canalsiderenovation

Practical yes. Mine is completely practical (as far as working on a dressing table in a static caravan is)...

We have purposely designed our office with sockets at desk height as my other half works with plans and we would need a large desk area and easy access. As a temporary measure my wife's work office is relocating and she has got a large 2.5 metre long desk and two office chairs. Yours looks very stylish but I could never work in that tidy way, it's paper and post it notes everywhere!

Brilliant, I mean the structural work is done so I'm presuming this will be OK for the RHI, as in it's not going to change the floor space now where pre extension it was half the size.

That looks great! Love your furniture where was that from?

Good point, I've had textured tiles before which have been ok (we are both ocd clean freaks) but it's the grouting that has caused problems.

Ok, think we have settled on www.showerwall.co.uk These are both from the 'concrete' effect range and they are matt and textured which I quite like and with the proclick they shouldn't show the join as much as some of the glossy ones we saw. Has anyone had textured panels? We have three showers (two walk in ones and one in an alcove with three walls) and I'm down to around £1300 inc vat including Internal Corners, End Caps, Panel Adhesive and Silicone Sealant. Two of the showers we have settled on Urban Concrete which has sort of textured lines on it. And one shower in Washed Charcoal (the shower has a smoked glass screen). This again is quite textured.

So we are looking ahead to moving back in the house, hopefully for Christmas. The ASHP gets commissioned on 7 December and I've got a couple of questions. EPC for RHI - so I'm planning to get the cheapest one I can find online. How 'finished' does the house need to be? E.g. we may not have all appliances installed like tumble dryer etc. I also think the external wall insulation won't be finished til next spring (so it's probably good getting an EPC before that). The solar panels are likely to be in. Electricity - in light of the ASHP/solar and an all electric house should I change our electricity tarrif? I'm currently paying 14.594p p/kWh and 13.780p daily standing charge.

Out plumber/RHI people are dealing with it but it didn't seem much over a week.

Ours arrived yesterday it's huuuugggeee and the lorry couldn't get over the canal bridge.

If I'm honest I can't remember now. It began with K.

Yep, whole house. We use the term renovation as we kept the existing house but all floors been excavated and plaster removed, roof etc.... The plastering is almost close to being finished. I'm hoping we can be in for Xmas but I fear that isn't going to happen..... ASHP has arrived and will be fitted over the next week, drains are almost in now, sewage treatment plan coming next week too.

AE120 was proposed to replace the 11kw Mitsubishi.

There are some good uns. Our plasterer who came via the builder has been the one person who came over to us, introduced himself to us both, whenever we are there comes to find us both and who has a great reputation. What is really strange is the response from tradesmen when they realise there is no man to speak to. It either falls into one of these categories. - decide who is 'the man' (that's been me up to now as I've been dealing with most things) and only speak to me - ignore the other one - the 'I don't know who to speak to so I'll just ignore you both' and look at the floor and not make eye contact - The 'there is no man' approach where tradesmen think flirting, winking and having banter will either make us decide we don't want one another, swoon or make us not notice any bad work. - Look like a rabbit caught in headlights when one of us introduces the other as 'my wife' - we are in 2020 get a grip. I've been very firm from day 1 so generally our main builder gets us now, though he did confess he was a bit scared of me!

Flooding - it did come up as a risk due to surface water but that was the same as our last bungalow in a cul de sac. We asked around, looked at historic records and there has never been flooding. Building insurance is less than £60 a year (prior to building work). Canals rarely flood and the Llangollen is well maintained. They dredge regularly and we have the bywash too next to us. Boats, frequently especially in summer as there are a few hire boat companies in Cheshire/Shropshire and a lot of people do the return route up to Llangollen/Chirk in a week, seems popular with tourists. Less busy now through til March and more regulars/coal boat (stoppages and a lock is closed just under the bridge next to us for maintenance).

Must be the Willeymoor Lock Tavern then. Decent place, there is a campsite there too.

Where is your best mate? There is a good pub across the road which does lovely food and a nice cafe by the staircase locks too.

We are on the Llangollen canal in Whitchurch, Shropshire.

I feel your pain. We are a same sex female couple and it's bloody hard work at times. I continually feel like I have to battle more than a guy would and thank god for this forum I can go back and ask relevant questions or be firm with things and pretend I know what I'm talking about. It's not so much our builder now who knows not to try that sh!t with me although I do get the sense would treat a guy differently. Only this week the ASHP contract people said to me they were sure after I'd shown the updated spec to my husband he would understand it more than me ?

Combine the chaos of building work, attempting to project manage various tradesmen and coordination of items, living and working in a caravan and not knowing where we were going to live in 3 weeks time with a stressful period at work and I finally had a complete meltdown. I've been pulling my hair out (literally) so have 2 inch pieces of hair in places where I've ripped it out through stress, I look like a lovely female version of Freddie Kruger (great ? attempt) due to a stress skin reaction and anyone who asked me how I was in the last couple of weeks either got an emotional bursting into tears response or something Father Jack would utter, minus the drink. There has just been numerous things building up. I'm trying to take a bit of a back seat and the wife has stepped up to deal with a lot of things to take the pressure off me for a little while whilst I give myself a good talking to and get myself in check. Good news though slightly irnoic - the lockdown has resulted in the caravan park letting us stay in the caravan so that is one thing sorted as potentially we were going to be homeless as things are behind schedule due to three different tradesmen having to isolate due to Covid. The plus, our plasterer is amazing and has literally been on site at 6am and has worked into the small hours. He's one step away from moving in with his camping stove - I did offer him a sleeping bag and tent. This is what will be the double doors from the master bedroom into the dressing room/walk in wardrobe - basically another room that's actually bigger than our bedroom! Yes we have a lot of clothes and shoes ...... Still no solar panels in but our first fix has been done and the majority of the roof has been sorted though everything still needs something finishing off! Due to the impromptu arrival of our kitchen we managed to get our front door on so here is an early peek of that. The frame is like a stainless steel/aluminium which I'm not sure about but hopefully once the render is on will look OK.

In same boat, our new proposal was for Samsung which we agreed to.

I've had an update; Many thanks for the email, I have checked our file and I have only undertaken a SAP Comparison to satisfy the excessive glazing requirements for Part L1B of the Building Regulations 2013. This SAP calculation provided does not provide an EPC, as the calculation was based on an existing property with the extension and not a new build/conversion. I would advise that you contact a local Energy Assessor (Existing Property Assessor). So, I presume I've got to have a new EPC. At what stage can I get one done?

I never mentioned trade with Midsummer although I had done some serious haggling with them but I actually think they may have quoted me trade not realising it was for our use.

I hope not ? I have been reading info and to be honest Mitsubishi, Dalkin, Samsung etc all seem to be comparable....

We didn't go with Midsummer in the end but a different company and got trade prices through someone happy to set up a trade account. We had 12 JA Solar 320W Mono Percium LW Black Frame with MC4 panels (though our GSE set up is a landscape rather than portrait) plus we had the addition of the Solic200 immersion controller but we managed to get the price to just over £1900 plus VAT.

I'll get hold of the woman who did our SAP and see what she says.