vivienz

By the skin of my teeth, but that seems to be the way of construction!

What a wonderful looking bit of work. It almost seems a shame to cover it all up. Love all the photos, as well, just so useful.

Gorgeous - beautiful colours and so substantial looking.

Crumbs, my AT did everything up ti and including building regs for way less than your guy wants just for the feasibility study! Ridiculous.

Oh, that's very interesting. I shall have to look into this further. As ever, thanks, Jeremy.

So, even if you have a system installed before the cancellation date, they are not going to make any future FIT payments to anyone, i.e. the whole lot ceases? My understanding was that the payments continue for the agreed period as long as you are up and running before the cut-off date - has this changed? Edit - just read details on the net; all understood now. Self-use is undoubtedly the way to go.

Here's the design - for the pile and its attachment to the ringbeam. There are 34 of these, 25 of which are in the thermal envelope (the remaining 9 are in the uninsulated garage). The alternative design is from the same SE - I have both options from them.

Game on. The setting out for the piles is happening on Friday afternoon, 20th July. The piling contractor will also be getting everything to the site that day so that they can start bright and early on Monday morning. The piling is likely to take most of that week; I will be around at various times, but certainly Monday and Thursday, with a couple of hours here and there. If anyone would like to come along, PM me and we can arrange suitable times.

I'm itching just thinking about the insect bites!

Wow! Is the site in a forest, or just look that way? Congratulations on the PP, too.

Ours are only at the order stage, but they are ali/timber. They are thermally broken. I'm using Norrsken who do offer full measure and install.

There's been some miscommunication re. my piled foundation design with the result that I now have 2 options: 1. The piles are tied to the ring beam with the result that there is what MBC describe as a 'minor thermal bridge' for each pile. The upside of this design is that I don't need to spend approx £5k on cellcore for anti-heave and perinsul blocks for the load points of the superstructure to sit on. 2. The thermal bridge is broken by not tying the piles into the ringbeam; I will need to have cellcore and perinsul blocks. I don't know the cost of the latter but it's unlikely to be cheap. MBC haven't specified what they mean by a 'minor thermal bridge' so it's hard to make an assessment. Obviously, saving £££ on the anti-heave and additional insulation is attractive, but I don't know if it's a good long term decision. Any thoughts from the hive mind?

A quick note for anyone planning on coming to see the piles going in on 17th July. My contractor has been in touch to say that he is over running on his current job and will be starting late on mine. I have a site meeting with him on Tuesday so will update then.

My site will be getting busy from next week onwards. Piles go in on Tuesday then lots of other stuff after that. The site is in north Dorset if you'd like to come for a reccy.

That's Okay, I have a reserve. My dad was Polish so I can have one of their passports, too, but I reckon the Poles would leave before the Irish.

A bit more devolution and you'll be one too!

My mum was Irish and so I've automatically been an Irish citizen from birth; it isn't something I have to claim as such. I do have to apply for a passport but that's no different to my UK one. My motivation for getting an Irish passport is most definitely a hedge against brexit and will mean that life shouldnt be any more complicated for me than it is now. Not as far as travelling to europe is concerned, anyway.

I've posted pleas for help on the immersion in our little place before now in France and hold dual citizenship (not French!) - does that count?

Ha! Now I know why the council got their knickers in a twist - I've just received a letter from the VOA notifying me that the property has been deleted from the valuation list, effective on 31st May. So, as I understand it, the council have no say and can ask for all the evidence they want, but it's the VOA decision that rides. Happy days.

Don't tell anyone, but I rather enjoy explosions as long as I'm a safe distance from them. I'd rather not explode the washing machine, though, it could get a little messy and I'd really rather not try and explain it to the insurance company.

Would anyone happen to know where I can buy cellulase from in a non-industrial quantity? I want to soften some linen fabric and the two main constituents that make linen stiff are cellulose and pectin. Pectolase is easy enough to get hold of from home brewing shops and I'm running some linen through the washing machine with some at the moment to see how it gets on. When you buy enzyme washed linen, though, it's been treated with both pectolase and cellulase but it's also hideously expensive for a bit of linen, hence wanting to do it myself. I have quite a number of eager sewing friends awaiting the outcome of this experiment, so if I can find a source it would be great. Unfortunately, the stuff is commonly stocked (Amazon et al) is healthfood stuff and isn't what I'm after. Can anyone help?

No, it was all relating to proving that the building was no longer there, but I shan't worry about it for the time being. Especially as i cancelled my direct debit to the council.

I applied to the VOA in April after I'd had the roof removed and holes punched through the felt to make sure there were no bats and that they wouldn't come back. The VOA eventually replied and said that they thought that rather than now being uninhabitable, it was a do-er upper that only required some renovation to make it livable again. I phoned the council as soon as it was all done to notify them, and emailed, so one month later they have got around to looking at it. Sheesh, I wish I could turn things around at that pace at work; I'd have a bunch of angry customers chasing me! Anyhow, I've replied saying that I've never heard of a demolition certificate and attached a load of photos that are all date tagged.

Has anyone heard of one of these? The council have asked for evidence that the old bungalow has been demolished before they will stop charging me council tax. Of course, they could just go and look at the hole in ground that's there now, but that would be too easy wouldn't it? They've suggested a copy of the demolition certificate; a piece of paper that I've never heard of. I'll send them a bunch of photos and my groundworker's invoice in the meantime and see if that satisfies them.

That's a rather nasty threat to make. I'm not sure I would feel comfortable about dealing with someone threatening to walk off a job just because you don't agree to them ripping you off on another piece of work. He's not the only one who can review a working relationship.