jack

I hate it when my missus does a Costco shop, because she always buys more than we can comfortably fit in the fridge and freezer. It takes a good three or four days before we can easily access everything again. Thankfully it's a bit of a hike to Costco, so this doesn't happen more than once a month or so.

I agree, and yet we had it again and again. Sometimes, it's a result of people not caring. Others, it's more a case of them not listening properly, or not remembering. We had the latter several times, where we'd discuss something at length with a contractor ahead of time, then come back a day or three later to find that they'd got to this particular job and done it exactly the way they'd always done it. I had a couple of them try and say that they thought my instructions were just me "talking generally" (whatever that means). Others said that they'd forgotten when they actually went to do it, but in any event it didn't matter because my way was no better than theirs. And then we had those who insisted they didn't recall the conversation, even though it may only have been a day or two beforehand. It was difficult to tell whether any particular person was lying, forgetful, incompetent, stupid, or indifferent. ? If I were doing this again, I'd have a site diary, note every conversation, and get it initialed (or at least email a copy of my understanding of what had been agreed).

Fantastic real-world info, thanks. We heard about the pump priming thing on the day too, and had to run out and buy some cement while waiting for the first concrete truck to arrive. Why they can't factor that into the price or at least tell you in advance is beyond me. We also told the guy with the pump exactly where to put the excess from the pump at the end of the day, and that he needed to avoid the area around the trees due to TPOs. At the end of the day, he moved the truck 2m forward while we were distracted elsewhere and dumped the concrete exactly where we said he couldn't. If he'd moved 10m forward he'd have avoided the trees and given himself more space to clean up, but you could tell he just didn't give a stuff.

One of the guys we had onsite used a Henry. He admitted that he'd bought it second hand and had used it on building sites for years before realising it was even possible to put a bag in it! He figured it had lasted that long without a bag, so why start now. He's since had several more bagless years out of it. I wouldn't go bagless anywhere I wanted to keep the dust down though.

It's insane how adaptable humans are. Well done you for cracking on with it.

Lazy git, actually ?

I don't work hard enough to get smelly.

Probably, but it would probably look a bit crap, and in any event shorter showers are probably a good thing.

We (she) wanted something sleeker than that. We do have a separate hand-held sprayhead, but there's nothing to mount it to the wall at head height. Comes in handy when cleaning though!

I'd love it if we could move to a new set of decent emojis. The old ones looked okay but there weren't a very wide range. The new ones have a wider range, but are black and white and pretty darned ugly. @PeterW?

Welcome aboard. We all need to start somewhere. Might as well be with a dream...

Good idea. Also, are you on gas? Not having to run high capacity items such as, eg, stoves, ovens or air source heat pumps would make a lower capacity supply more feasible. Absolutely. There are nightmare stories here and elsewhere of many month delays with utilities. They may want it buried, but are they allowed to insist? Would it be cheaper to replace the (presumably pole-hung) cable that presently goes to the pole on your land? They might be reticent to do this due to the impact on others supplied on the same cable, but might be worth looking into. Oh, and welcome to the forum! I hope this hiccup isn't enough to stop the dream.

We have high overhead showers in the new place. As I'd feared, it's exactly as you say - virtually impossible to shower without having your entire head under running water. I also don't think they rinse as well/quickly as an angled wall-mounted shower head. One thing it's done is reduce our water consumption. I used to be a big one for thinking in the shower in the morning, but now I just wash and get out. Interesting that a larger flow shower would be a net reducer of water consumption!

But only a vanishing small proportion of "self-builders" actually build the superstructure, even if they're involved in a lot of the work that follows. Even for those that do, the level of practice (and patience) that would be required to learn to lay bricks and blocks accurately and fast enough to make this option feasible is beyond the vast majority of self-builders without existing construction experience. I'm sure such people exist, although I'm not aware of anyone on this forum, as least, who's done this for brick/block. I suspect it's a lot more time and cost effective to go the ICF route if you want to build the superstructure yourself. It's also much easier and faster to build than brick/block as a beginner, plus you often have manufacturer training and support. My experience, like many others on this forum, was getting a company to erect a frame (timber prefab in my case). We coordinated follow-on trades ourselves.

I will add that a good architect will not only not build their dream, they'll help you find your way to your dream. You then have to hope that they're also one of those architects that is technically and costs savvy enough to allow the dream to built at something like the budget you told them at the start. Finding such an architect is part of the problem.

I don't think that's unfair. If you know exactly what you want, why pay a premium?

If I were doing another build, ICF would be at the top of my list of construction techniques to research.

Are you including design and in-factory manufacturing in making this comparison?

MBC Timberframe.

Aaargh, assault bikes. Consider me triggered.

We built a timber frame house with 300mm pumped cellulose insulation. For me, I found: Pros: - Quick - factory built panels meant the whole thing went up in a matter of days. - Accurate - internal walls etc are square, and rooms are exactly as shown on plan. - Quiet - external noise is damped very well. Part of the quietness definitely comes down to decent windows though. - High decrement delay. Cons: - Internal noise transmission. This is the big one for me - I find it frustrating how noise makes its way between rooms. This might have been improved if the chancers who did my drywalling had installed the insulation better, but I'm not sure how much better it would have been. - Internal well strength - we used fermacell anywhere we thought we might like to hang something, but even so, whenever I want to put something on a wall, I need to check whether it's fermacell, and if not, go about finding a stud (oo er vicar). Block walls would have been better. - Vibration - again, maybe something that doesn't bother others, but slamming our (admittedly fairly large) front door causes windows in adjacent rooms to rattle. No big deal, but it constantly reminds me of the construction method. I suspect most others wouldn't find this as distracting as I do (I'm the guy who'll lie awake at night distracted by a mosquito three rooms away). Overall, I'm happy enough with timber frame, but if I were doing it again I'd at least consider using some form of masonry-based construction.

Unless you're buying from builder's merchants, HIABs are few and far between. Virtually everything of any size that we ordered came palletised on a truck with a tail lift. The best we could hope for was for them to back up close to the house and manhandle the pallet onto the very bumpy drive with a pallet truck.

Did you explain how it was all going to be mounted? My concern is that if you didn't, then it's possible they expected some sort of internal mount below (or within the bottom part of) the aperture. That said, if I were in their shoes, I'd be offering an at-cost remake at the very least. No-one should want to make money off a simple error by a customer.

Bugger. But why is he going to call you back if he's already given you an answer?

Time off is excellent, for sure. Even a long weekend will make a world of difference. I found it useful to spend an evening out with mates at the pub. You can piss and moan to them for a bit, then move on to talking about more interesting things. How are you sleeping? I find that my motivation flags hard when I don't have enough sleep. There was a thread somewhere recently about that, but my tips are: - reduce caffeine intake, and have none at all after midday - make sure your room is dark - take magnesium and inulin (extracted from jerusalem artichokes) before bed. Latter is a flavourless powder that can just be mixed into your choice of caffeine-free beverage. - do some hard exercise every day, even if just for 5-10 mins. Low intensity isn't enough - your heart rate needs to be elevated and you need to be breathing hard. I also tried to focus on how much we'd achieved rather than how much was still to go or how miserable I was about mistakes I and others had made. We're with you, and we know you can do this.