Pete

I am doing shadow gaps and because I am doing it myself the cost is not a problem but will look amazing when the house is complete. You can have shadow gaps above the skirting board or do away with the skirting board altogether and have the shadow gap at the bottom of the wall but with this method you would need to tile the floor instead of carpet IMHO

Just an update on this, tiling going well and what a sense of fulfilment when you lay one!

We lived in a small development at our last house and they had Howden's kitchens fitted as standard and within 5 years they where dropping to bits. This was 2003 when the houses where built so they may have improved since then. I do agree with the fact that a lot to do with a kitchen is who fits it and how you look after it. In our house (same development) we had a Siematic kitchen which was included as part of the deal and it looked as good the day we left the house from when it was fitted, 11 years previously.

If you spec your render board it will give you fixing guide. I used plastic packers as @Mr Puntersuggested. Get your first row straight and the rest will take care of itself. External corners need to be staggered corners, one long on one side and short on the next side and then do the opposite on the next row up, easy peasy lemon squeezy

The spec on mine was a gap with a dpc behind so if I had done what your render said it would have slit the dpc!!

I like my towels dried outside so they are rough!

Agree whole heartedly with most of the above but what I will add is that so far we have paid for the timber frame/slab and had issues there with the workmanship. The external render is done but we are not happy with it but it is on, Internorm windows which have been a nightmare and now the internal plastering is poor in places, so our experience of getting people in leaves alot to be desired. I have done nearly all the rest of the work as most others have and find it hard to let somebody else on site for fear of more sub standard work.

I have the Senco one on the old Nicad batteries and it is a great bit of kit. Just make sure you change the drive bit regular and you are ok. @Triassichas a point but I have has mine for a few years and it has paid for itself many times over. Bought mine in the states so it was a lot cheaper as it was nearly two dollars to the pound then.

I know somebody who bought the most basic timber frame and left it exposed for quite sometime while they did most of the external work and they suffered with the frame wood warping and twisting due to constantly getting soaked and drying out and made decorating a constant process for a number of years afterwards. Try and cover it up as much as possible and keep it dry!1

We went through something similar, working against a bully of a conservation officer and spending money on a Planning consultant that was responsible for the conservation getting their job but did not disclose this when we met. All I can say is that with time you will move on but we did not have as much local objection as you so may be more to it but hopefully not.

What colour white have people chosen for their build. People have said are you using just every day good old white emulsion or are we going with a strong white, elephants breath or gnomes testicles are other suggestions. Going to use just ordinary white to get basic colour and then decide whether to use this as final colour or over paint with a slightly different white. Only sensible replies please!!

Kendal

I have the contact number of their technical guy who visits sites to sort the issues out and we have had a lot. Do you want me to send you his number and email by PM?

In no way does it match the local architecture and it is designed that way to be hidden behind the large Yew tree you can see behind it. The Conservation Officer (K__B) was a real pain and a bit of a bully to be honest but when the head of Planning in saw it at a meeting with architects to inform them what type of houses he would like to see being built he passed this one on the spot so I think we where fortunate. There is only a field opposite the glass wall in the photo and the other three sides are 12ft high walls as it used to be an orchard so most of the people in the village do not know of its existence.

About 4/5 miles from the top of Morecambe bay

I quite like our big white cuboid or cheese wedge!

I have mine freshly brewed at 10.30 so I can listen to popmaster. If I have another cup later on I cannot get to sleep because of the Caffeine I think?

I do not have a problem with the sight lines going from the front door to the glazed area, it is the tile spacing across this area that I am struggling to make a decision on and yes I already have the tiles

We had the same at another house when our daughter was aged about 8, when she saw what had happened with the dead bird she just said it should have looked where it was going!!

Talking of birds, we have a large amount of glass and so far I have moved about 7 dead birds that are not looking where they are going

We are not in Australia and the chaps in the Lancs re-cycling are great guys

? I have the luxury of living close to a recycling centre, have a a large site so can stagger my trips and with the cost of skips do not intend ever having one never mind skips for the duration of the build. How much have people spent on skips for their build, bet it could be a fair amount>

I live in Cumbria but nearest recycling is in Lancashire 3 miles away as opposed to 10 miles. Problem being Lancs do not take P/B without charging and one of my aims during our self-build journey is not to use a skip so decided to take a load of P/B off cuts and clean the house up a bit and not pay at my local recycle centre!!. The layout at the Cumbrian recycle centre is absolutely awful and you seem to have to go round twice to visit the various areas. I offloaded the car of P/B and then needed to go round again to go up the ramp (one car width so once on it you have to wait till the car in front has finished and then you all move on till you get to the end of the line) to go past the appropriate skips containing cardboard etc. So as I near the exit to go round again one of the workmen was just shutting the gates, saw me and opened them again and let me out. Now with hindsight I should have realised something was going to happen but no I turned to go back round again and pulled up at the IN gate(approx 100 metres away) to find the gate closed with cars pulling up behind me. What I then realised was the workmen began changing over full skips for empty ones and due to the small layout of the site no one is allowed in while they do this and thus we all waited outside. Now I do not know what people feel is an acceptable amount of time to wait but 55 minutes passed before the gate was opened again and by this time I really needed the toilet as I am a man of a certain age! SO be careful out there with the recycling issue as it can hit you in other areas!

Espresso on the induction, cheap as chips. The place we got the kitchen from was trying to sell us a built in one, circa £4000 and the coffee was awful. You had to strip it down and clean all the parts including the milk container and pipework on a regular basis, needless to say we did not buy one of those.

Tile size 1.2m x 1.2m. Bit of a dilemma with the tiling. Hope there is enough info in the drawing but if not I will soon find out!. How to decide on the tile layout is a bit of pain to be honest. Not sure whether to centre, grout line from the full height window at the end of the corridor or centre it near the section of corridor near the front door? The other bit that is niggling me is whether to overlook this area completely and just tile it how it ends up if I want to have a neater looking tile near the glass doors. If I centre it on the corridor I will end up with a horrible small section of tile between the support columns( small squares next to dotted line) and the glass doors OR I lay tile that will allow me to put a whole tile with cutout upto the column and then a narrow tile with cutout from the glass doors to the column ( distance from glass doors to column approx 200mm) and thus avoiding small section of tile approx 150mm x 200mm. If I choose to have a neat tile cut by the columns i will have a grout line that is not centred at any point down the corridor but seen as it is staggered in width will it matter (to me with severe OCD all things self- build). Hope this makes sense. TIA