ultramods

@newhomeexactly that was kind of my point. Every weekend the neighbours will be cutting their grass and using pressure washers. I on the other hand will have a very quiet robo mower, rarely wash the car with a pressure washer and never play the drums.

I know they can't do much about it, but I was really hoping to get on with all the neighbours. But really can he complain about noise when literally the whole street can hear the son playing the drums every weekend.

Before we started the build we went round each neighbour and introduced ourselves and gave them our mobile number if there were any issues with noise or vans being parked where they shouldn't etc. As I said previously, it was just they way he went about it that I didn't like.

TBH other than the hours I was working at I hadn't really thought about not working on holidays etc. I am in the situation that I need to save most of my holidays for childcare, which means I can't take them when ever I want, such as during the week during term time.

Just after the confrontation I spoke to another neighbour and asked If they were finding it annoying as another neighbour had complained. He said not at all and what do they expect when you are building a house.

I could understand that if I was making noise a lot, but as I said this was a one - off for a few days. They are both at work Monday to Friday when the builders are there.

They are both at work during the week and both children are teenagers. They didn't object to the planning application. I just think they are the sort of people that like to complain and enjoy confrontation.

I kept level headed and restrained but I let him know exactly how disappointed I with the way he was behaving. I also said he was being very pedantic about the noise as there is lot of other noise on the street, but because this was "Construction Noise" he felt that justified complaining. Even although the noise was a one off for a few days. - Not like I have been doing it every week for the last few months. I also said that all the other neighbours have been nice and very supportive as we are building on what was an eye sore on the street. His teenage son cycles his mountain bike up and down the "pedestrian" pavement and does wheelies on the road. Thing I am going to have to educate them on the Highway Code.

Most of my house is being constructed by the joiners and builders during the week during normal hours. I have been doing some work during the evening and weekends, up until the last week the work I have done has been inside and quiet. However last Saturday I hired a nail gun to attach the timber battens to the garage ready for the cladding. I started using the nail gun at 14:30 and finished at 19:30 as I am conscious that we are building in a residential area. Monday night I used the nail gun 17:30 - 19:00. Today I started using it at 15:00 and was only going to need to use it for 1 - 2 hours. However a neighbour (that I hadn't spoken to before) came over to the site with his wife and started complaining about all the noise and that I am breaching council regulations. He said I shouldn't be using it after 7 and shouldn't be working on Sundays or public holiday (such as today). I explained to him that I have also been conscious about noise and try and keep it to a minimum and don't start as early as I could on a Saturday for example. But he kept on complaining. The thing that upset/annoyed me the most was that he could see I was almost finished but still complained in a very confrontational way, having no foresight that it would destroy any future neighbourly relationship that we would have had. One ironic thing was I said to him that I hear one of the neighbours playing a drum kit loudly every weekend, I would never complain about it as I would like to get on with my neighbours and have to accept a certain amount of noise - It is their son playing the drum kit. So my question is if I am putting up the cladding on the house evening or weekends is that classed as construction by the council or is it DIY? I tried calling the council today, however they were closed as it's a bank holiday.

I hope they didn't fly to Portugal for the eco cork insulation jolly.....I mean research.

Last year I asked about how best to create a DIY large sliding door, 3300mm wide by 2650mm high, the consensus was the best approach was a stud.carcass timber frame covered by 6mm ply or MDF. This is what I was planning to do. However I had a cabinet maker in the house to quote for making the stair treads and he noticed the runner in place for the large door and asked when I was planning. When I told him, he said he would not use normal softwood timber for the carcass as it will warp over time. Instead he recommended cutting up a sheet(s) of birch ply length ways into battens and then gluing them together to make the carcassing timber. However I forgot ask him to specifics. Can anyone recommend what thickness I should go for 2 x 12mm or 2 x 18mm ply. What depth should I make the ply battens, I am thinking 38mm (the door needs to be around 50mm, including the 6mm covering sheets) Is it ok to glue all the strips of ply lengthways in the same direction/orientation? Do I need to use birch ply or would any hardwood ply be ok, since it will be covered by a sheet of ply or mdf What intervals should I have for the horizontal and vertical ply battens that make up the door, how about 660mm?

Pointing this out in case anyone is interested, it started last night on the new Scotland channel on the BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m00043v0/scotlands-home-of-the-year The quality of the programme isn't quite as good as some of the channel 4 property programmes, however still worth a watch if you like property programmes.

I wouldn't trust an architect giving you an estimate of the renovation costs, you might be better to get some quotes from builders and or surveyors? Architects can struggle to estimate the costs of a new build never mind the conversion of and old building with potential hidden issues.

I have just had two of these fitted: https://www.coburn.co.uk/product/hideaway/ My joiner really doesn't like pocket doors and said this one is the best of a bad bunch (from his experience) The frame is encased in the middle of a 90mm partition and loos like 20mm. Obviously this approach takes up more space, however the wall is still fully insulated and feels very sturdy

You would need full planning permission and a building warrant issued by the council before the lender would lend any funds.

Which country are you building in as England and Wales have separate procedures. I'm not sure about England and Wales, in Scotland you can't rely on building control inspecting each stage and then creating a report that would be suitable for a lender. I had a couple of options, either: 1: Use a warranty company such as Protek to inspect each stage has been completed, they then create a report for the lender. 2: Use Architect (of my choosing, isn't the architect that designed the house) and a surveying company that has been appointed by the lender to inspect each stage. I originally went with option 1, however when I discovered that the inspector would be travelling from England to inspect my house in Aberdeenshire I cancelled as I was worried that this could delay the funds if he struggled to travel to Aberdeenshire over the winter. Instead I went with option 2 and it has been OK so far.

Thanks @AliG, I do like the look of the concealed hinges. The timber frame company are going to be providing all the internal doors pre-hung, I have asked them if they can use the same hinges as you have used.

Thanks those are a lot cheaper than I had found.

are you suggesting flush handles could improve her behavior?

Boo going by the responses it looks like function wins over form. in that case I think it will be this handle in brushed steel, with magnetic catches and hopefully concealed hinges (if budget allows) Thank you for all the responses.

I was looking at concealed hinges, however they were a lot more than £50 per door. Do you know which ones have been used on your doors?

my door opening dog was also a border collie.

I taught my last dog to open door handles

I am now at the stage of choosing door handles. As I am trying to achieve a minimalist (all doors will be flush matt white) look I was wondering why does everyone still use traditional door handles. What are people's thoughts on using flush push/pull with magnetic catches instead of normal door handles? BTW I would get a push plate with no writing on it

yes you can. on my Roku I use IPlayer, ITV (and STV), Channel 4, Amazon, Now TV and Netflix