Mike

Another style with a clear flow (apart from the stopper) is the flip top type, where the stopper remains permanently in place but rotates from vertical to horizontal. Though it may also put your earrings at risk.

A good tip. I did the same.

Another topic to add your to-do list is to learn the VAT rules and budget accordingly. If you're mostly DIYing then you'll be paying VAT on your materials and, while you can eventually reclaim the VAT on most items (not all), you'll have to fund them until you put in your VAT reclaim, so don't let it become a cashflow issue. And, where you do have contractors, make sure they only charge you VAT on the items that they should; if you pay it on other items you can't reclaim it. There are other threads that go into this. Returning to the design, because plasterboard, plywood, OSB and other sheet materials come in 1200mm widths, it will help to reduce waste if you can plan as many dimensions as possible on multiples of 300mm. It won't save a fortune, but will make a difference if cash is tight. For some 'relaxation', track down the BBC series 'The House That £100k Built'; it may give you some cost-cutting ideas, though bear in mind that inflation means you'll now have significantly less to play with than they did.

They've some concerts in Europe this year: https://kraftwerk.com/concerts/index-concerts.html

Yes, if they're wired in, then no problems on a balcony or anywhere else, in most cases. However the article posted by @saveasteading (and the use of Balkonkraftwerke, AFAIK) refers to balcony plug-in solar.

Looks like they changed the law in 2019 to allow it (subject to rules & registration): https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/how-germany-outfitted-half-a-million-balconies-with-solar-panels

Not legally, but that may change (though not in a rush); there was a report just a few of weeks ago: Currently, UK regulations do not allow plug-in solar to be used in the UK, but the government is working to explore its potential. Action 2: Government will conduct a safety study this year with the aim of unlocking opportunities for plug-in solar over the next few years. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/solar-roadmap/solar-roadmap-united-kingdom-powered-by-solar-accessible-webpage

I spent >€4K on my apartment (+VAT), but that includes following my own advice and installing a PassivHaus certified Zehnder unit (with per-heater due to cold winter temperatures) and hiring some guys to abseil down the side of the building to core-drill through 400mm of stone for the air intake and exhaust. Apart from them screwing the external vents in place, it's self-installed. If you're wondering, I can vacuum the vents from the windows. The new electrical installation is incomplete so It's not yet operational, but it's installed for several reasons. The apartment will be pretty airtight so it provides the necessary ventilation; I'm in an urban setting so using it to filter the air and avoid noise via trickle vents / open windows is a very big plus; it's essential to reduce humidity due to having a tricky unventilated insulated ceiling; adding an evaporative cooler to it (another €1K) is the only way I could provide some summer cooling; it also provides heat recovery during the heating season.

At a guess they're not ventilated as they probably have very minimal insulation in the ceiling - there's not enough depth. As for drainage, the roofs would likely slope backwards, so the rain would run back and down the mansard (unless driven by the rain).

This. Also, when you push the machine back in, you don't have a cable looping on the floor and getting in the way of the wheels - you can pull it through from under the sink.

I'd put the sockets in your 'sink cupboard', so you need no additional depth behind the machines. It's what I'm doing and I only have a 350mm width unit below my sink to squeeze everything you have into (plus the waste & overflow from a water conditioner). If the appliance cables aren't long enough - they probably will be - then replace them (or get your sparky to).

I'm out of touch with the latest changes to SAP, but last I heard there was going to be an (option/requirement?) to test the MVHR installation and award the score based on that -a potentially significant improvement. Sounds like that didn't happen? I know that MVHR was scored low because it was based on seriously out-of-date assumptions that didn't reflect current best practice. Though with a test some installations were so poor they would be expected to score less, not more.

Yes, you certainly need that. A parge coat is normally only a few mm thick. If your wall is so uneven that it requires 30mm, that's 2 or 3 coats of lime plaster - or the Diathonite Thermactive. Nether of them are cheap, though you'll need it pretty flat, especially for rigid insulation. BTW, when balancing dB reductions against cost, remember that it's a logarithmic scale. 3dB is only just perceptible, 5dB is noticeable, 10dB halves the noise (at the frequencies measured).

Swap the rigid wood fibre boards with adhesive & hammer fixings for a semi-flexible wood-fibre boards friction-fitted into place. That will be quicker and easier, and the insulation will prevent impact noise being transmitted.. The CLS stud can keep the insulation in place, though I prefer to use metal studwork (fixed only to the floor & ceiling). No need for extra decoupling; the semi-flexible wood-fibre provides that. Noise takes the easiest path, and one of those will be the doors & door frames, so you'll need to buy them accordingly. Another will be flanking sound via the ceiling and floor, but since you don't mention them as a problem, maybe they're not.

All can be good or bad - it depends on how well they are installed. I know one high-spec 3-layer flat roof that's still good after 30+ years, and a GRP roof that had to be replaced after 5, so choose your installer with care. Personally I'd choose mastic asphalt. It has a very long history, will last for decades, is readily repaired, with good green credentials too.

I should add that, thanks to a single nation-wide digital electricity meter system, your power gets cut if you exceed the subscribed limit for a certain time (about 2 minutes, from memory); you then have to reset it via the meter. Avoiding that is another benefit of a load-shedder!

I think it is in France that domestic electrical load is limited to quite a low level. The big difference in France is that your standing charge depends on the capacity you choose - 15, 30, 45 or 60A, the maximum monophase supply. After that you're paying for 3-phase. In round figures, 15A costs around €10 per month, 60A around €20. Installing a load-shedder* may therefore be a good investment. As a result, around 70% of all domestic properties (including apartments) in France have a 30A connection. That's typical for a house with gas heating, for example. For an all-electric house, it's likely to be 60A. France relies much more than the UK on electric heating, so electricity demand is about 50% higher than the UK. So, if everyone had an 80A or 100A supply, the grid might have to be doubled, or more, to cope with peak demand. Switching the UK to a similar model would no doubt significantly reduce the number of new power lines needed for electrification. If it had been done a decade or two ago, gas generation might already be much lower. *Load-shedders temporarily disconnect one or more low-priority loads (water heating, central heating, washing machine, etc.) if the total load approaches the maximum - for example while cooking - and avoids moving up to a higher subscription.

On a block wall, it's going to be tricky to get a rustic finish, however using lime paint helps as it ages by turning powdery and weathering off, unlike modern vinyl paints. FWIW one of the best fake-rustic new-builds I've seen used deliberately roughly-laid brick, bag-rubbed with thin render, then limewashed.

I'll be using clay paints too, for the same reason.

Yes, that is the advantage of RCBOs. And if you don't have many circuits, as per standard UK practice, then the additional cost is low, so it's an easy decision to make.

Yes, that's the logic Though RCBOs aren't used in France - instead there are RCDs (on the left of each row in the illustration) feeding a maximum of 8 miniature circuit breakers, with a minimum of 2 RCDs per property and a mix of circuits on each. That way, if one RCD trips, there is still light and power in a nearby room (or even the same one, if more than 1 circuit). I believe that's possible under the UK regs, but frowned upon - RCBOs are preferred, though with so many circuits it would jack up the price if used universally. Although I have no RCBOs, I've upgraded all 4 RCDs to Type F, partly because they provide protection for electronic devices that the old A & AC don't, partly because they're also less liable to nuisance tripping.

There are currently 67 new-build masonry homes in the UK certified to the PassivHaus standard of <0.6 ACH, so no doubt many more that have achieved that that aren't in the database. As you want to build to the best standards, that would be the obvious target. Air tightness is also one of the least expensive and most rewarding upgrades, if you're planning MVHR.

Just looked this up out of curiosity. The first international conference was the 1881 Congress of Electrician's in Paris, which ran concurrently with the International Electricity Exposition, focused on defining and naming the basics - Volts, Amps, Coulombs, Watts and the like. That was followed by meetings in Chicago (1893) and 1900 (Paris), and discussions held at the latter and the subsequent 1904 meeting in St. Louis lead to the creation of the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), which first met in London in 1906. The first UK wiring regs were published in 1882 by the Society of Telegraph Engineers and of Electricians, but I'm not sure what they covered. The first French law on electricity installations seems to be from 1895, concerning the safety of electrical installation in the streets, prompted by stories of horses 'dancing' in the streets of Paris after being shocked!

Turn the existing bath through 180° so the shower's away from the window? Saves having to get into the bath to open the window too.

Good reasoning. I guess you could add a second monitor if you wanted an alternative view.