G and J

Ermmm, No. Far from it. The term glacial springs to mind.

I think almost every Thursday works equally well (or badly) for the next few months. Apart from the 4th Thursday next month I guess. We will always be stressing about getting the next bit done and it’ll be pitch dark. Oh and Thursdays are always quiz night in our local. So, next Thursday looks as good as any.

So all in all nearly a good idea. If you swap your car for a Citroen Ami then you can have inward opening doors. Simples. 😉

Ummmm, I hesitate to ask but what’s wrong with side hung doors?

I’m guessing no one is coming. I’d better go home then. I think I’ve had enough Guinness. Hic. Lonely in a pub on your own for hours on end. Sniff.

I'm sorry but this comment feels off. You (and we) are getting huge amounts of input from this forum. It's by asking questions and getting others inputs that we learn......the answer may not always be what we were expecting but that doesn't mean it's wrong. So rightly or wrongly I am offended for @Nickfromwales And as to the question at hand good luck with your project. From our perspective there is no way that we'd let anyone near site (knowingly) that didn't know what bits to bring. Maybe because I haven't had my second coffee yet, but right now, not feeling like I'll bother to share any experience (as hands on self builders, mid project) with you right now.

I can do tonight or next Thursday, either way 19:00 at The Cherry Tree and bring your bestest bright torch. So let’s set a decision point of 12:00 today. So step forward, who wants to attend this evening?

You may want to rethink that a bit for your project.....yes you can get good prices online, but you can't always get things as quickly as you need them, or if something crops up or understand all the alternative, which takes time if your hands on with the project "doing". We've established relationships locally (we would like money to stay in local area if we can) been straight and told them that, but also that we are looking for a "sensible" cost, and made no bones about that fact that we do check prices online. So far, its worked for us, and when there has been a need for a quick response they've come up trumps. Also set up accounts, if nothing else it helps cashflow.

OK, I’ve waited for others to step forward long enough. How about a visit to ours in Woodbridge. The Cherry Tree pub has quiz night on a Thursday but last time we were there it didn’t get in the way. We aren’t quite watertight and we are still rather drafty but hey, it’s a part done build. Torches recommended.

Unless it has certificated fire treatment and is backed by cement board

The design from our timber frame supplier required hangers onto timber bolted onto the webs. I did think that notching might be cheaper but it would need noggings to prevent joist movement. But I decided it was much more sensible just to do as per the design. Gets boring nailing in all those twist nails though, and gives you sore fingers.

Escaping the build site….. to sit and talk building with other self builders? Methinks you’d be better off joining a cricket club, if only you had one nearby. 😉 As for Thursday I do like visiting other ‘dubbers building sites. Are there really none available?

Good that you're on the mend....I'm sure all continued to go smoothly because of the pre planning of the project manager 😉 alternatively Mrs P is another (cue Arthur Christmas film reference) Mrs Christmas!

We owned a hedge, we planted it, and the land to the outer side. We then put a dog proof fence on the inside.

We apologise for the interruption in our scheduled programme. Normal service will be resumed shortly. Lots has happened on the build which is great and as it should be and all that, but I just can’t write about that right now. Instead my head is full of leaving Bramble. 34 years ago, over a third of a century, we put flesh on the skeleton of a house and we breathed life into it. And it’s been a constant ever since. Now we finally decided to leave Bramble two years ago when we saw da (run down) bungalow. We had each come to the realisation that we would move somewhere else sometime before then, and not at the same time as each other, but the blue touch paper started slowly smouldering when we told the dumbfounded estate agent who was selling da bungalow we’d have it after only a few minutes of our first viewing. We started building without a sale on Bramble and without a sale we knew we’d run out of money just before the new pad was properly watertight, but we started anyway. Mid May we accepted an offer and carried on with the build, uncharacteristically for us we let the estate agents chase it through. Which is why after 18 weeks we’d still not exchanged. By this point we (meaning J) really was looking at a set of spreadsheets with way too many zero entries. So we started making calls, asking questions, setting deadlines and suddenly we’d exchanged. I thought that would reduce our stress level. I’ll never learn, will I. Part of why it’s so stressful is that there was only 17 days between exchange and completion. We (meaning me, G) gave the 17th of October as an acceptable completion date assuming a very quick exchange, giving four weeks between exchange and completion. But peeps being peeps they latched on to that date regardless of the passage of time. And it worked for us as it meant we could rent a bungalow two doors up from site, which has it’s attractions. Now anyone sensible would pause the build while they move house, or at least cut themselves a little slack and slow things down a bit. It appears we don’t do sensible. So we are running round like loons trying to get packed ready to vacate Friday. Moving from Bramble to the new house (via the rental) is definitely the right thing for us both. But it’s an emotional business, leaving your first build, hence my inability to catch up on me blog like I should.