ProDave

Most boxes are just too hard and brittle to drill. You can cut them with an Abra file in a hacksaw blade, but you have to start at an existing hole and cut from there.

IF those points were argued clearly and correctly by the main stream media, I strongly suspect the declining oil reserves would be a far more compelling reason to adopt more renewable generation and a great deal more people would support that, than some mythical suggestion that if we don't the world will end in climate disaster.

Can you post pictures of one of the old ones with dimensions of what you are trying to match? Alternatively buy one of these and see if you can accept the look, if you can, these are a softer plastic that you can drill to match the holes of the old box. https://www.screwfix.com/p/deta-tte-2-gang-surface-pattress-box-32mm/437vt

Unless the back boxes are rusted, threads stripped, or some other damage, an electrician would do nothing. It seems a strange idea to change something you should not ever see when the fitting is in place. Photos might explain the why?

It just struck me as "wrong" with the wall plates sitting directly on concrete no membranes or anything looks like a recipe for damp and rot. Just me expecting better detail?

Do the lights have switches? Can we see a picture of the inside of the light fittings. The second picture, can you clean off the dust / paint obscuring the cable core colours and take another picture. I have said MANY times on another forum and repeated here mainly for the benefit of others to prevent this situation. TAKE NOTES AND PICTURES BEFORE YOU DISCONNECT THE WIRING, THEN YOU WILL KNOW HOW IT GOES BACK.

I am more curious what is all the timber laid out on the floor?

I can't imagine the quantity of washing up liquid you would have to add to a 7PE tank to get the air blower to make it foam up like that. Normally after doing the washing up, there are hardly any bubbles left in the water to send down the drain. Are you sure the tank has "started"? Folklaw up here says throw a dead Rabbit into a new tank to get things going, you can even buy chemicals to put in to start it if you don't like the former idea. If the lid you are talking about is where the air blower is, then it needs a vent so can't be sealed.

When we bought our Rationel windows, a timber internal finish was not an option. I understand it has been reinstated but it won't be bare wood, it will be laquered. As above we had a full schedule to check including internal ans external colours and RAL numbers etc. If painting the inside yourself is your plan this may not be a deal breaker though? Only such if you really wanted a timber finish. Time to dig out ALL the paperwork and go through it with a fine tooth comb. I caution that because I know someone that ordered an Oak staircase and all the communication mentioned the floor to floor height they wanted, but then when the final schedule arrived for checking, that drawing showed the floor to floor height wrong, and the stairs did not fit. But because they signed that drawing without properly checking, the manufacturer rejected any claim.

I started my apprenticeship the year Mrs T came to power. I can remember the labour governments before that, and the winter of discontent, rolling power cuts, 3 day week etc. so things were not good before then. I know it is trendy now to blame her for everything, but she did do some things right, though a lot of things wrong. It almost sticks in my throat to say it, but the early Blair years seemed good (apart from that war) but things went downhill when it was Blairs turn in the hot seat and has not really improved since. My daughter has no interest in politics, never watches the news, doesn't read a paper. She just gets on with it and takes whatever is thrown at her and lives her life doing the best for her, as I have said before she makes decisions for her usually not thanks to government policy but regardless of it. I suspect a lot of younger people take that attitude, so it's no wonder the old stick in the mud folk are the ones that still vote and still complain.

As you rightly say, things have slowly been going the wrong way for over 40 years. So people of my age (the relatives in that recent conversation) all see we have had 40 years of the 2 main parties often in power for long periods, and neither seems to have had much foresight to plan for the long term. So what are we supposed to do. Keep on voting for one of the same two yet again? That is your classic case of choosing the same thing but expecting a different outcome. Or we carry on what some have been doing, just choose the least bad option? Or as more and more are thinking the "none of those two" option, whatever that option is, it surely can't be any worse. Nobody expects things to get better quickly after such a long period of going downhill, but we would at least hope for some signs that they have started to turn a corner. For much of my working life I have made individual choices doing what is best for me and my family, with only a few exceptions, most of that has been in spite of government policies, not as a result of.

A discussion with relatives recently revealed most of them don't like ANY of the choices on the ballot paper and if there was a "none of the above" box on the paper that is what they would choose. I get the impression that Reform, will take the mantle of that none of the above choice, simply because it is something different to what has been tried before and deemed by so many to have failed.

Yes it's shocking. Put a well insulated roof on top of a well insulated wall, but detail it so badly that cold air just gets in and negates it. Shocking that so many builders just do not understand that.

And to add to that. Once ALL the bits of PIR closing the gap are the right size (they reach the OSB layer) AND are properly sealed so there are NO gaps for air to pass through, that will have got you reasonably air tight so no fear of cold draughts coming in from outside, then you need to go outside and add as much more insulation as you can behind those relatively thin bits of PIR. It is this sort of detail that needs to be got right NOW while you can get at everything. There have been at least 2 threads on here recently where the builders have been left to it and done a shoddy job and cold air is getting in and it can be a VERY invasive job to fix it later if not done properly now.

I too wanted to self build in my 20's, but I was thwarted. At the time, looking for my first house, I could buy a cheap developer built 1 bedroom house for £36K (late 1980's prices) or there was a detached 2 bedroom bungalow being sold as a building plot for £20K. I looked at the plot, and it was a timber lath and plaster built bungalow clearly sub standard even by 1980's standard and it had subsidence issues so was being sold to knock down and rebuild. I was thwarted because I could not find anyone willing to lend on the plot, but several said if you buy the plot we will lend the money to build. And I had no bank of mum and dad (they did not have the money either) So reluctantly I bought the developer box. I was 40 before I got to scratch that itch and built my first self build. I hope you get a more favourable answer from financial institutions.