ProDave

The calculation is actually quite simple (I looked into this when the change was announced because eventually we will be caught by the new rules. They take your purchase price and the sale price and draw a straight line and assume the gain is linear throughout the period of ownership, so no arguing "but the market was flat during that period" So any gain made while it is your private residence, and for 9 months after, is CGT free. Only the gain made after that until it is sold attracts CGT. then once the CGT is calculated remember you then have your personal CGT for that year to use up first (assuming no other capital gain in that year) and if jointly owned that's two personal CGT allowances to use up. I didn't know it had to be paid within 30 days. Previously you did not even declare it until the end of the tax year, and then had until the end of the following January to pay it,. Anther change is the abolition of Letting relief. That was a more complicated calculation that in most cases meant if you let a property that had previously been your main residence (i.e the situation we are in) then lettings relief would have reduce the CGT to nil. That is no longer the case.

Exploring the foibles of Zorin a bit mroe. This is the first PC I have had that has an HDMI video out, so I thought I would plug it into the tv and try on line tv through it. First observation, the tv screen resolutiuon is so different to the pc screen that I could only get it to work sensibly if you selct tv only (a pop up selection comes on the screen when you plug the hdmi in) If you try and run both screens together you end up wither with only part of the tv screen filled, or bits chopped off and the aspect ratio buggered up. Then there was no sound from the tv, the sound still played from the PC speakers. I then found you have to manually select the sound to go to the hdmi using a built in program "Pulse audio" but that is a 2 stage process because the hdmi does not appear in the list of output devices until you go into configuration and select hdmi (and then what flavour of output you want) And of course none of those selections relating to hdmi are there if no hdmi display is attached, and are forgotten if you unplug the hdmi display. So rather tediously you must do that each time you plug in the hdmi display. It then went on to play stuff from the various providers versions of on line player, even with our poor broadband speed. The only one I cannot get to work is itv hub. It tells me I must change a firefox setting to enable DRM content. Having done that, it still tells me the same thing and refuses to play.

I would say typical of a 1980's build low insulation house. A kitchen is always going to be a damp room and with poor air circulation behind the units it is always going to be cold there and condensation will form and mould will grow. The fact there is no sign of that above the units where air can circulate and the walls will be warmed much better suggests it is not a serious problem. If you are going to internally insulate the walls to stop the problem you need to ensure the insulation is sealed to the walls so moisture cannot get behind. Some loose insulation poked down the back of a kitchen unit before the worktop goes on won't do much.

Courtesy of Hot UK deals A free on line course to learn programming in Python https://mailer.pepper.com/link/OPmEBmlcY31gyuYOSwMZup/3CJlaoIjWOn1UNS0gitcTo

Another here with Engineered Oak over UFH. Into the second heating season and all the joints are still nice and tight.

We have a humane trap, somewhere. If I can find that I can put it in the ceiling above the utility room where there is a small loft trap to access some service valves.

We have a "moose loose in the hoose" For a long time we have heard a mouse on the roof, living I believe between the tiles and sarking board. Occasionally heard scratching at the surround to the velux window in the spare bedroom, but he never got it, That changed last week when I fitted the other velux window. For an hour or 2 there was a big hole in the roof. Now it is all sealed up on the outside but i am still insulating the surround (today's job) and the air tight layer won't be sealed up again until later today. I think in that time, the mouse got in. I first heard it scratching around in the ceiling above the utility room on the night after I fitted the window. And last night I heard it I think down inside the wall between the utility room and the hall. The cat heard it too but can't get to it. It could have got down into that wall from above via holes drilled for cables. I am reluctant to put poison down for it, in case a dying mouse then gets eaten by the cat, which might not end well for the cat. Is that a real concern or not?

I would not empty caravan chemical waste into a treatment plant. When we bought our first plot we spent 2 weeks in the touring 'van getting site services organise. We just took the cassette of waste into town on shopping trips and emptied it at the local public toilet. We chose the one that did not have a full time attendant in case they objected to us carrying a container of waste in regularly.

Use a chemical toilet or composting toilet, then you only have to deal with grey water. You can get a mini portable treatment plant designed to go under a static caravan https://marshindustries.co.uk/products/portapura/

And playing with those numbers above. 16,700kWh for space heating each year. Assume you need the heating on half the year = 186 days = 89kWh average heating per day. Some days will be more, some days will be less. Assume you run the heating for half the day = 12 hours that's an average heat input of 7.4kW On the coldest days you might need twice that, so I would say 15kW heat pump minimum All VERY approximate but gives some idea.

Ah, now we have mentioned imperial fittings, I await someone telling me exactly what dimension of a 1/2" BSP thread actually measures half an inch, as I can't find one.

Our previous house was 5 bedrooms a little over 150 square metres. 17 years old, reasonably insulated but not particularly air tight. we used to spend about £800 pa on heating oil. If you are spending £1200 thats half as much again as we were. Before just blindly saying yes to a heat pump, what heats the house? Radiators or under floor heating. If radiators they will have to run at a high temperature where heat pumps are not at there best efficiency.

Sonos now trying (not very hard) to back pedal just a little bit https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-51231363

They will be half the length. The metal bands are normally stamped with the "support every X metres" rating. I have cut down a few Cuplock boards by about an inch to make them fit Kwikstage.

Must be a big dog or it will just go through the big horizontal slots at the bottom?

I had an argument with an ebay seller when I bought a 110mm to 50mm waste pipe reducer. What turned up was indeed a reducer from 110mm to 50mm. Only trouble was it really was for 50mm OD pipe and there was no way the 54mm diameter UK "50mm" waste pipe would fit. I can't understand how he could sell that in the UK as surely everyone that bought one would return it becase you cannot buy the pipe to fit it.

Even without PV my energy use is less than the requirement above. It looks like you must have solar THERMAL to heat at least 5% of your DHW but as long as you have enough insulation you could get away with no solar PV if I am reading it correctly but you will probably have to heat the house with a heat pump (a good idea anyway)

I gave up trying to understand plumbing measurements when I discovered "40mm" waste pipe is not 40mm diameter either inside or out, and that solvent weld and compression "40mm" waste pipe are different sizes. You get a better result taking a fitting and saying "I want pipe to fit that please"

More details. Make and model of heat pump how is it controlled Any motorised valves on the DHW circuit is the pump running What does the HP display say, e.g does it say compressor on? Does it display the tank temperature?

Well I have ordered a Seagate 500MB HDD for a shade under £20 I already have a USB2 disk caddy I could put it into. How much faster would it be if I instead bought a USB3 caddy? If the BT hub 4 even supports USB3?

Doesn't "On the side, with the side pipe upwards" solve all the arguments? No air pockets, thermostat won't drop out, a leak won't soak the electrics. What is wrong with that?

Doesn't "on their side with the side pipe upwards" cure all criticisms of either vertical mounting?

I am not a dog lover but we were dog sitting. We took them on a 3 mile circular walk. Soon into the walk the dogs did their stuff so we used the bags. Not wishing to carry a steaming bag of dog shit for 3 miles, I hung it on a branch to collect on the way back. When we got back we found some kind soul had taken our bag of shit.

Just use a mobile phone and skype if you need video? Or one of the other video services available?

Senior moment, I missed that, thanks.