ToughButterCup

I thought I could get someone to do it for me ..... nope. Its a 100% be-on-site-every-second-they-are-on-site job. Luckily (in retrospect) on our site a wall collapsed: that exposed a series of sloppinesses , the smallest of which was the total disregard for the Tony Tray. They couldn't have given a toss - even when they had been shown what to do.

Read what @Triassic has written about the issue - I mention him - there will be others whom I have missed. He lives just up the valley from us : he's a very patient, thorough bloke.....

The most important thing in any house design is not the house : it's the inhabitants. Think about their needs, and potential needs over time. Budget? Age of house and inhabitants ? house guests ? noise light ventilation Probably not the best idea to have a loo directly accessible from the kitchen

Ercol chairs. A semi-tame mouse that (appeared to) live in the bottom of the settee.

I dreamt of having one of those when in the UK. Couldn't wait to get back to Berlin and have an Eiderdown duvet. Do they still exist?

5th (6th?) Christmas on this board and still, every single month grateful for the generosity that this board seems to have in store for all who care to venture here. Giving is at the centre of what happens here - mostly advice: and thats as priceless as gold frankincense and myrrh Thanks everyone for the help you gave me. I'm really grateful.

Ice both inside and outside the single glazed windows. Blankets A horsehair mattress A heated brick wrapped in a towel in my bed My brother's 'stash' 🤫 (Yes, I got 'done' for that) A teddy version of Struwwel Peter hair brush with a comb stored in the bristles box with shoe polish, newspaper, brushes and a clean duster some shattered bits of mothball that always stank to high-heaven a single lightbulb hanging in the geometric dead-centre of the room (no shade) Bakelite door handle and finger-plate Raffia 'carpet' Spiders

Just read your post with my 5 year old (going on 17) grandson. If he could, he'd come down and help you

Christmas came early for you then eh? Triple bay workshop: if I had one SWMBO would never see me ever. (She's praying for one too 😐) I mean just imagine the sheer bliss of putting a tool down and then a few days later see it still lying there. Space for a work-surface just a bit bigger than 8 by 4 and having space to walk round it ..... gotta stop now - envy is ugly. Enjoy it. And Christmas. Ian

Oh how spectacularly that can explode in the LPAs face. As has done 25 meters away from us. 6 years later, similarly many thousands of pounds, our 'neigbours' are still defying eviction. Yet another appeal hearing happens in February next year. If you can get a caravan on site, do so. Keep it out of sight.

Get a properly qualified opinion - from a structural engineer who has no personal interest in the outcome of the survey. Do your Due Diligence thoroughly . Research engineers who have roof specialists / experience in roof surveys , find three, ask for a fee proposal from each, and an example of the kind of report they are prepared to submit for the price they charge. If work needs doing ask the SE for a specification of that work, and submit the spec. to the builder. That process, though a bit 'heavy' will potentially save you money: reduced chance of specification creep by the builder. You need evidence that the work needs to be done: photos / video / reports (dry rot for example) / dampness measures. "There's a bitta' rot 'mert, in't right-'and corner, oop top." isn't good enough. Cheap, though. At the time. Not so later. PS, the taller of the two chimneys needs a bit of work: a bit of rendering's come off. Scaff > strip back > re-render > strike scaff > clear up. Roof could be inspected at the same time : if difficult, get a teenager with a drone to video it.

Welcome. You mention rock in the vicinity. You sound as if you're not near a main sewer. So my first question for you is - foul drainage? All OK there?

And right here is the reason I keep coming back to BuildHub. Thanks very much.

Ya larn sum stoof on this board ..... So @SteamyTea, how do the larger (WD40) molecules force their way into a smaller hole previously occupied by the smaller water molecules then? "Dwahhling, does my molecule look big in this hole?" "Ermmm, ummmm , just a bit" "Well, if it does, you shouldn't be lookin' "

Have you seen the prices there? Any road oop ducks, I'll bee 'long drekly ....

Hello, welcome! Can I make a suggestion? You do absolutely nothing for a year - maybe two - while you look at what the house does - and doesn't do. How cold is it in winter .... hot in summer ... drafty is it in westerlies.... how much electricity does it take to keep resonably warm .... how shaded is the roof .... where might you put solar PV.... what does the sparky say about the wiring ... what state is the roof in .... cold roof - warm roof ? In other words gather some data about it. Then you can set priorities. If you're feeling invincible, ask @SteamyTea round for a totally biased opinion on what you might like to do first ( hint : data, data, data)

Forgot that. Saved several hundred quid, I seem to remember.

Welcome @R2021. Our build is on a gentle slope too. I had no idea how valuable a slope is on a house build - from microclimate to foul drainage, making the view from the windows 'better' and an improved potential ability for tucking stuff out-of-sight. And as for having a utility-ground floor : perfect.

Right: an online connection to BuildHub is one essential in the kit. @Gus Potter - erm, what exactly is in your NearDisasterAvoidanceKit?

A recent remark in a post by @Gus Potter made me think ... Whas' in his kit then? I'm at that stage in a build when my temporary workshop has been taken down, and I am using the 'dead' end of a shipping container. It's either freezing or dripping in there. It's very far from ideal. So I've put a bunch of tool containers on a sack truck and tucked that under the stairs. Cue wifely gentle hints about ' the mess under there ' . And me saying " Well what if there's a disaster and I need [........... ] to hand? At least @Gus Potter has a van with his disaster avoidance kit: and I haven't even got my old Landrover 90 (thank God)" Cue smoulder. Wives can do that quite well can't they..... Which tools can you justify keeping to hand to help mitigate a disaster?

Please tell me you haven't paid ...... Yes. And wait for warmer weather if possible ..... I know - probably not possible

There's a simple answer to your question. The VAT refund rules tell us what is allowed: but because those rules are both poorly drafted, and the people administering them aren't co-ordinated properly, errors of omission and commission occur. Add that to 'customers' who genuinely try it on, and you have a mess. It's people that are the problem Dave, people.

Going to give that a go this morning. I'll post the pics later. What a sad old git I've become.

If there's one thing about HMRC and VAT claims, it's the consistency of their inconsistence. A partial answer to @cwr above is to say that in my case, because I was stupid enough to take my HERAS down, the local Valuation Officer (works for the LA) was able to walk on site and talk to me. (I was fettlin' summat outside) . And stupidly, instead of inviting her to go away, I chatted her. Big mistake. She it was who wrote to the national Valuation Office. They in turn initiate the process of adding the property to the Valuation Register. Once that decision has been communicated to you ( -stress-the date of the letter telling you about that decision is THE Key) the clock starts running. In answer to Triassic above, yes it does. It starts the clock. Delay too long and your application might well be rejected unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Thank you very much for asking the question. I've never calibrated it, but your post made me think. I'll go and get a bit of spare PB , put a copper pipe, a live 3 core wire and a bit of 3 by 2 behind it to see exactly how accurate the instrument is. That's a simple test: can anyone suggest a way of trying to 'confuse' the instrument? Copper is metal after all - and sometimes that copper has smoke in it and sometimes it doesn't. So, while looking for electric wires should we test for metal first and then an electric field as well? I suppose I ought to test it using some thick OSB too ......