ProDave

Try a different approach. Just apply to BT for a "new line" and see what they say. Our cables are underground and that did not stop OR doing a survey for free, so I ask again "what has changed over the last few years?"

An above ground filter mound, or discharge to a watercourse.

Has something changed? It used to be an OR survey was free and any work up to £3000 for a new line was included in the very cheap "new connection" fee. Or is it so obvious yo are so far from the infrastructure it would be way over the £3K cost?

Ours you can leave the metal side runners in while using it as a microwave but you must remove the metal shelves.

Do you have an ordinary landline? We have slow BT copper broadband here, 3MBPS on a good day. We had the chance of signing up with a local private wireless broadband scheme a few years ago where I believe for a limited time we could use a similar voucher to pay the install costs, but we declined as the monthly cost would be more than the BT broadband and would not include a landline so you would have to mess with VOIP to replicate a landline with a landline number. That voucher to pay for the install was only available for people that signed up at the start.

Or your kitchen designer just supplies a unit with the correct size gaps and correct size cupboards above and below.

I don't know but I am sure there is space in next doors garden, unless it has to be a silly distance from the other cable.

The present energy crisis will trump CO2 reduction for the vast majority of people. I would say keep these remaining coal burners running as long as they are fit to run, to cut down our dependence on gas and keep them going 24/7. That should not alter the longer term targets of renewable energy and CO2 reduction, and should make us speed up the progress towards that.

I agree with others, completely new roof, nothing worth saving. That type of roof simply is not built to be room in roof. BR require 2M height at the top of the stairs, You will struggle to achieve that even with a dormer at the existing ridge height if you want decent levels of insulation.

Assuming the DNO just want the cheapest way to route the cable, I am convinced putting it next to the existing one would offer that. That route is across a flat garden that is just grass with no services underneath. If they chose our garden, it would be picking it's way between the septic tank, pumping station and drain pipes, then up a steep bank to reach the field, which then has the obstacle of the drainage soakaway under the field to navigate past. The more i think about it, the more I am convinced they have to show due diligence and consider several options and will probably draw the same conclusion to route it the same way. As a footnote, the existing cable crosses the bottom end of a neighbours large garden. A garden I am sure would make a building plot one day, but of course having that HV cable under it, now restricts where you could build, and limits the ease with which you could perhaps one day build another house.

But practical use says you do. That's why turntables are put inmost microwaves. To be honest, what I really wanted was just a decent microwave with a turntable, that properly matched the fan oven that sits below it in the kitchen unit,. but nobody makes one, you have to buy a combi to get that.

But the turntable compensates for the fact the microwave energy is not even inside the oven, so without it you have to keep stopping and stirring what you are heating to avoid cold spots or local boiling.

That's good so both can be built anywhere that the rules allow a permitted development garden building. What building it as a "caravan" will do for you is allow a larger building without the bother of building regulations. and both can be built as well insulated well constructed buildings and still be a "caravan"

Yes I have a combi microwave. It is only used as a microwave and very occasionally as a grill. The reason we have it, is we wanted a built in single fan oven and a built in microwave, but almost all the built in microwaves did not properly match the design of the oven, and were little more than a free standing microwave with a cover plate to make it look just a little but like it was built in, and to me just looked rubbish. So just to get the built in microwave that properly matched the style of the fan oven, we got the combi. BIG criticism, it does not have a turntable.

Thanks. It's early days, the letter used the phrase "your property might be affected" which is what suggests to me they are looking for the easiest way to get the cable past our little line of houses. If it ends up along side the other cable next door to me, that will be an outcome I will be happy with.

The agent who sent the letter is seeking permission to pass our details to Scottish Energy Networks. which sounds like a DNO, but SSE is the DNO here. So if they really do want to put it under our garden, how much would they likely offer? Presumably a case of don't accept the first offer? And If i still said no, and they forced it through under statutory powers would I then get nothing?

As some of you know, as well as owning the house we have just built, we still own our previous house 2 doors down the same road. A thought provoking letter landed on the doormat today, actually addressed to us at the old house (it will be interesting if we also get one at the new address) The nub of it, is there is a new windfarm being built about 7 miles away, out of sight from us. This letter relates to the underground HV connection cable to the substation. The gist of the letter is to open dialogue with "local residents and stakeholders affected by the new underground HV cable" We are a small rural road, with about 12 houses, most of them along just one side of the road. To get to the substation, the cable must pass under somebody's garden. I have not seen any plans so I don't know if they actually want to lay the cable under our garden. Another wind farm a few years ago faced the same issue, and they routed their cable under the garden of our other neighbour. Given that has blighted part of his garden already, to me the logical place for the new cable is just next to the existing one through the same neighbours garden. My guess is they will be having discussions with more than one property to find a route. I don't think our garden is particularly practical as what may look like a bare bit of garden alongside the house contains the septic tank, a pumping station and all the pipes that go with it. Plus of course I don't actually want it there as we will be selling the house at some point and it would most likely put some buyers off. So how to proceed? I presume I really need to give them our contact details and enter discussion with them? Can I just say NO? If they really wanted to put it through our garden and I said NO could they force it?

Room in roof makes a lot of sense, this is what we and most rural properties in Scotland have. The method we used was not attic trusses, but a cut roof hung from ridge beams which gives uninterupted space upstairs with almost all of it achieving standing head room. It is unlikely you will really get what you want from a stock off the shelf design, but it is certainly a good starting point.

I left a small gap into each compartment. All around the room above is a removable strip of floor boards. In theory it allows for provision of extra cabling, e.g. thinking ahead to when hdmi is old hat and something else has replaced it.

We had "perfect fit" blinds supplied by the local blind shop. I don't know what make they are, but they certainly fitted okay. The only complaint was they only came in a stock number of colours so we had to choose the closest match, I would have preferred someone that could have supplied to any RAL colour.

Similar to us. When getting the planning for our build, I also got PP for the static caravan as accommodation during the build. Initially the planners wanted to impose the condition that the caravan be removed upon completion. I contested that, saying I could remove it, and then immediately replace it under permitted development. They responded by altering the clause to "residential use of the caravan shall cease upon occupation of the house" which puts it into line with a permitted development caravan that can only be used incidental to the house. Perhaps @Pinzameld might tell us what he wants to actually use his "caravan" for?

Most of the old nuclear stations were operated beyond their original design life until the inspections and defects could no longer be regarded as safe. Hunterston is already at that point. Or are you proposing we continue operating something no longer deemed to be safe? The real failing is not starting the build program to replace them in time. But before that it was closing down the UKAEA so we no longer have the ability to design and build our own and must buy foreign designed and built units.

You definitely need twin wall through the roof and a certain distance down from it. You might find the length that you are allowed single wall is not much. Because i didn't want to fit a heat shield all the way up the wall in the caravan, I went straight to twin wall from the stove.

First things first, you don't have to build your "caravan" on a wheeled chassis to be a "caravan" It just has to fit certain dimensions and be capable of being moved, and that can include being lifted by crane onto a low loader. That is how @Crofter build qualifies. But I think your planning barrister is wrong. Try getting that statement from him in writing. If it were really true that you could site and use a caravan anywhere you wanted without planning permission, the green belt would be full of caravan dwellers. There are some exemptions, such as a crofter (A Scottish form of small farmer not the buildhub user in this case) has an automatic right in planning law to have up to 3 caravans on their croft land. But I assume we are talking here of a residential garden, where you will be limited to a building that falls under permitted development, or one for which planning permission has been granted.

You could stand the board upright, put all the screws through the holes, thread the spacers on, then gently offer up the board to the wall, but if one falls off you start again. Gluing holds them in place during assembly to save the frustration.