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We will be starting on the brickwork and blockwork exterior soon on our bungalow. Part of the bungalow will be rendered and we are going to use a colour fast render. The bricklayer has asked us to check which blocks are required by the architect. The architect says = quote We hope you are well and should be using a dense block like a Hemelite Standard block (3.5N/mm2) (noted on the sections) or similar approved by the render manufacturer? We always recommend a dense block aswell and so does most render manufacturers as they reduce the cracking in the render. unquote Colourfast Renders have been recommended to us and they state quote The one coat render systems from Weber, Parex and K-Rend are designed primarily for going straight onto 7n concrete block and a minimum depth of 15mm. However all of these products can be used over virtually any surface with the correct preparation. unquote Which would be best?

I believe he did because as Chris (husband) was measuring he was telling him to allow more room. Will check it though. He is very experiences. He told us to bear in mind that when sitting far away, and low down, you do not want to be seeing the chimney throat. All things to be bearing in mind.

Whew! Just had a word with our lovely Brickie and he has reassured us that all will be fine and the woodburner should sit inside it comfortably with room to spare.

We have just discovered that our fireplace, although it is external, is very shallow. This means that all those inglenooks I have drooled over will not fit. It also means the woodburner will sit in the room rather than inside the fireplace. The chimney is only a couple of courses of brick high at the moment so we could change it. Half of me goes "noooo!" because it holds things up again while the other half of me says that we should have what we want.

We have trickle vents in our windows. I assume that will be enough?

We were told that a well sealed modern house may not produce enough room air to feed the stove and external air should always be considered. This need not be fed straight into the burner but may be provided by an air brick in the room.

We have a traditional brick and block build. Will that absorb heat more than a timber frame?

In what way? The range of stoves in our local showroom (Natural Heating in Attleborough, Norfolk) is mind boggling. The proprietor is, however, very knowledgeable and told us about the gap needed behind each stove. They stock a British built stove that is certified to be sited 1mm to wallpaper! I wonder, though, if it is so well insulated that it will let out enough heat for a large room?? Thank you for the posting of photos of stoves in situ. Our chimney breast is external so we can have an inglenook style. I do get a bit hung up, however, on "keeping it modern" in a new build. We have always lived in old houses and taken pains to keep it authentic to the period that I struggle to think that I can use "old" in a new build.

We, too, are at the stage where we need to choose our fireplace and woodburner options. Our chimney is going to be external and the brickie is asking us for dimensions of the internal part. This means we have had to go looking at woodburners. We have had one before in our old cottage but this is a new build so I am struggling to marry new fireplace with old style wood burner. The modern looking ones seem to all be sited free standing in a room. There is an amazing stove seller near us who has lots of makes to choose from but recommends Heta. Any one had a Heta? They do seem very good quality (Danish?). The array at the warehouse is immense. Went in looking for modern cylindrical and came out thinking of a more traditional style but with a log store underneath. The store gave sensible guidance on ease of opening the door and emptying the ash can for us oldies (cheek!).

I would love to be able to afford an interior designer. My reasons are that I am a bit of a perfectionist but I am also very indecisive. This causes me great stress as I go around looking at styles and colours etc wishing I could decide on them to make a perfect picture. I usually end up with very bland effects in order to play safe. I have asked for a garden design for my Birthday. My reason for this is that we, as a couple, have more arguments over what happens in the garden. My husband is much more likely to give in to me in the house as I have proved to him, many times, that once the colour/pattern etc is chosen he never notices it. I, on the other hand, will keep checking that things "go" with each other. I might be satisfied or I might long to change things.

Our neighbour had the same problem with the road closure. When the water company came and dug up the road for his water connection he gave the guys a drink (£50) to lay a plastic tube along side it for him to thread the telephone wire through.

Having lived in various houses over the years the one thing I would class as "essential" is the orientation of the house. It beggars belief how many architects site a house on a sizeable plot and just face it to the road when it could be orientated to make the most of the South and West aspects. Our current old cottage and many, many other rural properties (with the flexibility of having decent sized plots) face South. It has no North facing windows at all. It is such a delight to live in! When our architect was siting our new bungalow on a very large plot with no restrictions he orientated it to be seen from the approach driveway. I pointed out to him that this would mean all rooms would be facing North or East with the hallway facing South and West! Of course we were able to spin it round but If we hadn't had our experience of previously living in houses with North and East facing windows we would not have thought to even mention it. Yes the wow factor is not so great when you drive up to the property but that is a small price to pay for the joy of having light flood into the house. There is a property being built opposite us, with no site constrictions, that is nigh on a mansion. We met the architect when he was wandering around one day and commented on how lucky he was to have total freedom to orientate the house to the South, overlooking fields, and to the West, again overlooking fields. He gave us a puzzled look. The plans were submitted and approved with the house facing the road (West)! On the Southern aspect of the house he has designed a fully glazed garden room!

Too late We did consider the the alu clad ones but we both love real wood and have had the same hardwood windows in our cottage for over 35 years. They are as good now as the day we installed them. All they need is a coat of timber treatment every year or so. The new build is a bungalow so the job will be even easier.

Lovely to see on finished. Well done! I was interested in you comment on wood burners. We are installing one as a back up in case of power cuts.

What reasons are you being given for the delay?

Our fantastic brickie says "yes". Our wooden window manufacturer offered us profiles and our brickie was ecstatic. He says it makes life so much easier as you know that when it comes to fitting the proper door or window you have built the walls to exactly the right template.

Thanks guys for all the support. Hwmbo is a heating engineer so has worked on sites all his life. Even he is frustrated though. We have renovated three houses and built daughter's large extension so should know about patience. Those renovations, though, were all done entirely by us. I am a "do it now" person and find the "hurry up in order to wait around" of the building trade very hard. We are lucky to have lived here for nearly 40 years and most of our tradesmen are either known to us already or come on good personal recommendation. The brickie is much sought after but approached us to offer his services on our bungalow as he says he is getting too old for clambering up scaffolding. We gladly agreed but the job over the road was started before ours and so he feels obliged to finish it first. It was held up (!) for a while as the architect had made errors on the roof of the garage complex. The roofer is sorting them out and the build is continuing. Just galls me a little that our neighbours didn't say to to our brickie to go and finish our bungalow before starting on their garage complex. Had the water main fiasco not happened we would have had the brickie first and have been finished and in by now. Hey ho.

Forgot the bit about laying the dpm ourselves in temperatures of over 25C. Phew!

As some might remember we had a huge hold up last year when a mains water pipe was discovered slap bang under our proposed build. All things building stopped while we did battle with Anglian Water over their extortionate charges to move it. We cleared off to winter in Spain and left them to complete the job. Since returning, and starting the complaints procedure over their £17K charge to move it, we have hit one hold up after the other. Our groundworker returned, eventually, and completed the trenches but then de camped to get on with his other job (farmer). There is a bit of a building boom locally and finding someone competent to carry on where he left off was a nightmare. We, in the meantime, managed to get a local chap to supply the hardcore and we borrowed a whacker plate to flatten it all out. Then we laid the sand which promptly blew away in Storm What'sitsname! We did it again (we are both in our seventies) and then, having found an experienced ground worker, we got the concrete poured. Thank goodness we did because it has not stopped raining since Now the Brickie has been claimed back to a, held up, job across the road! It is particularly galling as it is just their garage/connecting corridor/flat, that is almost as big as our bungalow, to add to the delays. I am not sure whether seeing him working on it is worse than not knowing where his or what he is doing. He is one of the good guys so worth waiting for. I keep thinking about the shortening daylight hours which will get gradually worse along with the weather Keep thinking we should sell up both the plot and the house and buy ourselves a little finished place somewhere.

Just some feedback on this. He went and said it was excellent. A very knowledgeable tutor who was also very engaging.

A proposed estate in our village were particularly told, by the police consultation, that the car parking must be visible from the house for security reasons.

Depends on your Planning Authority I would have thought. Several people have done such a thing around here and told us that as long as it is your house you can do what you like with it. Then some of the very same people bought another old house, with land, got planning permission to build on the land but were told they could not knock down the old, frail, timber framed un listed house beside it. I am not sure if that was a definite "no" or just that they would rather they didn't knock it down. Only time will tell

Can't help but just wanted to say that I love your username!

We are completely new to self building too. A little further on than you are. I liked our architect and he has proved a valuable friend by tweaking the plans every time I thought of an improvement. He never scoffed or tried to talk me out of changes but gave me the facts I needed to make a good decision. With him it all came in the asking price. You will need planning advice over whether the planners will look more kindly on "converting" the old stable or a separate build. You might be able to compromise and incorporate the stable as, say, a garage or workshop. All planners are different, even within planning departments!