TheMitchells

yes, I have been looking at your threads but I thought thiis would be something that could stand alone. For example I remember being told that Howdens have their sale in October so if anyone wants their kitchen from there and can wait, they'll know to wait. But your discount of the week is excellent and I keep an eye on it. Can we get it pinned to the top of that section?

I just received the latest BuildIt magazine and they had a leaflet in for Victoria Plum - will have a closer look.

I am looking at buying a fair amount of stuff for our renovation in the next 6 months and I have been looking at the current lot of sale offers. Did we have a post which indicated when was the best time to buy at certain shops? I am sure I remember one - here or on Ebuild but I cannot find it. Does anyone remember where it might be or do we need to start a new one? I'm thinking of Ikea or Howdens for the kitchen, Nichols or similar for the bathrooms and varius for the wood, insulation and plasterboard. But do these companies have typical sale times or is it just pot luck. We dont have a huge amount of room to store stuff so I am reluctant to get things now that we cant put in for several months. But I dont want to wait and find prices are much higher than I can get in the sales. The Post 'Discount offers of the week' is a great idea and I am keeping an eye on that but timings of sales would also be useful. Any thoughts?

How did you get on, Alexphd1? Did you manage to get the cementing in before the bad weather?

I think the Woodstock house cost around 100k for the whole renovation but that did include a new extension and replaced windows too. if you contact Paul Williamson at Beattie, he seemed happy for people to visit. He did his around 10 years ago now and would do things differently now. They used his house to learn about the system and see how it could be imporved. And they do have a stall at the Swindon Renovation centre and are often there to chat to.

Checked and we do have that one - OH agrees with above comments but found it great for light work, ie. fencing panels. It is big and unweldy compared to modern equivalent but ideal for now.

I think we have one of these that the OH borrowed from work - I'll check and let you know. That seems a very good price.

Have a look at Beattie Passiv as they have an excellent system that is like a tea cozy - they come and drop it over the house with new roof and it gives a fab warm house - one of the managers lives in Woodstock and has done it to his house. we went and had a look and would certainly be considering this for any future renovation that we planned to live in. Just another idea for you to mull over. http://www.beattiepassive.com/

This site may be of use for you and Oxford isnt too far away from Berkshire so some of the contacts may be useful. http://oxfordgreenhouse.co.uk/ This was a full renovation and I think they were taking it to Enerphit level.

Hi Peter, welcome to BuildHub. I am doing a renovation too (see the blogs - Scooby Cottage) but we are planning on selling so we arent doing too much in the way of insulating and installing expensive items that we would do for ourselves. Is your renovation for you and for long term benefit as that makes quite a difference in what you may decide to do or not? I dont see any benefit in doing too much for our project as there is little payback at the moment - not enough people appreciate low energy/Enerphit to pay extra for it. Looking forward to hearing about the plans!

Looks great! Nice that the digger driver was so helpful.

I noticed that some had stairs without any banisters - isnt that against the regulations? And I too find bits and pieces that I think I may use. That house with the central staircase had beautiful lengths of wood going all the way up, instead of stair rods and I love that idea. Hopefully I'll be able to use that in Scooby Cottage to let light into the downstairs from the landing. We have opened it up but it needs some work yet. Like this. Good job I have a good imagination.

I wasnt too sure about this house but I can see why it won. It was certainly different and amazingly designed. I liked the private house in Cumbria which used local stone as well as modern sections and yet it fitted into the Cumbrian town perfectly. I'd have lived there happily.

Great news!! looking forward to reading all about it.

That looked easy to find! I must have been having a bad day

I have looked too and not found it so if you do find the planner and costing part, please let me know.

Am working my way thought the Building Construction Hnadbook. It wasnt quite what I expected as there are no explanations of anything - just lots of facts or how things should be done. I think it would be essential for anyone having their their house built by someone else so they can at least check that everything is being done correctly. Some of it goes way over my head but mostly I can follow things and it also shows the various ways that things can be done.

Blimey!, I didnt realsie there were so many different types of piling! The site we looked at on the Graven Hill site would have needed pilings and they were quoting around 60k for the foundations. Hope he lets you have a go - would be great fun.

Congrats! Looking forward to reading all about the build.

After seeing the trailer where one person fell from quite a height; no safety equipment seen and people were using chainsaws with no regard to safety, Mr Mitchell refused to watch it! I have a feeling we would not have even managed 20 minutes.

Wow, that seems expensive - £60 a tub! I was planning on using Bamboo Flooring Company as we love the look of the wood and it seems much harder than oak so can be used in kitchens. But I had not budgeted for the adhesives. Looks like I may need to revise our budget.

Went over today and got a photograph of the finished wall. I managed to get the painting done apart from the lower areas which I decided to do once the scaffolding was taken away. It was too fiddly trying to get behind the poles and my arms were aching by that time. The builder is there repointing the chimney. Typically it is due to rain tonight and it was minus 2 last night. Hope it does not affect the work. In comparison to before, thats ours on the left, the top was leaning out and it was all cracked. Sorry the view is from the opposite end of the house. I thought I'd photographed everything when we bought the place but I do not seem to have one of the gable from the front.

Anyone up for it?? Someone who has used Buildhub to help with the build? Will ask Bitpipe as he recently finished.

I can suggest it but who would you be thinking of putting forward for the interview?. I did suggest Jeremy ages ago but Ben has had no reply from him. Maybe he could use several of those who are finished or nearly finished their homes and see how much they got from this and other forums?

I'll certainly ask the estate agents for their take on it. Especially as it was the last estate agentwho suggested to ditch the bath and just put in a shower. However, I cant see the back door moving - those rubble walls are too thick to want to knock out a doorway. If we do move the bathroom into the kitchen area, we may also be able to add a small cloakrrom upstairs to help those who dont want to have to go downstairs at night to get to the loo. That would not take much room away from the back bedroom and I would personally like that. Great ideas! Many thanks.