ToughButterCup

The Apprentice Sphinx reclining in the road is called Molly. That's the only dogging that goes on here @ProDave I like the idea of a couple of gabions........ positioned about a car's width from the edge of the road to give people the chance to pull over to allow another to get by.

Now that our windows are in and our frontage has been cleared I'm a bit shocked by the amount of parking there is outside our house. And so are the residents of our little lane too. A normal Class 2 LGV will fit in it with space to spare for one or two cars. Our Lane is really narrow. Two bikes side by side is tight. And of course that means people look at the space outside our place, heave a sigh of relief, and park up to have a phone chat to their friends, dump their fish and chips and coffee cups and so on. The look on some of their faces when I turn up in the digger and few mm from their bumper is worth photographing. When the HERAS comes down, all of the space outside the frontage will be open to the roadside. How do I manage that space sensitively? I really don't mind people parking for a few minutes because they want to make a phone call safely. And removable bollards are - well - crass. But we're beginning to get fast food rubbish and plastic bottles from folk who make (lets call it) an overnight stop. Well, you know, quiet narrow lane off the beaten track...... I'm tempted to use PIR lights, but I'm a bit concerned that they'll blind drivers, and that doesn't solve the day time parking issue. Ideas?

Your house is coming along well Dave....?

I can third that. £100 worth of technology saved me from a £9000 bill . Get a Brinno Time Lapse camera (there are loads of others equally good - but not both as cheap and as good in my opinion ) . And tell everyone that you are using it (they may not consent to being photographed). Dump the contents onto an external hard drive at the end of each work period (label the files with the date) and you'll soon have a nice photographic record to look back on. In our case the camera gave us evidence of unprofessional, borderline criminal behaviour on the part of one employee. Something that we would never ever have been able to prove. Even the most expensive Brinno justifies it's purchase when something like that happens. Oh, and before I forget: welcome. Ian

Theres no way to soften the message. You will regret not being there on so many levels.

I have been warned then...... Is there a niche market here for someone? I wonder.

There's the issue, right there. Can I suggest that they may well not be friends, or at least ought not to be regarded as such for the period of the build. Some tricky, delicate negotiation required now, I think

Having our Gaulhofer windows fitted by a Polish crew this week. They are well on with the job. Getting the 4 meter slider off got me well puckered up - almost as badly as my first balloon-based parachute jump all those years ago (1974?). Now that they are in place, I have been warned to cover the jambs, mullions and sills with some form of protection - not to mention protection for the glass. What have folk used for this job? Ian

Thanks everyone. Windows going in yesterday, today and tomorrow. Never thought we'd see the day. It's a year -roughly- after they should have been fitted. Debbie could only say 'Fantastic, Fantastic' , and me - all I can think about is - What's going to go wrong today, then? So far nowt. ?

@Wes, never mind shutting down, I wouldn't have the courage to ask about something like that on BH. I wouldn't understand the answers.

Only just got to this @Russell griffiths. I'm with jurassic or triassic and J on this one... offer the problem to the right person. I appreciate the urgency though.

It doesn't matter what's in it. Assume the worst, and until you can disprove it, treat it as hazardous.

And what if your builder upsets you? As some might suspect, from the series of posts about it this time last year, I have felt like taking a telehandler to one company's office. Just to the one wall, you understand, just the one However, feeling like doing it and actually doing it are two different things.

So do I. Same reason. No brainer. If more men felt able to mop the bathroom floor, - or felt they should not impose the job on someone else - more men would do the same.

Does anyone know of a good window cill cover supplier? A few of mine (as yet unfitted) were mis-appropriated by the roofers and used as flashing for the solar PV, so I need some more. ? 'Taint funny.

The aluminium 'finishing ' .....

Our Gaulhofer windows are being fitted a year almost to the day after they should have been fitted. Monday next week. I thought I'd check to see if all the bits and bobs - cill covers, compariband etc. were ready for the crew (6) who are coming to fit them. A good few window cill covers were missing : and for the life of me I couldn't work out why. Slowly, oh so slowly the truth dawned. The roofers had used some (not all) of the window cill covers as the flashing that surrounds the solar panels.

Is it just because we are self building that in Lancaster town we noticed ; = Some wooden guttering and and right next to the Funeral Directors - this huge chunk of lead waiting to drop onto the footpath below. Deliberately placed there? Debbie and I must have walked under it many times. Do we look more critically at houses as self-builders? I think maybe we do.

My reading glasses are now permanently welded to my head or face: bit like a teenager's mobile. Makes showering interesting sometimes. No, folks, I'm talking stronger, much stronger. I already use a small magnifier with a fluorescent light round it : but the lenses distorts. I suppose I just need a bigger more expensive one.....?

Getting older is great fun : bits fall off , or out, or stop, or falter, or hurt all the time. All that's fine by me - lots to be grateful for. The thing that's getting to me though is the change in my eyes. Close work especially. By turns I seem to need a telescope or microscope. Close work work is especially problematic. What do you use to help you with close work?

This is what happened to us (1 of 7 in the series: the others are hyperlinked at the beginning of the story )

But dustbin lids all get nicked in Cumbria.... melted down same day....

Yep, it's all true folks .............. about folk from Cumbria. Phhhhhhh.

.... the amount of concrete that attaches itself to my watch every time I .....

Send her round. She's got the job. She knows where we live. Free cakes and coffee. Ian