Mr Punter

If you post up the plans we can see if there are any easy wins by tweaking. Regarding access, you will need to get concrete and muckaway lorries in or costs will rise. Most timber frame can be unloaded and erected with a telehandler. Can you have concrete roof tiles? Cheap to buy and lay, very durable and look pretty good.

Is that a basement? I see you have floor cassettes but it did not look like they were used until later. I really like the roof system. Is that also pre-insulated?

Was there a fair difference in the cost to have them fully finished?

I use Excel's goal seek feature to obtain the residual land value based on the required developer profit. In the example below I use the feature to set the value of B13 to 15% by changing B4.

In my limited experience the Virtual Freehold (999 year) leases I have seen only have a peppercorn rent. The £12 a year is a low ground rent and not a peppercorn. You will be bound by all the terms of the lease, which gives the freeholder more control than would be the case of, say, a covenant in the title. Could you negotiate and offer half? Bear in mind that fees (legal, land reg, lender consent) can be fairly high for this sort of transaction. Don't focus on the 100 times bit. £1,300 for freehold title would certainly be worth it to me. I would go as far as saying that if there were 2 identical properties in you road I would pay an extra £5k for the freehold one.

You often get a key with the sewer plan showing the manhole depth and the pipe size and type. I doubt the one in the garden is more than 150mm diameter. Can you lift a lid and have a look? It looks like you could just put in a couple more inspection chambers to re-route this and it should not cost a fortune.

I have bought Compriband from an eBay shop at a decent price. Keep it in the fridge before you fit it, especially in summer, as otherwise it can expand too quickly.

Bet the hairdo wasn't cheap @lizzie

It is not just the ground rent and there may be other restrictions on what you can do and what you have to pay. Sometimes for example you need freeholder consent to develop and they will often charge a hefty fee to grant this. Are there any service charges?

The rear porch is bonkers and you are well shot of it. With a house of this age you need to be very careful of asbestos, especially if you plan to demolish. Why the sea of tarmac at the back? Is that the only parking? It would be good to have the back garden feel a bit more private.

Get a powerful jetwash to clean all the laitance and loose material. I am not sure where your DPM and insulation is going. You could just have a screed to level it, some insulation and 22mm chipboard floating floor. If you have tiles in the room they may get broken with weights / equipment, so vinyl would be better.

The bead size depends on the render system. With carrier boards there is often a base / mesh coat of about 5mm and top coat 5-8mm. I hope it is not through coloured. I don't really like the bell cast drip at the bottom. I prefer it flush.

In the past we have dug trial holes and as long as the ground is OK for a standard foundation that is all we have done. Ask Building Control what is normally acceptable for the location. If you need special foundations you will need a proper geotechnical report.

As long as they are pressure treated and good quality (fairly knot free, straight, no splits) it does not matter. The BS ones are graded to ensure the safety of people working on the roof, as well as the ability to support the roof covering. You may find 38 x 50 less available as BS.

You could specify a fireman's switch. Get the gate automation and access control supplied and fitted by a professional as there is plenty to mess up and some crappy stuff on the market.

For horizontal cladding, fix 38 x 50 battens at min 600 (prefer 400) centres. If you find this will stick out too much, use 25 x 50 battens.

With @joe90's house does anyone know approximately what difference to annual running costs the difference between this test result and, say 0.6 would make? Does 1.0 really make much difference?

We have Mercury - very expensive but it cooks fairly evenly. My brother has Lacanche and it does not cook evenly, the control knobs get really hot and cannot be read and the auto ignite is either missing or broken. Bertazzoni look fab but are poorly reviewed. We used to have an Aga in a previous house. It was just crap to cook with - no control at all over the temperature, but at the time they were on trend.

I have tried both but I am currently on a range cooker, which I quite like. I don't like the bank of tall units fashion much.

Unless you cannot afford to do the work, need a second loan / refinance etc, I think you can take the email on face value and go ahead. It is up to your lender to make sure their advisers give clear and accurate information to customers. I still can't work out how the lender found out in the topic though...

Tile adhesive will be fine.

Well you are a cheap date!

I think 2 people could do this. The rate will depend on the layout of the space. They may need to use special levelling clips. The floor will need to be completely flat as will the tiles. At least the grouting should be easy! You can get a Rubi type manual cutter for 1200mm tiles, or you are into a power cutter. Budget £3,000-£4,000 inc adhesive and grout.

I am keen on clay paving if the budget allows. I does not fade and it weathers nicely.

I hope that is block paving onto sharp sand with kiln dried joints as even then that is a lot of work.