thanks, I'll give them a try.

Is that basically getting an architect to sign off and paying of the liability insurance? We need a retrospective warranty and we're struggling to get anyone to quote. Buildsafe are taking months.

I can no longer be surprised at the half arsed approach to a lot of things in the building trade. One joiner told be the problem was that I'm on site seeing it progress rather than the finished house. "you don't want to see how the sausage is made" my response: "I would actually like to know it's a sausage and not a dog turd painted to look like a sausage"

Wow! I remember my dad used to give the bin men (scaffies) booze at Xmas. The understanding being that they would take away the odd large item throughout the year without any problems.

I think some of them are on their own for long periods and value some friendly chat which is nearly always pleasant. Our biggest problem at the moment is that no one is one site just now. They are always told to ring 1/2 an hour before they get there and someone will be there but they rarely do. This week I've had someone call me once they got there with no warning then complain that the "Cedral is F***ing heavy" and he could not wait 5 minutes. Another dumped our oven and hob on the driveway, no call, no warning. We only found out when we went round in they evening. Honestly, I think I would buy from John Lewis just because their delivery drivers are excellent. Still not going to tip them though.

I have two conduits that bring in the water and mains electricity cable, they come up through slab in the plant cupboard. The builder has used soil pipe to bring them up so there's a reasonable gap. They also seem to be quite deep so I'm not sure hosing in expanding foam will work. Any thoughts?

We have two towel rail style radiators, one has been converted to dual and I'm now thinking of converting the other to electric only. Is it a case of fitting an element and filling with water plus inhibitor? Someone has mentioned the need o fill it with oil which sounds like a pain in the hoop.

No blog but my missus does instagram @blackfoxbarn we're outside Edzell.

@Mike_scotlandI'm just about to organise my test, do you mind telling me who you used and how much it was?

Biggest general mistake is not trusting my gut. When you think someone is full of crap or outright lying you are probably right and you should act on it. I found it too easy to trust people to do the right thing and just hope.

It has taken months but we finally have the stair and balcony glass in place. Best of all it went in with no mishaps, chips or scratches. There is still lots to do but this was the main thing stopping us from moving.

After the 1st year we would get Google photo alerts, "1 year ago today" and it was good to see the progress. Now it almost feels mocking and we think, bloody hell the scaffolding came down a year ago. We're not too bad, we will be moving in at the end of April but it's taken 2.5 times longer than it was supposed to. My favourite is when someone tells me they built their own house as well and it was easy, when what they actually did was put down deposit with a developer, pick the kitchen, paint and sanitary ware from a catalogue and move in 6 months later.

If you want them stacked that works well and looks good. We are having a side by side layout.

We have ordered a built in main oven and a combi oven because we did not want a microwave sitting out and the double oven looks quite fancy. Then you realise the combi is shorter than the main oven but have no fear, your can also buy a warming drawer to make up the space for another £500!

Our builder was supposed to sort out the warranty as part of the contract, we found out after he went tits up that he was lying. We need the warranty for a mortgage so I'm waiting for a post completion warranty quote from Build Zone as we are just finishing off the build. The other thing I have read on here is you can get some sort of indemnity insurance that mortgage companies will take.

I've just handed in the notice on our flat, years after we thought we would be out of it. Weirdly the last 3 months have been the best despite everything. The bulider went bust so we've been finishing things off ourselves and putting right a lot of his crap. We are going to end up with a better house than we would have had he still be on the job. I should have binned him a long time ago.

Like everything else, a lot depends on who fits it. I did not like Sarnafil because you can get odd bits like this. On a high roof it may well look fine. One thing about metal standing seam is you will probably get some level of oil canning. Ours can look perfect on some days then the next the light catches it or it's hot and you can see slight waves. Ours is subtle and I don't mind it. I have been told that a lot of the ones you see online have been photoshoped to remove imperfections.

I just took delivery of an end of coil of Greencoat to repair my garage roof. I don't need a huge amount but the coil is 47kgs which should give me 17 metres at 600mm wide. I’m using the leftover to replace some of the Eurocell soffits we ended up with around the balcony, mainly so I get a better match. With delivery it works out at less that £20 per meter although it will still need cut and formed.

I'm hoping we can drop the drawer down enough but we'll see if the hob ever actually arrives.

We have deep flow and I've gone back and forth on getting hedgehogs but most people I have spoken to have said they were crap and removed them.

My wife does the instgram stuff under @blackfoxbarn so you may have seen them there. I know when we bought oak for the stair treads it was pricey but it came from Latvia

Plan is to keep trunks and limbs in as big bits as possible and get them on stretchers off the ground until I can get someone to process it. Would be happy to sell it and gets some cash. People round here are being charged £500+ to clear a downed tree and the contractor keeps the wood.