lizzie

and will those same window salesman also tell you that the 20 years extra on your life will be wiped out by the stress caused by the c**p fitters making a total c***k up of tens of thousands of £’s of windows leaving you with a rubbish job that you have to try to get someone else to cobble together a solution to....at your cost of course. I’m tempted to pop over to NEC myself.

Thats part of the problem! I have broken more than one nail on the wretched thing.

LOL sorry! I dont think I would put dining so far away from kitchen (even in a small room), you would be carrying food through living area even if rarely used. Do you actually need a dedicated dining area if you eat at island? If perhaps if you just had a folding table tucked away somewhere for occasional use you could use the whole area for living rather than zoning for dining. I can see why architect has put kitchen where it is as its easier (and cheaper) to keep all services in one area. What is the first floor layout are your bathrooms above the utility/kitchen area?

Agree with @Alex C I have minimal circular fittings on pocket door - its a pain, I hate it. I have magnetic catches on my regular doors with what in appearance look like conventional handles but of course I don't have the little bit that goes in and out to close (what is it called!) My handles just have a slight touch down to release magnets and open, to close just push or pull no need to depress handle.

Lovely - I was further on than Aix near Montpellier. Love that Southern area of France. If I were younger and things were different I would have moved there permanently. As @vivienz says please think about a blog.

TBH I think I would leave the kitchen where it is and make the living sofa are in the other side to the right of the stairs. It will be cooler and shadier. You could have indoor dining in front of terrasse windows and pellet stove between in middle where architect has placed it.

We had to use BBA cert board for our render. Prem Gtee wanted it. In the end we went for the alumasc system one contractor to do boarding and render and a guarantee from Alumasc. Pricey though.

Mine was with buildzone and no problem with timber clad and flattish roof.

When you say it is South facing am I right in thinking you mean the terrasse is on the south side? We had that arrangement and even with awning and shading it was very hot (it gets over 40 where we were) in the summer. Our kitchen went out on that side too but in summer we tended to keep the shutters closed during the day to keep the heat out. OK other times of the year of course.

Hello and welcome. Hope the B****t situation doesn't affect you. We have recently sold up in South of France. Will miss it.

@scottishjohn would still have been a problem. Lack of shading on West and South and a lot of glass. Hoping for a lovely but slightly cooler summer this year!

We chose to have separate inspections - building control and premier guarantee independent of each other. We could have got Prem Gtee to do it all but we wanted the extra pair of eyes as we are not experienced builders and we wanted independent checks on what the contractors were doing.

I would have it in your name....it will be your cost whichever way you do it.

You, as a self builder, buy a warranty. We used Premier Guarantee but they have now withdrawn from the self build market. There are several other providers in the market.

Don't ignore overheating. I had a real problem last summer. I'm hoping measures taken over the winter will prevent it happening again to the same degree.

It’s arrived....looks like even I will be able to manage it......bring on the next wobbly tap!

Hello @bobberjob and welcome. I’m a new build MBC timber frame built with passive standards of insulation, airtighness etc. I’m in Worcestershire too.

I have a vaillant mains gas boiler (system) running ufh (approx 180sqm) and dhw, I have a small pressurised tank that is part of boiler ufh set up. I have a large Vaillant hot water cylinder (I think its unvented as I also have a smaller expansion vessel). I only heat the water for an hour a day and its more than enough. There are just 2 of us. Can look out details if of interest.

I presume everyone has their free tickets? I'm still getting e-mails offering them

We have name only as no numbers here. I know lots of people with name and number though. How about ‘Dunbuildin’ as a name? Come on guys lets have some suggestion for names

@Sue B now you are just encouraging him ??

HWMBO is a specialist planning lawyer and getting people out of the messes they create by thinking they can buck the system is part of the day job.....usually much bigger cases than garden walls LOL

usually on a chimney

@Hecateh follow your agents instinct if they know the buyer. Agent has more incentive to get the sale through than your lawyer, at least if its done you will know the numbers and the horse trading can start. If it were me I would get on with it pdq and you can reach agreement on price reduction or get work done.... I would go for price reduction for quick exchange.

@Hecateh are you using an estate agent for the sale or did you go down the purple bricks route?