ToughButterCup

That's four sheets of PB, Gary?

For me, that rings loud warning bells. What we all need is properly detached professional judgement. That is always clouded by friendship.

Well, @jack, I take much more notice of the remaining eight than I ever did with ten.

Bang on. You won't be talking to just your neighbour, you'll be talking to anyone who has an interest in the estate. That's why it is imperative you make sure your neighbour takes proper local professional advice. I would ask a local Estate Agent to value access on your behalf too. Check access to your parents services.

There's no easy way of sugaring this pill. Sort that issue out first: here's why and how. The following advice is based on a similar issue, and what, for us, could have been a more serious spat. Luckily -in the end- we dealt with an honourable near neighbour. Why. Your neighbour has a ransom strip. No matter what's said now, when it comes to formalities things can change in a heartbeat. How. Talk informally to your neighbour. Outline your case. Raise the issue of access. Make sure - certain sure - you know how you are going to deal with your access to services. Propose he / she takes proper formal advice and asks a land agent for a price. Agree a price. Consult a solicitor and make a formal agreement. Easy? No, it isn't. It could be. But, there's so much emotion wrapped up in all this, it's very hard to maintain a professional level of detachment and objectivity. Good luck, Ian

he paid me a compliment : and that made me listen harder than normal. Not that I was fishing or anything ... He was very complimentary about the windows and doors ( @craig ! ) and he politely winced at the cost, looked harder still at the front door and muttered quietly about the cost of high quality kit. He looked round the house and was very complimentary about how neat and tidy we kept it. What he didn't know was that I had spent about two days preparing for his visit. Two whole bloody days: clutter around the site, picking up nameless waste bits of this and nameless bits of that. Scraping smuts of mortar, screed, parge coat off the floor, cleaning the windows, door thresholds, blocks of timber in one pile, tools all away in boxes, and the boxes in one corner. It took for ever. If we'd had internal doors, the tops of the doors would have been cleaned. A few years in the army gets you like that. Bullshooshoo baffles brains. This time it might have worked but.... what worried me was the 'Next Visit' part of the conversation. "I can see you're well organised : I'll see you next at completion." Really? I mean Really? I was pleased enough not to check at the time. Just glad to get the inspection over. My finger-tips are telling me that there's lots of room for error here. Maybe the only thing I can do is document what we do with a bit of care - and make sure I know the relevant bits of the Regs.

Access? That bit of road to the South West of your plot looks like it's a shared drive. If I'm right, There Be Dragons: sometimes asleep, other times wide awake. If that drive with two red cars in it belongs to the family the dragon is asleep. And will remain asleep. Whose sewer / other services runs under / over your land?

In relation to a mortgage, there may be some benefit to owning a plot of land in respect of money borrowed. But anyone giving you money against the value of land will extract their price. Each company will have different conditions. The best one can say is that a builder is likely to need less money overall. But consider this: have you surveyed the land; do you know what the soil profile is; are there any hidden services; is the land brown-field; in other words how well does your plot of land lend itself to the building process? Costly, or cheap?

??

Here you are.....

Theres this place at Claughton....

And passiv rated cat flaps for their flea-bitten felines.

How about trying this ... ? https://www.brickbutler.co.uk

Snap! About four years ago. The most helpful concept? Persistence. Please ask away Good luck!

Hello, and welcome. What a good idea. And I must say, I'm jealous: I'd love to have your little challenge. May I suggest that you consider maintaining the well of the wall before anything else?

Exactly.... Didn't think of that

Right. That's it. That's the one. ??

Joiner. Nice little job for a local tradesman. Guess at cost - A day to make, a day to fit, plus wood and fixings. Less than £500

... you know the routine. Why does the commonest electric shower layout require you to get wet while switching the damn thing on? Eh? Tell me that? Has any company recognised this is an issue and done something about it? Triton T300 (called 'Wireless') connects a control panel via CAT5 (I think) to a unit which sits the other side of a stud wall (or in a cupboard). (Here's a review of one that broke down) Some customers report they have worked well for many years. They are sometimes called digital electric showers. Others are less than impressed. I suspect complexity and over-thinking (Ha! That's a first for me - suggesting overthinking) Whats wrong with simplicity? The shower unit is switched on in a dry area of the shower room, and a pipe delivers water to the riser rail a meter or so away? Please, I know many here loathe electric showers. I don't. We've firmly decided on electric showers.

Maybe a larger lever - something that can easily be nudged with the palm of my hand. As long as the tap 'action' is as simple as possible, I think I'll be OK.

Hmmm, cut myself on a web the other day: you have a point. So how would you (do you) do it then Dave

And there's the pity of it all. For the want of a horse the rider was lost etc. Sometimes I am extra glad I now live this side of the Channel.

Irritating, lazy, arrogant, self-indulgent bar stewards. Their response to my email: So wird das immer gemacht (We always do it that way) Rubbish. Always doing it that way doesn't make it any more user friendly. For Geberit, user friendliness stops at their arses as far as I am concerned.

You can get Gaulhofer for that price (£4.5k) ...

In a self-build, there is a strong business case for purchase. Provided you take great care in the scaffold build phase, and then make safety almost an obsession, I see little down side. Well, maybe this is a down side ....