vivienz

I set up a trade account at Howdens a couple of days ago to get my temporary staircase. Took in some ID and my bank details, they did a credit search and it was up and running with a credit limit a couple of hours later.

A little nudge on this topic and closer to the original thread. I'm off to see a friend in Birmingham shortly and I noticed that Worktop Express have a showroom in nearby Smethwick, so I'm going to go and have a look at their new laminate surfaces as well as anything else there. I shall report back with any observations.

I did notice that one of the suppliers could ship from Spain instead of China and that brought the shipping times down to about 5 days, and the prices were no different. It's worth comparing the different suppliers for shipping options as well as prices. It's worth adding that the multi-head pendant light is about $95 but I originally saw it in The Conran Shop for just under £1k.

Another thinking ahead type post, this time on lighting. As I previously mentioned, I've been trying to firm up on the switches, sockets and all of that kind of thing that I will need to put in but wasn't making much progress. Thinking on it further, though, I believe that my slowness was coming from the fact that I haven't decided on my lighting scheme and other electrickery, so I wouldn't be able to define exactly what I want to switch on and off. As a result, I'm now putting some effort into being specific in what I want from my lights and I dropped into a local LED lighting place that also offers lighting schemes to see how they could enhance what I already had. I must say, I was rather disappointed. I talked through my thoughts functional versus decorative lighting, fun lighting and the styles I like and the guy said that he couldn't really add much to it and it was largely a case of choosing the fittings I wanted. I was a bit deflated, really, as I'm not a shopping kind of girl but I thought that this might be interesting, but hey ho, no great loss other than 20 minutes of time. As a reminder, here's the plan of our ground floor: 1120 - 103DIMS - Bagber Farm Cottage - PROPOSED GROUND FLOOR.PDF The floor to ceiling height is a little higher than standard at 2.7m to ensure that the room doesn't feel oppressive, particularly in the living area. Let's start with the kitchen. Functional lighting - over the island (where the hob is located) and over the rear kitchen wall, where the sink and further work surface areas are. This will simply be LED downlighters. Decorative/functional lighting - over the island, particularly the breakfast bar end, nearest to the utility room. I want to have a pendant light here, picture below. Decorative lighting - I want to have LED strips along the island and base unit plinths, with diffusers as I don't like to see the individual LEDs. Purely personal choice. Also, I want to have uplighters above the kitchen wall units as these make a big visual difference in opening out the dark recesses of the kitchen that can otherwise look gloomy. I'm considering a dropped false panel over the island. I'm having a downdraught extractor and so don't need it for that, but I think it will look good with the lights in it and subtly separate the kitchen area from the dining and living area without having a full vertical barrier between the two. I have had some of these on order from China for a few months now. Unfortunately, the first lot failed to arrive so they have been re-sent and should be here in the next couple of weeks (if not, a full refund is given). I'm going to put them over the breakfast bar area and wherever we decide is the most appropriate place for the dining table. The image isn't great as the darkest units are black, not brown as they appear. I ordered the first lot from DHGate, which hasn't been a great experience, as the user interface isn't up to much. Aliexpress is much better, in my opinion, but I shall wait and see what arrives. I haven't decided on the lighting for the living area yet. My thoughts so far are that it's going to be wall lights and lamps and maybe a few recessed downlighters in the ceiling, centrally located over the main seating area. It's hard to decide before knowing what furniture will go into that part of the room. In the meantime, the hallway will also be wall lights and LED downlighters. What I'm aiming for everywhere is at least 2 different levels of light. The LED downlighters for when you really do need a bright light, but softer indirect lighting for other times, from wall lights or lamps. I'm lighting the stairway with some recessed stair LEDs that I saw in the lighting shop at £35 each. Eek! I'm way too tight to pay that. I got these for the princely sum of $7 each on aliexpress, which is about £5.50, depending on the exchange rate. Much more to my taste. As was suggested elsewhere, I've ordered more of these than I need in case the LEDs can't be replaced and I need to substitute a whole unit if the LED fails - hardly expensive at that price. I've ordered the rectangular ones. I've known for a while how I want to do the downstairs loo - thanks, Pinterest! I really wanted the one where it looks like the loo is floating on a pier heading out to a lake, but hubby vetoed that, so here's the one we will have. Again, I like the soft, diffused light effect. It will have a PIR for the on/off as I really hate pull cords. Nasty things. Finally, the bedrooms have got some wildly high vaults going on (nearly 4.7m at the highest) so, any excuse for a fancy light, I've chosen these, again on order from Aliexpress: For information, as I know you'll be wondering, my total order with Aliexpress is for 15 of the recessed stair lights, 1 of the multi-head pendant and 2 of the branch LED pendants, which came to $616, so probably about £480 by the time I'm done. Delivery was free, except for about 30 cents on the stair lights. Finally, I made a slight internal design change today, concerning some partial stud walls in the bedrooms. I have only been able to make a true judgement on these now that the roof is being formed, but I'll put more details on that in a later post. UPDATE, 24/9/18: More to follow, but I've received the first part of my delivery. This is one of the firefly lights, immediately above, and all the recessed stair downlighters. Pending my payment of the customs charges and duty, the remaining pendant lights will be delivered on Wednesay. Cue drumroll........the customs clearance fee is £11.25 and the import VAT is.......£16.09. All told, £27.34 of fees and VAT to pay, so I'm pretty chuffed at that. The dowlighters look perfectly adequate and the pendant looks okay, too. Very well packaged. More to follow when I've got all the lights in my possession. With photos, of course!

Thanks, Herb. This was my original choice but I've been swayed by the render. i need to look into costs and feasibility now. Update to follow.

Nice - thanks, @Stones. That's looking like my preferred option.

Ooooh, watching with interest.

I want to light the stairway with some low level recessed LED lights and saw these in a lighting shop for £35 each. Needless to say, I prefer the Aliexpress price, even with the long delivery time. Any comments regarding the product, anyone? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1W-Square-Round-Aluminum-LED-Corner-Wall-Light-Impaction-Night-Lamp-for-Porch-Pathway-Step-stair/32842267075.html?ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_5_10065_10130_10068_5016020_10547_10548_10696_10192_10190_10084_10083_451_10618_452_10307_10820_10821_10301_10303_5015920_10059_5015320_100031_5015220_10103,searchweb201603_54,ppcSwitch_2&algo_expid=2ce2081c-3824-42c3-8b02-391bff026a8c-6&algo_pvid=2ce2081c-3824-42c3-8b02-391bff026a8c&transAbTest=ae803_1&priceBeautifyAB=0

Thanks again, Herb. Your lights are lovely! We have to keep external lighting to a minimum but we need some. I had better get my skates on with thinking that one through.

I confess that I hadn't! Good idea, though, as I think it may sit easier with the colour of the cladding. I was also thinking of render for external windiw reveals as there isn't a compatible solution from the cladding manufacturer.

Wow! What a spectacular view! Your project sounds very exciting and I'm full of admiration for you doing the work yourselves - well beyond my capability. And an amazing looking plan, too.

Welcome! Tell us more - do you have plans, designs, a plot....?

I have my doubts about this. Based on the law of conservation of energy, this much heat production should mean that x10 the number of calories are expended in the production of said heat. Yeah, right. I wish. I have yet to see any other physical evidence of faster calorie burn. Unless another part of me dramatically decreases in temperature at the same time. Oh, of course, that will be my cold, stony heart if anyone dares suggest that I'm going through the change and seem a little grumpier than usual.

Thanks, Herb. The only penetrations through the external walls are the MVHR inlet/outlet, everything else is catered for via ductwork coming up through the slab. The note on noggins is timely - there will be a few fixtures and, likewise, the gutters and downpipes. Truly, I feel like I've got a case of rabies coming on as I'm so hydrophobic for my building!

How much are you putting up?

The timber frame will be substantially built by the middle of next week and I'm thinking through and organising the next stages, so this post is to help crystallise my thoughts and offer them out for anything I have missed that is time-critical. MBC will be working over the weekend and the build will be substantially finished around Tuesday or Wednesday. They are going to leave out a few of the stud walls, the ones that form the walls of the landing, until they return to do the air test, simply because it makes moving around up there much easier. Once the air test is done, they'll put the stud walls in place and blow in the cellulose. I've got a couple of site visits from roofers over the next few days; it's crucial that I get the eaves courses done before the PV installation as it can't happen without them and they are really tight on time slots at the moment. The PV is due on the 26th/27th September, immediately after the glazing which goes in on the 24th/25th. Now that I have a house-shaped object, I have requested a site visit from the glazing installation manager to make sure that I'm clear on everything they need to do their thing. He's coming out next week, so that gives me time to get any alterations to the scaffolding scheduled, as it will be impossible to get them out on the day if there are any problems and I'll miss my installation time slot, which will put everything else back. Running in parallel with this is the garage flat roof and quite a few fiddly bits on the build that need tending to as soon as possible. The garage roof needs its GRP on because it won't be watertight until this happens. Also, there is a flat roof section over the stairwell, next to the main pitched section and it would be good to get this done whilst all the scaffolding is up to that height. Other flat roof sections are the balconies, and then the gutter runs behind the parapets will need lining with GRP or something similar, but I need to look more closely at that. On the subject of balconies, I need to get my balustrades sorted. I haven't started getting quotes yet or even gone beyond sourcing a couple of suppliers. I don't know what the lead times are for these things, but I'm working on them being more than a couple of weeks. Likewise, I need to get quite a bit of aluminium fabrication done for the EPS upstand and to cap the parapets at the top of the ground floor, pretty much all the way around. If anyone has any suggestions for anything other than aluminium, I'm all ears! I currently think that aluminium is a good option as it can be powder coated to the same RAL colour as my window frames and should all blend in nicely, as well as being formed to the exact measurements needed. At some point, I need to get my guttering and downpipes sourced and attached, but the downpipes won't go into final positions until the cladding is on. Again, running in parallel to this lot, I'm thinking about when it's best to get my groundworker back in to dig out the drainage runs, amongst other things. I'm thinking some time around the first weeks of October, mainly because I have to get a trench dug for the service alteration and burial of the electricity cable, which has been booked for 17th October. Other things that need to be dug out for are the sewage treatment plant, the land drain for the output of the plant, the rainwater storage tank, the trenches for the rainwater run-off into the tank, trenches for a brine loop in the field and finally a socking great pond in the field that may then fill up over the winter. I daresay that this isn't a comprehensive list of holes to be dug, but it will do for that couple of weeks. Moving to things to do inside, most of it will happen after the air tightness test, which will happen after the glazing and all doors are in, but also after the inlet and outlet for the MVHR have been put through the roof and sealed. This will also need to be done before the bulk of the roof is tiled. After the air test has been completed, MBC will then blow the cellulose into the frame and re-seal the holes they put in to add the cellulose, and then first fix can start in earnest. I've made a bit of a stab at the lighting, switches and sockets plan but I'm still pondering a few things on that (like, I don't know half of what's out there and what I might like) so I need to get my act together in order to be ready for first fix. So, all of that lot should see me through to the first fix work which is in hand and I can go on to contemplate the joys of sanitaryware and generally making the place look like a habitable house rather than a house-shaped object. One thing is certain - it's going to be a very, very busy time from the end of September onwards so the more I can get planned out now, the better.

Just a quick heads-up for anyone like me who has never given much thought to these. I decided I really needed some for my build now that the first floor is going up, and it turns out that the window company insist on them for installation. I opened a trade account at my local Howdens Joinery this morning and tomorrow, I will be the proud owner of a set of temporary stairs for the princely sum of £119 + VAT and £20 for delivery. They come as a standard size which isn't quite tall enough for my build, but the MBC team will do the necessary and make it fit.

It shouldn't be a big deal at all for Openreach as I don't plan on having a connection with them anyway, I'm going to have a Vonage phone connection via Wessex Internet along with the broadband connection. The Openreach kit is truly redundant.

Ouch, but nowhere near as bad as it could have been. No compensation, I know, but having just a hint of bats in the old bungalow cost us a good few thousand extra just so that we could get the damned thing demolished. One can hypothesise that had we had more asbestos, it might have done for the bats and the costs evened out in the end.

I have a similar issue, Mike. My garage will have OSB board on it for the roof (it's not part of the thermal envelope) and is going to be exposed until I get another layer of board and the GRP finish onto it. I asked the MBC team today and the best they could suggest was some big rolls of polythene and a few planks to hold it down in the meantime.

The power company have said that they won't remove the poles and that I need to contact Openreach to get them to remove their kit.

I'm on my way out there shortly, so I shall cast my beady eye over them. There was plenty of foamy stuff over the board joins yesterday, but I didn't realise the significance of looking for it foaming over. Thanks, Peter.

Oh, lovely to see and hear the progress. It sounds like you're quite on top of things now with only minor issues to overcome.

I'm not sure if it's a problem or not, to be honest. The line that ran into the old bungalow is just wrapped around the pole that is close to where the old property was. The issue, I suspect, is that there's another line between the pole on my land and one on the neighbour's. These are both power line poles but both will need to be altered when I bury the electricity supply and I'm not sure how best to go about getting the Openreach equipment removed. I've emailed the following address: archive.ripple@openreach.co.uk These chaps are, apparently, pretty speedy with their replies so I should know shortly whether they have a wayleave or not. Once I have that, I'll do the usual recorded letter thingy to get Openreach to move their kit. If it helps, here's a photo of the line running between the pole on my land with the temporary supply cabinet and across to the pole on the neighbour's property.

Thanks, Russel. I'm going to ask the guys about covering the boards or taking precautions as we're due a day of heavy rain on Saturday. Plenty of time for it to dry out, but I've seen too many puffed up egger board seams now to want to avoid this, if possible.