Sue B

Brilliant idea Ian - I bought my hard hat today - it’s a lovely pink colour and it was contributing to breast cancer awareness which is a bit close to my heart at the moment with a few friends who have been or are going through it now.

Splendid!

If you mention holiday let anywhere, I don’t believe that you can claim the vat back. VAT is only zero or reclaimable on self builds for living in, not businesses?

Will that not stain the concrete? I was thinking along the same lines (like getting a cake out of a tin) but thought the concrete would show

Removing the mould from a “plastered” concrete wall will surely pull the concrete off too? And / or it will leave residue in the mould for the next application?

I think these pictures are stunning but I think a DIY version could be awful unless you (and your team) are real craftsmen, able to spend a lot of time creating the look. I saw the Grand Design house a few months ago that had a concrete interior finish and I though it looked bloody awful and I fear a DIY version could easily head that way.

Has your planning permission now lapsed or have you actually started work and therefore fixed the planning? @Tom's Barn has had a recent quote and the Isotex blocks compare favourably with Durisol. Have you done the free free training day with either of the two systems? They both run most months - we went to the Swindon NHBRC but I think they have other venues up north as well depending on where you are. i haven’t managed to visit a site on pour day but we will do that before we make our final decision. We are going to the NEC today and one of our planned exhibit stops is the Insulhub stand to ask Jamie or John some more questions about the Isotex product and also about their passive slab solution.

Not yet but we plan too. We have compared to Durisol and prefer the block. Just waiting on planning permission now then we can price up properly and get under way.

Our pond never gets any frogs or toads living in there. If they manage to leave any spawn, the fish gleefully eat it within hours. The greenhouse however, seems to attract toads!

Maybe you have a use for the walk on rooflights. You could glaze over the pipe runs and have a real game if pooh sticks ??

We have our second set of free tickets (work email worked wonders and it let me use the same email for me and Peter). We should be there tomorrow by just after lunch time I’d guess. We’ll be leaving Saturday by 3 at the latest to get home for the pooches. Hope to meet up with anyone up there.

It is indeed. However, we are doing as much as we can ourselves (hence the ICF as we can do that ourselves) and we do have just over £50k stashed away as our contingency. The £200k is our build money, all prof fees etc are not included in that. Solar panels will be prepared (as in the roof will be ready to accept them with cabling in place) but we won’t we able to afford them. Luckily, I don’t have expensive taste in kitchens or bathrooms - they are just rooms! We have built before so understand how big our mountain is *falls over in a dead faint*

We are still very early stages but we only have £1k PSM to spend - the house is 203 sq m We are nearly retired and our problem is the lack of years left to pay a mortgage. There is a possibility that we may not be able to actually build and will have to sell on with the plans in place but we are a long way from deciding that.

We are doing ICF simply because our budget is so tight. We are doing the actual build ourselves to cut labour costs but can live on site in our current house - it means that it doesn’t matter how long it takes us. We will be talking to warranty companies and site insurance on Friday at the NEC to see how long that cover can go for when you know at the start, it will be a long build.

We have our 2 free tickets and we are hoping that 2 more arrive from Insulhub by Friday morning so that we can get in both days. Otherwise I’m going to have to make up an 2 email addresses to be able to download the extra day. We haven’t ever paid to get in yet and don’t want to start now.

Anyone else going Friday or Saturday?

I think maybe you need to consider better, quicker ways of creating a bathroom. I particularly like the shower, heated by a candle. No LPG connection needed!

Do you have the appeal reference please?

Oooooer - that is very interesting @lizzie.

We are going up on Friday - should get there for the afternoon. Staying locally overnight so we can go in the next day till early afternoon. All had to be fitted in around daughter who is dog sitting overnight ?

First house, large extension and every ceiling in the house had to come down. We were late 20s early 30s. Peter did all the PB by himself - set up a large T the height of the ceiling to hold one end up while he screwed the other end. I had no idea it was a heavy job and he didn’t complain, just got on with it. Last house we did the upstairs together and boy did we struggle - it was hard work. When we started on the downstairs, we discovered a plasterboard lifter. OMG - it was a life changing moment. Yes, get one or ten but DO NOT USE THEM AT HEIGHT - I am scared of heights to the extent that I don’t like to see or know anyone else is at height. I believe that they will turn into lemmings. If they do one for high ceilings, get it now!

We have a touring caravan for our holidays (I knownit’s Boring but great for holidays with the dogs). When we had a power cut that looked to last into the evening, we decamped into the caravan where everything is set up to work perfectly without electric. I cooked dinner, had a shower and had the heating running. Quite disappointed when the power came back on. We will not have anything other than electric in the new house and not going to worry about it.

We are planning our house in Isotex - an ICF product. Building a simple square structure, with great sound insulation is easily done. Very DIY friendly.

True - I was imagining on a site that already had a permitted dwelling.