ProDave

I think the general planning policy here is 1.5 or 1.75 so it would not have mattered.

I don't care what label anyone wants to put on it. All I cared about was the planning was granted and it fitted in with all the other houses in the road. If you wan't to call it 1.75 I will not argue. You don't see this "gable end" style much here, i first noticed it on a trip to Skye and thought it made a lot of sense.

Our "wall" height upstairs is only about 1.2 metres. But by building with "gable ends" rather than dormers, and using a cut roof hung from a ridge beam, so no unwanted internal timber structure, we get almost full standing room in all rooms.

But that does not mean subsequent sales have kept the boundary the same? Or indeed that at first land registry registration they have interpreted that historic boundary correctly rather than assumed the hedge was the boundary?

At 1.8M for most people that is a full height room. so that might be a good point to aim for if you want unhindered headroom.

Not really, it's up to the planners interpretation. One near me got passed. At the front of the house the rooms probably go to about 2 metres with just a small shoulder, and at the back the rooms are full height. I think there was one token room above the garage that was a proper "room in roof"

Are you moving on to do another self build?

So a perfect candidate for a 5kW ASHP with under floor heating and an UVC for hot water. If only those were not on your black list......

Yes the earlier satellite internet is geostationary satellites with a fixed dish so very much further away.

You don't need a whole years worth of data do size an ASHP. You just need to know the buildings heat loss at the coldest temperature you expect to have to deal with in a normal winter. I based that on -10 outside for where we live. The heat loss is so low, the smallest ASHP we could find gives twice the amount of heat we need even in the depths of winter.

You will want some form of hardcore otherwise you will never even get it into place the wheels will just bog down in the ground. If the ground can support the wheels then it can support the support piers. Mine has a total of 12 support piers so the load is well spread. Some 2" angle iron cut to a point should hammer into glacial tilt and be a good secure anchor to keep ith there when the wind blows.

How the other half live. We were pleased to get our BB up to 3MBPS from an initial 1. If I could get 22 I would be extatic. 3MBPS is enough for streaming live tv as long as two of you in the house don't try at the same time, and good enough for general browsing. I agree the existing copper network is barely fit for voice calls. When we had OR round after our connection and initial slow speed, most of the issues were poor rusted joints in flooded junction pits. Just to get from our house to the top of the road there are 4 underground joints, with two of those being 1 metre apart in two adjacent junction pits. We know fibre passes the top of our road but can't understand why they don't put a fibre cabinet there and offer us FTTC which would be a vast improvement over being 3 miles from the exchange and rubbish ADSL.

We had all upstairs doors fitted for temporary habitation but none of the downstairs doors.

If it was cheaper, and the "dish" was smaller it might start getting attractive, to have decent internet wherever you are. When they can get it small enough to fit into a dongle like a GPS or 4G router it will become more attractive. These are low earth orbit satellites, so not geostationary, so is that dish constantly tracking a satellite as it moves over? If so is there a pause while it moves onto the next one?

You must be in a warm part of the country. I sized my heat loss on 30 degree temp difference (+20 inside -10 outside)

At £82 per month the price has to come down a LOT before I will be interested. But given the speed I wonder if there is scope for 2 or 3 neighbours sharing a connection? That would bring the price down enough.

For tie down I just hammered lengths of angle iron into the ground and strapped down to those with steel wire. It has not blown over yet.

Will the house likely need any cooling in the summer? If so a small air to air heat pump (air conditioner) will do all the heating you need efficiently and do cooling in the summer if required. Why no hot water tank? That forces you to have an instant water heater which will be limited in power and the showers might be disappointing.

Where are you living now? Has the house been valued for council tax and are you paying for council tax? I have just submitted our VAT claim and that used a Certificate of Temporary Habitation as "proof of completion" and our moving in date was the date of that certificate, with the claim being submitted within 3 months of that. If you do move in before that (cough) don't admit to it or tell anyone.

Aico are the best, few would doubt that, and not the cheapest. But if the wiring is in place you should be able to swap all 4 in 2 hours and that is being really generous. I bet I could do it in an hour as long as the ceilings were good and no trouble getting a fixing. List prices two CO a heat and a smoke is probably in the region of £200 but can usually be had for a lot less. But why is the cost your concern? It is the landlords responsibility to provide working alarms, and if they are not working it is the landlord that must pay and it is then up to him whether he pays an over charging electrician or finds someone charging a better price.

How can you NOT be aware of a CCJ against you. Were you not notified by post of the proceedings so you could attend? and then notified of the outcome?

I would be looking to branch that pipe the other side of the wall, so 2 pipes come through the wall. Then you can have your proper rest bend on the bottom of the stack, and have the run off to the right.

For me the self build has been largely a good experience. This is our second and i would not rule out a third but no plans at the moment. Self build is not however just a process on it's own. Most will have something to sell to make the self build possible. And of course you have to find and buy a plot. What this experience has confirmed though is my total and utter hatred for the property buying and in particular selling process. We have probably been unlucky but the property market is a miserable thing with far too much positive feedback which makes it flip from a slump where nothing sells to a boom where everything sells quickly. When we tried to sell we hit a slump, this is the FOURTH time in my life I have tried to sell a property in a slump. It is a thoroughly demoralising experience and it is THIS bit of the process that I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to ever repeat again. TIP: If my house is on the market, you can probably take that as a sign that the housing market is in a slump and don't bother trying to sell yours. The irony of course is if we did not have a tenant in the place just now, our old house would probably sell in a flash. Why could some of the people that would queue to buy it now not have wanted it 4 years ago? They could probably have bought it cheaper than now and without the hassle of having to bid against others to do so.

Sadly it sounds more like an insurance company trying to find a thin reason to wriggle out of a claim. How can an undeclared CCJ for a parking ticket be relevant to a building claim? I am surprised the guys own house insurance did not pay to take the builder to court, even if it bankrupted the builder and he had nothing left to pay anything there would be some sort of satisfaction in that. It makes me glad my PL insurance is no longer with Direct Line. (though they did pay out for one very small claim many years ago)

Yes your gas safe engineer should issue a certificate. They will want a stair handrail, the property has to be basically safe.