patp

If the original one has gone missing, which I think it has, then we can donate ours now that we have finished with it. We are in Norfolk. How do tool items get moved around the country?

Trying to follow this thread. My old brain is struggling. UK Power are coming next week to lay our 3 phase supply to our cabinet. I am pretty sure our electrician told me that I had to contact a supplier but have forgotten why. Does he mean I must choose a supplier like Octopus or Eon? If so which is best? We have a large array of solar panels and would like to export back to the grid after we have used what we need. That is the extent of my knowledge!

Can't speak for that one but we went on one run by Potton the timber frame people. It was free! We are doing a traditional build but the principles of project management are the same for both. We found it very helpful. We have, since, gone on to project manage our new build bungalow.

Just a thought. Does the SE know the elm trees are being removed? Will he believe you if you tell him or is it his brief to design on what he actually sees on site?

No other plots involved here. Our site is a single plot to the rear of our our existing property. There is an AW main running down the, private, access road to the new property. It serves our existing house and the house on the opposite side of the road. The private road is a shared one between us and the farm next door. The new supply comes off that main. I imagine the solicitor will be aware of the nature of the track ownership. We did tell her about it and she was going to register it in both names as it is, at the moment, unregistered. Our neighbour is amenable but not sure if it is top of his list of priorities.

Update Could not believe what the AW agent said the other day so phoned again. This time I have been told that our plumber can access the pipework on "our" side of the boundary and put a standpipe in. Once done we have to ring them and they will come and fit a water meter. Phew!

I saw a couple of plumbers on a site and asked them If I had heard it all correctly. They were not surprised @CalvinHobbs we are fine with the organisation (or have managed all the battles so far - do a search on water main running under site ) Our main aim is to not look back and say "wish we had thought of that". I think the favourite option is to plan a move onto the local camp site and hope that we can manage to stay put. The electricians are here and working on getting us connected. UK Power due next week. We could run a hose from the existing house, as we have been up to now, but would have to lag it in the coming weather or keep rolling it up!

Great suggestion above thank you so much. While on the phone to Anglian Water he said something about a trickle feed from the water meter. Something about a blue plastic tag. Anyone know what he is talking about? Husband was shouting obscenities so I missed half of it Of course the new owners could supply us with water at the site too. If they want to move in before Christmas we could make it a condition. We had already asked them if our sparky could run a, metered, supply to the bungalow. They did not say no. I think we are going to end up on the campsite up the road as the most stress free option. We are experienced motorhomers so I am sure we will manage. It does not have a laundry, Jilly, but there is a launderette in the nearest town and I am sure our friends would not mind us popping in to do some washing occasionally.

A phone call to Anglian Water to finalise the water connection (it is all laid up to the new bungalow) resulted in ne getting nowhere this morning. They refuse to do the final connection until all the second fix is complete and every bit of sanitary ware is installed and ready for "inspection". How is it that we can get connected to electricity without all our appliances being "inspected" and to the phone line without having a phone installed but not to a water supply? I asked about a temporary supply (we have been using a hose from the house) but that, apparently, requires a new pipe to be laid!

What a kind lot you are. Thank you so much for all the lovely words. Renting with a dog is nigh on impossible. We may find a let but doubt it will be local or in a decent condition/location. We cannot complete the new bungalow without selling the house. Having lost three buyers we feel strongly that we must hang on to these. They are cash in the bank buyers. As they are also going to be neighbours they tick another box of being nice people. Yes the fifth wheel, though smaller than most (Celtic Rambler, made in Wales, if you want to have a peak), is comfortable and we spent a winter in it a few years ago. Husband has refused surgery (permanent stoma was the negative that made him do that) and has had intensive radiotherapy combined with chemotherapy. This all coincided with a break in building due to running out of funds. He is recovering at the moment but we do not know how effective the treatment has been yet. Surgery may still be necessary. He is adamant that he is never having the radiotherapy/chemotherapy again! Great advice on the aggregate around the caravan. Our farmer neighbour deals in it so we have a local supply. Synthetic grass sounds good too. Fencing has also got to be very secure for us to relax when the dog is let out. Three sides are fenced but we need to put up a temporary dog proof fence all along one side running to about 35 metres with a natural pond to factor in. When travelling in the fifth wheel we use windbreaks to fence the dog in.

Our house sale is looking likely to go through before Christmas. New bungalow on plot to the rear is not finished. Second fix plumbing was under way when plumber husband got diagnosed with bowel cancer. He is undergoing treatment with results not yet known. We have a fifth wheel caravan to move into and are hopeful that UK Power will have us connected to the grid. Openreach are a nightmare but they may have us sorted with fibre to the premises. Drains are behind schedule i.e. not started due to contractor being super busy with Covid related problems. Our buyers are in a worse state than us i.e. living in a rented, freezing cold, caravan on a site that does not allow dogs. Their two elderly dogs are farmed out with one in kennels. We have a couple of options for immediate relocation. One is to stay on site surrounded by mud etc with our dog. Another is to go to a, nice, campsite just up the road for £20 per night. Do we put all our furniture in storage or use the, dry, bungalow for storage? Tips on how to organise the stuff i.e. in one room or in dedicated rooms? Should we get the utility room sorted so that we have access to washing machine etc? All above are doable (?) except drainage. Should we dig a temporary septic tank? There are our old compost heaps nearby - if we don't use chemical in the caravan could we compost the caravan toilet waste? Any tips for stress reduction given that husband is not allowed alcohol and I am abstaining in sympathy?

No one has mentioned the planet yet On the subject of kerb appeal I have to say I hate the look of most installations and resisted retrofitting them to our old cottage. If installed inset into roof tiles they look much better. We have even had compliments on our array that cover the whole of our South facing roof.

In our area (Norfolk) farmers seem to get away with building houses for "Farm Managers". Amazing how many "managers" they need........

Makes sense to do it. What fuel are you using to run the "boiler/heat pump" If its a heat pump and you did want to stick with radiators you would have to replace them anyway and they are more expensive. A gas/oil boiler would be ok with existing radiators.

Yeah, I have heard that they are very free with ducting and cabling. I imagine that if we get all the ducting and cabling laid then it will not be too difficult, even if the "wrong" engineer comes, to get it connected? Did I say that they gave us, after yesterday's visit, a refund of £65.42 for being unable to connect us? I did tell the poor chap our tale of woes at being cut off just when OH was diagnosed with cancer when we have no mobile signal to speak of.

Openreach came out yesterday. That is a significant bonus as it has always been BT that came out before. Nice guy who said he was just a customer service engineer and so could not do the job! He did, however, promise to email the office to try to get things moving. He also said he would order 80m of ducting and cable to be delivered. His advice was that we need to get a surveyor from Openreach (he could not help with this ) who would put an order in for the job to be done. He also spray painted where the ducting needs to go from the pole into a trench on our land. At least we can get on with digging the trench out. I saw him later, up the village, where he was sorting the fibre to get it to us In answer to the suggestion above about our address - it is in the post office database. Whenever I ring them they can find the address. It is just making the call centre handlers at BT understand that it is a new build. I think I achieved this, latest, progress by calling myself a developer and not mentioning our existing house. If they get the slightest whiff of a house move they go off on the wrong track. Why is it that these engineers cannot come and do the whole job? We always laugh at road works in the village. Someone comes with a notice about road closure. Someone else comes and closes the road. Along comes the guy with the traffic lights for partial closures. Next will be the guy that digs up the road. Later will be the guy who does the job followed by someone to fill in the trench then someone to tarmac it. Days later the barriers will be removed but not before someone else has collected the traffic lights!

Up in the centre of the village. You often see the engineers working on them. Our engineer has just been. He cannot do the job He is, however, from Openreach which is progress at least. He says he is going to put an order in for the cable and ducting that we need. Once that is delivered we can, at least lay the cable underground. We should then, he tells us, be able to organise for a surveyor to come out and do a survey that should lead to an order for connection. Not holding my breath. I can, at least, speak their language and ask for a surveyor when I ring them. Once you start saying words like "connection" their brain goes towards a house move. If anyone knows the technical words for installing a new line to a new build then I would be most grateful.

No mobile signal This is why the day they cut us off became such a nightmare. Chris had, a day or so earlier, been diagnosed with bowel cancer and was waiting for urgent referral. I spent hours, and I am not exaggerating here, waving the mobile around at the end of the garden trying to get someone to do something. No one could ring us and we could not unless dressed in waterproofs and wellies call anyone else. Several of the engineers have promised to "sort it" when they come but nothing ever happens! I think that part of the problem is that we have been given a number and exist in the little green box. Once an engineer finds that out he just thinks it is a "fault" or that we want broadband connected. We did raise a complaint over the time they cut us off and that did galvanise them to get us back on in the house but not to connect the new bungalow. Yet another engineer is coming today.

Only about seven times

Hope this is the right place? We have been battling with BT and Openreach to get a phone line installed. Is there a secret that no one is telling us? We had a huge saga where they completely cut us off thinking that we were moving out of our house and into the new one. Hospital appointments were messed up, family worried etc. Yet another engineer is coming out tomorrow but I am a bit worried about the language being used in the emails as to whether he knows there is not supply to the new build at all. I explain it all in words of one syllable to BT but it always ends up with a confused engineer not being able to do the job. The latest one says the engineer will "connect our broadband" when he comes. Is there a way to talk directly to Openreach instead of it getting lost in translation via BT?

I thought I was going to love it when I saw the plans. HIs economising changed it somewhat and not for the better in my opinion.

Trusses in the way of most of the standard ones above. Looks like we might need to make one.

750 x 565 or thereabouts.

One of the better ones in the end but the process was, as above, a bit suspect. Makes good telly though. It wasn't as remote as it seemed. The cameral picked up someone's house nearby. A relative I think. Planners are under such pressure to achieve targets that every little (or big) one helps.

Local builders and developers in "the know" seem to have a habit of putting in for planning and then, upon finding out which officer has been allocated to their project, withdrawing the plans.