ToughButterCup

And it was precisely that 'sort' of student who regularly would sit in my office and describe how others had misbehaved and caused misery at many different levels. As far as HEIs are concerned, students are classified as adults and are therefore deemed responsible people. We regularly hear of 'uncaring HEIs' on Radio 4 - not caring about the mental health of undergrads: "How dare HEIs talk of the Data Protection Act" I heard the other day (R4 Consumer Program). On many occasions I would -when all other avenues had been tried and exhausted- talk informally to family, parents or guardians to find a way through a delicate impasse. And sometimes the delicate issue was parent-related. @Onoff, be careful what you do if it's university property - or even University Approved accommodation . There will be a proper mechanism for asking the Uni Estates Office for repairs. And if you can get the issue classified as H&S-related then you can expect prompt action. The SU will (may) have an Accommodations Officer: take any action through them and or the university Accommodations Office (or whatever they call it). If that fails, then do something.....

Students use cupboards for the first week of the academic year, and then avoid using them. Theft. You might as well give your child a small (micro) fridge for use in the bedroom. No matter how well behaved your child is, communal student living always results in high stress levels and defensive behaviour. Normal family rules do not apply. Even if every single student in a 'landing' is well behaved and considerate, just one coked-up eejit arriving after a party is enough to precipitate a race to the bottom in terms of behaviour. Bread in the wardrobe, milk on the window cill, mayo (you cant squeeze butter) somewhere under the bed where it slipped after last nights bout of kung-fu.

Thanks folks: presumably the same @PeterW treatment (above) can be given to the wall plate(s). But then again @Dudda says it's probably a bit of a 'shortcut' Hmmm. Must look at the spreadsheet again. Thanks, interesting

Mitigation: Look for online examples of the same problem being successfully resolved in your LPA. One thing of which you can be almost certain: you aren't the first person to be faced with this issue. Read carefully and look at how the discussion between planner and developer evolved. My LPA allows you to do that (because Wyre is fairly fastidious in including all documentation), but it's a Hell of a slog. Proper document naming conventions, orderly file hierarchies are rare. Very few people have the skills or experience to do this important job properly. You have a tremendous amount of reading to do, and none of it will be wasted even if you don't find examples of what you need to focus on.

Just got some prices for POSIs: there are two prices; one for treated joists, and the other for -errrm- untreated joists. First: why do you need to treat joists? They can't misbehave, or be rude, and so Is it worth it? The price difference is £100+ for quite a few The architects notes specify treatment for the wall plate for the joists, but doesn't mention treatment for the joists themselves.

Debbie and I have been greatly heartened by all the support. I'll respond to all your PMs over the next few days. Some have caused a bit of a gulp. The rest of the family have rallied round and it looks as if we might be able to get to wind proof and water tight in October or early November. Might. That gives us the opportunity to avoid the expense of a caravan, or to put it more positively, get a taste of the real self-build experience. Who said retirement was about taking it easy?

Welcome. The Management group are thinking of hiding @Nickfromwales' emoticons. He should have been a painter not a plumber

I hate to be less than positive, but please read this.

Thanks @JanetE and @SteamyTea. An interesting nugget that Janet. We'll think about it. We're both working at channeling the annoyance into positive action. At this stage it would be easy to misdirect effort. So often we have been (and Debbie still is) in the position of having to advise others about how to dig themselves out of crises. Well, now it's our turn. A walk along the shore at the mouth of the river Lune is what's called for this morning. And then get some of the joints between the blocks foamed up in preparation for a bit of rendering.

Gulp. A very cheering thing to wake up and read your responses. And PMs. I'll reply to everyone when our heads are facing forward rather than down. Debbie and I are re-calibrating. Too many variables to filter in the academic way in which we have both trained. The powerful urge simply to keep going might - just might - distract from getting the project completed within our means. There's little point in ending up like this for example Thanks @oranjeboom We are trying hard to cut emotion out of the mix. But it gets in the way too easily at the moment. And alcohol - well we're trying to limit that to Friday night only. I said trying A bit like Kevin WotsHisFace, when his interviewees are up against it, he takes them out for a look around and hopes they find inspiration. Time for a bit of a walk around, shout at some seagulls, and a bit of local networking.

Yesterday afternoon, we found out that the funding for our project was cancelled. For over two years we thought (were repeatedly assured) we had our build financed but we were wrong. The nitty gritty doesn't matter: in fact to describe how and why it happened would be inappropriate. The money isn't there. It's not as if we weren't warned by Aesop: The Milkmaid and Her Pail Welcome, therefore, to the full-on-self-build-experience. Oh Kevin McCloud , where are you when there's a true bit of drama? My trite Army-learned 'Can't take a joke, shouldn'a started ' doesn't even begin to cut it. Whisky, tears, drunken babbling, sleeplessness, listlessness, anger. The pair of us red-eyed, swearing and staring at spreadsheets lead to the following conclusions; Sell our cottage in good order next Spring - divert current funds to that end With minimal help, do lots of jobs myself Where possible and safe, cut corners: focus on good quality infrastructure: extend the term of the full build Sell the digger I'm really not sure I can take much more sleeplessness. Been catching up from the last disaster in July. And we were so ecstatic after our final pour on Friday. The shell of the house is up and safe. Scaffolding on its way down. And still many people would give their eye teeth to have the opportunity we have been given. Especially neighbours. It's the Do Lots Of Jobs Myself bit that scares me. I'm not asking for sympathy, just understanding when I post how-to-do-this-really-cheaply-and-on-my-own questions. More to follow tomorrow. Ian

Welcome to the club. Bumping into '....You what? How much?....' is par for the course. It's totally normal. After you've been here for a bit, and you can find one -just one- person who has not spent all their budget, I'll shave @Nickfromwales legs. In public. In a pub of his choosing in Wales. At his expense. Resilience.

Hello @Jimp. You are right it isn't easy. But it is possible. This discussion board is full of stories showing the spirit and determination of self builders. You have owned a business. You'll know the level of focus, determination and drive you need to maintain that. Well, you've passed the first test, because you'll need a lot of that skill set. Use the time between now and buying a plot to plan. You just cannot do enough of that. Do, please try to research answers to your questions by poking around in the search facility on the site. It takes a bit of getting used to, but just about every topic possible is covered here: sometimes it's hidden away from site: we encourage you to use the tagging system - I've added an 'example tag' to the title of you thread. (You can change it at will). Advice? Network, network, network. Read voraciously. Then network some more. Plan a bit, review it in the light of experience and then re-plan.

And from memory, there's a good amount of space in your garage (it's about the size of our house) : easy drain down, easy maintenance......

Sounds to me like you chastised yourself. May your good luck follow you!

Ahhhh, the yoof of today, they've lost the skill of scrubbing the doorsteps and window cells every morning..... Just like my mum used to do.....

Get a grip man. Just empty it. (Your partner has not told me to write this post )

Hello, good morning and welcome. So, what's the story then? All sweetness and light? Mutual admiration society with the designer? Do tell! Ian

That's all that needs to be said.

Take the sugars and proteins out of the wood and coat it with cement. I cannot evidence that process, nor verify it. I just use the stuff. Other ICF systems are available, and are probably more interesting.

Yes.

My Durisol blocks have been out in the rain for a minimum of two months on site and one month outside before delivery. Some blocks have been on site here for nine months. So I used it.

'Keep yer mind on yer driving Keep yer hands on the wheel, And keep yer snoopy eyes on the road ahead, We're having fun Pumping all the concrete And kissin' and a huggin with Fred' Apologies are in order, not sure to whom though

A legitimate and sensible concern. The company do a training course. It addresses all those concerns. Briefly, you use one of those mix-on site set ups like (locally) this company. Its our final pour today, I'll see if I can remember to take some detailed photos and post them on this thread.

The answer is that the definition of a start varies by area. I haven't got time to dig into my records, but there are many opinions -some with a pretense of authority- on what it really is. Shum shay (I will not apologise to Clarkson, he's not worth it) it's the first 'sod' of soil turned, others talk about making connections to services. I had to erect a Temporary Amphibian Fence (TAF) a year before we started. Which flies in the face of @Temp's post above (not something anyone does lightly) . But I had spent a huge amount of money getting that TAF in place. I knew I had started long before any 'official start'. The answer is not clear cut Ask your local friendly Enforcement / Planning contact, and then ask around locally for advice.