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Well, don't lose heart just yet. I'm enquiring about moling and hope to have a price early next week

Well, the latest instalment. Openreach Openreach have been great to deal with so far and have been as prompt as you could hope for with getting me set up. A quick recap... We have a telegraph pole almost directly opposite the plot - probably about 8-10m from the plot boundary They can't go direct from the pole to the house due to an electric cable that runs across the front boundary - there needs to be a minimum clearance which this option doesn't provide They thought they may be able to put a pole on our side of the road, go from the existing pole to the new one and then from there go underground to the house. It turns out that for one reason or another this would have to be a) really tall and b) 4m inside our garden! Even Openreach have knocked this idea on the head. So this leaves the final option Go underground from the pole to the house. This is my preferred option as I hate seeing cables strung around the place And yesterday we got the quote. Oh, how I laughed. Ready?.. Labour £6,417.31 +VAT Materials £70.67 + VAT Total £6,487.98 + VAT On top of that is 'traffic management' at about £1,000. This is to go underground, at most 10m, to the plot boundary. I'd love to see how they come up with the figure. In the words of Peter Kay, at least Dick Turpin had the common decency to wear a mask. So the big question is, am I '£7,500 interested' in having internet (not interested in a landline phone)? What other options are there? Apart from other suppliers working off the back of BT/Openreach there is only the Virgin Media route and they don't cover our address anyway. There's satellite and wireless broadband options but I don't know much about them - what I have read isn't particularly glowing. Hmmm.. what to do? Answers on a postcard

Wow - top job! Wish I had the capability to do that

Well done Hugh!!!

Day 2 sneaky peek...

BANG ON!!! Thank you. That is exactly what I was looking for!!!

I'm doing a bit more than that actually. Once the groundworks guys have left, we will have MOT1 laid over an area 1m beyond the house footprint. The surveyor will then come back and mark up exactly where each of the corners of the slab will be. They have already marked levels on site, from which the dig and MOT1 are measured

The groundworks (site strip, level, dig, MOT1 etc) is all done in advance of MBC turning up - MBC will just lay the blinding layer and then the EPS (then rebar, UFH etc etc)

Correctamundo! They start on the 26th.

At least as a starting point, cheers!

Some of it is a bit incomplete though, which is the problem - this is from United Utilities: Trenches: These should be lined with sand or selected soft earth, not rubble. They should also be wide enough for the pipework. Please keep a minimum distance of 350mm away from other services such as gas, electricity and at least 1m away from trees, lamposts and lighting columns No mention of BT for example, so it's open to interpretation

I'm sure there was a resource somewhere that stated how far apart and to what depth each of the utility companies' pipes/ducts must go. Does anyone know where it is?

Nice! http://www.hansgrohe.co.uk/articledetail-axor-showercollection-showerheaven-970x970mm-with-lighting-10623800.html?fsid=0x00000033000074C9&pageid=e8715959-54d2-4025-9e39-5ebe29c5854b&q=

I think 'blog' is the wrong word. 'Blurt' is probably more appropriate! Not sure if it'll be much help as really it's just a story to myself for many years from now

Just added today's little episode: https://selfbuildnoviceblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/05/groundworks-begin/

@TerryE The type 1 was specified by MBC's engineer, although it will only be about 250mm thick. Below that is sand We've had the dig area only marked up at the moment, but once the type 1 has been done and the groundworks guys go I'll get the surveyor to come back and mark the precise position of the slab - I'm guessing they'll use profile boards. It's all planned and in hand (famous last words)

Cheers guys. I've no idea what direction I'll go with it but I think it'll end up more like a diary of sorts, hopefully with a few pics thrown in. I do have a very short attention span though so it may well go off-piste every now and again! lol

I've decided to set up a blog. For now it's Wordpress only as I want to retain control but I may well duplicate it here if I get the time and people are interested. For those that are interested, it's here: https://selfbuildnoviceblog.wordpress.com

Wow! Great news, Hugh. Bet you're excited

Well, it's been done! At this point I've just had marked out the dig area for the MBC slab (slab plus 1m all round) and it looks mahoosive! Roll on Monday!!!!

@Tennentslager - you think that's bad? Groundworks start on Monday, the same day that I start a new job!

Friday 9am - setting out! Woo hoo!!!! I've waiting a long time for this and to say I'm VERY excited would be a massive understatement. That is all

@Onoff

I need to work out my ducting requirements pretty pronto (MBC on site in 3 weeks!), so a few questions then: What colour duct would you put Cat5/6 cables in (wanting a run from the house to the detached garage)? For the run from the cabinet/meter to the house, should you use the flexible ducting or the rigid polyduct? If I want to run electric cables to a few points in the garden (lighting and power), can they all exit the house in one duct and then split off outside of the slab or should they be separate ducts from the house? Similar question to #3 for water I know everyone says put more duct in than you think, but any tips from those that have done it before gladly received!

So, it's: black for electric; blue for water; yellow for gas; grey for BT/telecoms. @Onoff Why green for CCTV?