DownSouth

Do you need to remove them? Could you put a sleeper wall in front, cut the top third of the rotten wood off, stick it in the gap you’ve made and cover it with soil and just top it up after the wood eventually rots down. If you plant in front of it you won’t see the sleeper angles.

We gave up on acoustic panels because of the cost and found that lots of little things made it less echoey - like cork place mats or cork roll over the table, tablecloths with a heat mat under it, curtains, cushion pads made from acoustic foam (foam factory does made to measure), thin acoustic foam or felt behind large pictures, small rug as a wall hanging, plants, books on a shelf. It all adds up.

We used charred wood cladding and can’t use abrasive cleaners without exposing the wood underneath, which then removes the weather protective properties. The very heavy charred wood is soft and flakes really easily. I’ve seen very light charred wood decks on websites which look ok for low traffic areas that get sunshine - so they don’t get mossy. If you’ve got some left try a light power wash to see what happens. It does have a residue even once brushed - so how do you stop mucky footprints? I think it might be one of those things that looks great but ends up being hard work to maintain it. Be interested to know how you get on…

It’d be brighter with windows on 3 aspects wouldn’t it?

Is the moral of the story don’t live in a rain forest? Or beware trolls?

We dumped our first MCS Certified ASHP designer - they refused to factor in MVHR ‘in case it failed’ as the BUS apparently required a single heat source calculation. So finding someone who is certified but also understands the reality of ASHP + MVHR and won’t oversize the heat pump because of the ASHP only calculation is key.

With you on that - last place we used white mosaics in the bathroom. Every time I went in I could see every single uneven tile. This time it’s 600x600 tiles for us. High end of quality isn’t about where you shop for your kitchen to my mind, it’s about how thoughtfully the room is designed and how skillfully everything in it is fitted. Buying things that won’t date too - I never want to refit the kitchen again in the new house. I think quality is things that feel solid to touch too - so fire doors throughout with decent metal handles, quality taps that feel tactile. Just finished geeking out looking at Hansgrohe catalogues and working out what bathroom taps to get.

We have 200sqm total, zone 1 ground floor, zone 2 on the first floor, a controller / temp probe in the hallway on each floor. We’ve switched them to 19, from 21 degrees and it’s comfortably warm to work in. It might need to go back up when we are eventually just sitting around 😊 but while we’re still working away inside it’s nice and warm. We parted company with our original ASHP heating system designer because they refused to do 2 zones, wanted trv in every room and wouldn’t factor MVHR into their calculations. BC were happy with the two zones so that’s what we’ve got.

we are using a mix of Ikea where we need standard size white cupboards and Lark&Larks because the carcasses can be the same colour as the doors, so gives a nice finished look. Also they come built so big time saving, and can be custom sized and have matched coloured end panels for an in-line look. Not yet onto fitting wardrobes but pretty pleased with dining room although not quite finished.

https://www.scottishconstructionnow.com/articles/fleming-homes-opens-new-factory-and-invests-in-advanced-cnc-technology We used Fleming Homes for our house and did a road trip to the factory when it was being made. So we met the people who had helped us design it and the hands on makers. I was really pleased to see they are expanding their offer - secondary insulation, membrane and battens factory fitted… that would have saved us some time. Insulation = worst job ever 😆 and fitting up scaffolding in our vaulted ceiling was no fun. News of factory insulated roof ‘cassettes’ almost made me want to do another 🤣 (my biggest self-build fear is we’ll finish and I will want to build again…)

We just showed ours on our site drawing. Ashford BC has loads of info online about where it should be placed to not affect street scape/ be detrimental to the appearance of your own house. ABC advice is to be no more than 15m from collection point - but we have a long muddy farm track up to our bin store by the garage so it’ll be a bit of a trek taking the bins out. We went overboard, added a bike store and clad it in the same corrugated steel so it fits in… On discharging conditions, hope you’ve seen the advice to do as many as possible together if your council charges for each application?

Trying to work out when to switch to house insurance from build insurance - we are moving in and will complete the rest once in.

there’s some confusion over whether the date the house is built is it when we started building (2024), when the structure was completed (2025) or when it became habitable (2026). What did other people do?!

@ToughButterCup your post really resonated. It’s 15 years since I worked nights. 3am was always the killer, lowest point on the circadian rhythm, the witching hour. Now we seem to take it in turns to wake between 1&3, then find it impossible to get back to sleep. We’ve just done a 22 hour weekend on top of full time jobs during the week, so it’s not because we’re not tired. There’s just no switching off. It’s the daytime grumpiness that’s so hard to deal with, both being grumpy and coping with someone else who’s grumpy too.

+1 to goats https://biogoats2rent.com