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ToughButterCup

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Everything posted by ToughButterCup

  1. Me too ..., even the cat likes it
  2. What a missed opportunity to calm the atmosphere. I sense a certain lack of raw courage, and an instinct to protect herself first. Add that to a demonstrable inability to discuss, listen and debate openly; the omens are not good. And she owes it to the bereaved and the dead to handle this well. Argggghh! We are being lead by donkeys all over again.
  3. Quick update: my builder casually said " 'S OK lad, there's a load o' rebah lyin' 'round in 't yard. Help thee sen. Tek 't Landy 'n fetch it". It was a pleasure: driving a lovely Disco 4 - with reversing cameras - was smug-making. (OK, it isn't an Audi Allroad Quattro, but Hell it's better than my 1988 Landy TDI) But I simply had to re-tune his radio to Radio 4 on all the pre-sets. . Well what else is there to do while waiting for the lights to change? So, I'm giving him some (some, not all, I'm not daft) of our over-ordered rebar mesh in exchange. Overall cost? Say £50. Well down from over £1000. A few more cost savings like that would be just the ticket.
  4. Thanks folks.... It worked. The power of 'Tinernet discussion groups. More than halved the price I was about to be charged
  5. £17.64 for a 6m length of rebar - £2.64 per meter? Or am I being a skin-flint? signed Outraged of Lancaster.
  6. We will be keeping them in the piggery, outside the heated envelope. Already there are dark mutterings about having to walk 10 meters (there and back). Ah well, into every life a little rain must fall.
  7. @Vijay, I have learned one thing about concrete: what is specified is often not what gets delivered. I say this on the basis of about five deliveries (or so), and having bought several lots of cheap concrete from a lets say 'informal' supplier. Our main builder explained that, unless you know the production and delivery companies - the real people on the end of a phone - then you are likely to get generally strong concrete, or middling concrete or weak concrete. Here are a few factors affecting what actually gets delivered How do you know you arent getting the tail end of someone else's delivery - to a different spec - topped up with your spec? How well do you know the company dispatcher (for the lorries)? Not at all? He'll smell it and might well take advantage of that Is the concrete going to be pumped? If so more cement is added to make it 'slippier' in the pipes Is the concrete going to be tested? If not, lie and tell everyone that samples will be taken. Trying to squeeze prices? By accident I saw some cheap concrete being mixed. I lost some (more) hair that day. All the locals have subsequently warned me only to order from that person when the quality doesn't matter This board is full of people who have forgotten more than I'll ever know about the subject. But one thing is sure. Concrete is fascinating. Really fascinating.
  8. @Ferdinand, T Knipe, Flookburgh: old school timber merchant. No website, phone is almost never answered; magnificent wood stock. Prices as low as you can find anywhere. If I need serious wood thats where I go. If you're up this way, go and see the yard. Bring a camera. 1950s writ large. Ian
  9. Quickest fix, least cost?
  10. One about to go on order too here at Great Crested Newt Towers.
  11. Blimey! I didn't realise it was that sensitive.
  12. Ha! Locally the Open Signal mast locations are correct to within a few meters. Trouble is that a few meters can matter. Salamander Cottage gets 4G (our build location) Our house (domicile) 20 meters away gets 3G or worse.
  13. Here you are. I suspect there's an Apple version Ian
  14. Hmmm, @JSHarris, I wish you'd been with me when we were talking to the kitchen rep. Passiv has a long way to go before it sinks into the consciousness of many in the building sector. In terms of recirculation, is there anything we should look for in terms of cooker hood design? What are the design differences which assure filtration as opposed to expulsion? Any particular spec of filter? Or grill size? Or flow rate? BTW, thanks @CC45 for tagging accurately. Ian
  15. I am looking forward to getting rid of my project Land Rover - and the digger- it'll mean that we're nearly finished
  16. My sympathy is entirely with you: I have had exactly the same experience, and it's not funny. People and systems show themselves for what they are when things go wrong- usually as a result of a contest for resources of some sort. So, your neighbours weren't any different before this episode: they were always like that. Their true nature was simply hidden. Here, have a laugh on us: read this Oh, and before I forget, welcome! Ian
  17. Do I detect a little iddy biddy bit of something akin to guilt in the back of your mind? Partners can be all too good at detecting the surreptitious (not to say gratuitous, or even highly revealing) insertion of the word 'need' into a sentence. Teenagers are past masters at it.
  18. Oi! Brats end up choosing our Old Folks Homes. Be nice to them (in public anyway)
  19. As usual, elegantly written: captures my mood well.
  20. @Nickfromwales, you've changed my mind. 9kW Electric shower. Now then: which one? Any ideas?
  21. 2 feet, ergo 20Kg.... No? Similarly 15Kg with your head : 10 with your forehead, 5 with your nose
  22. Yes, and I remember one lad carrying one under each arm: off a suitable height lorry bed. Offloading in the rain, I tried, and failed spectacularly. I had wet trousers and wet boots on. That's when I learned about how cement burns.
  23. In the spirit within which the post was intended, I hope, I had a careful look at the document to which your refer. Quite a few of us will, by now, be carrying niggles in various bits of our body. Guidance is always welcome. Reminders, useful. Useful because it points to what it is reasonable to expect. Here, in the context of self-building, it is a pointer to what we might reasonably expect of ourselves. I venture to suggest that our job is so challenging that if we were to worry about ourselves all that much, the job wouldn't even start, let alone get done. @ProDave, I think the issue is how much we lift in relation to where on our body: thus 25kg seems to be the most we are advised to lift: say a bag of cement tucked on our hip..... , well we have two of those and most of us I bet would tuck one under each arm - 50kg. That's a fair bit.
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