ProDave

MCS (FIT?) or not? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4KW-SOLAR-PANEL-PV-KIT-SYSTEM-BEST-PRICE-IN-THE-UK-AND-EBAY/162967359640?hash=item25f19c9098:g:02YAAOSwQM9UaNmN https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3KW-SOLAR-PANEL-PV-KIT-SYSTEM-CHEAPEST-IN-THE-UK-AND-ON-EBAY/152920052267?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D50546%26meid%3D80404c91984140fbb22667abc6016f2a%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D6%26rkt%3D12%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D162967359640%26itm%3D152920052267&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

Even a conventional straight from the wagon pour, you need somewhere for them to wash out. It's a messy business.

We had the plumbed in ice maker and water chiller in the last house. The mechanism for that takes up about the top third of the freezer. It was also not the most reliable thing having a tendancy to keep on making ice cubes and overflowing it's bucket. Agree that made the freezer space too small.

Possibility. Though SWMBO wants the chilled water dispenser (quite why I don't no. For 3/4 of the year, mains water here arrives pre chilled straight from the tap)

Possibly not, but I am sure more economical than the 15 year old one we had in the last house.

I hate the term "American" but it is the accepted term for larger Fridge Freezers, usually fridge and freezer side by side. In the last house we paid over £1K for such an animal. Way more than I thought it was worth. But for the last year we have been struggling with a normal separate "under worktop" fridge and freezer. The fridge in particular struggles to contain a weeks shopping, so in the new house we want something larger, which probably brings us back to the "American" things. It's only a distant thought just now. BUT in a RARE moment of watching commercial tv live, I caught an advert, which led me to this: https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/household-appliances/refrigeration/fridge-freezers/logik-lsbsdx17-american-style-fridge-freezer-innox-10156712-pdt.html We don't really want to buy it now. I would rather wait until we have a near complete kitchen to put it in. So the question boils down to: Is this a particular bargain that must be snapped up now before the offer ends? or are "American" Fridge freezers now generally and widely available for just over £400 (which is the sort of price I would be comfortable with)?

Most people would just stand on a stool to reach it for cleaning.

At least plug in an extension lead and hang it over the fence.

I am sure that would be okay. We all have an "after sign off" list

It's a warm roof hung from a ridge beam, with separate ridge beams for the gables / dormers I don't know if any of these show enough details.

Balcony, yet to be built. Currently known as the suicide door.

That will fail Scottish building regs on accessability, you can't have the door swinging over the activity space in front of the pan. You could do what we are doing, the utility room and WC are all one room. Not to everyones taste to have Washing machine, tumble dryer, sink unit then WC in a line, but building control are fine with it. Don't also forget you have to demonstrate you have space to fit a downstairs shower. You can probably do that by saying you will sacrifice the wardrobe in the downstairs bedroom.

Is this the look you want? I was initially told this was impossible. I was told the dormer / gables must have an "end" and could not carry on down to nothing. What he actually meant was the beam that support them could not carry on down to nothing. So Inside you end up with this where the roof beams square off the ends: the ends pf the gable are cut off inside as the beam comes down to the bottom. Externally you clad any shape you want in our case with the sarking board to get the valleys to run all the way to the bottom with no "end"

There are certainly a lot of conflicting signals doing the rounds at the moment. So we have a housing shortage? and (in some parts of the country) record breaking house prices and a booming market. But today we are told the construction sector shrunk 3.3% in the first quarter of this year. If that continues, that's a 12% decline in a year. So why is that? And that's not going to get all the houses the politicians promised built is it? I don't have the solution, other than why do so many crave to be in the SE of England? That's where the silly high house prices are and the "shortage" of housing. The rest of the UK does not really have a problem. Yet nobody seems to even talk about that let alone address it. Personally we were happy to leave the overcrowded SE 15 years ago and there is no way I would ever go back.

Definitely separate the stairs from the living room. It will only shrink the living room actual space by a tiny amount anyway. Then you can do a we have done, make the wall each side of the stairs a supporting wall. Joists then span end to end with intermediate support from the two stairwell walls. The supporting walls can then continue up to the ridge and you can support a ridge beam end to end and create a vaulted warm roof as we have. That means your loft space is warm and you can choose to have high ceilings or a conventional loft space. or even one bedroom having a mezanine floor above the adjacent room as we have done. In fact with those alterations that layout is not a million miles from what we have. If you are ever passing up this way (near Alness) feel free to drop in and see out part built house.

I take it your plot is not one of the same ones then, just close by? i.e you did not pay that much for it.

Could you approach the owner of the other plots and see if he would get the supply installed to each. I am willing to bet by collectively doing it, the cost would be about £5K per plot. Then the plots would be for sale partly serviced which would make them more attractive. I would also get your water connection quote, and if there are similar issues look at a collective agreement for that as well. It seems odd to sell 5 plots unserviced. Often around here such a development gets the services connected by the owner and are then sold as serviced plots.

The owner of out local car garage that does our MOT's had his house externally insulated for free. They did a good job and he is very pleased with the result.

The cheeky bit is they get you to pay for a 4 core cable, and use 2 cores. If someone then wants to build a house next door to you, then there would be "spare capacity" that you have paid for and they would get a cheap connection. Are there any other houses planned nearby? if so coordinate with them.

Anyone with a street works permit can do the trenching, but I found all the independent contractors were more expensive than the utilities. Depending on the road, even though they re only digging in the verge they may need traffic management as well. Before you go any further, where is your water and telecoms connections going to be? If they need the road or verge up, then don't be digging it up twice. In my case all 3 came from the other side of the road, so I had the road up only once, and Scottish Water were the cheapest of them all to make the road crossing.

Talk to them and see what they CAN supply from that pole. What KVA rating did you ask for? It's tempting to ask for 21KVA (100A) but you almost certainly do not need that. We were in a similar situation, adding an extra house to an existing 100KVA transformer. I just knew if I asked for 21KVA there would be a big cost for upgrading the transformer. So I sked for 12KVA and that could be accommodated from the existing transformer. Firstly 12KVA will be plenty for our house anyway, but the reality is we have the same cable and same 100A fuse as we would have if we had asked for 21KVA So go back and ask what capacity they could supply from the existing pole, and see if you can live with that.

We got the builders that built our timber frame to supply and install the windows. So once all the negotiating was done with Rationel,. I handed the quote to the builders. Because they were doing supply and fit, it meant the whole lot could be charged to us at 0% VAT so saved having to wait until the end for the VAT claim. We were told we would need a forklift to off load, so they had their telehandler on standby, but it wasn't needed as the lorry had a hiab and self unloaded them.

I already spoke to BC on a previous site visit and they are happy with air drawn up from under the floor, as they were in my last house.

There is always a BIG difference in the mix of customers visiting on a weekday. compared to those that go on a Saturday morning. Jewsons and Travis, the only 2 locally both know me, but have yet so see me in clean clothes.

I would definitely want the house further from the boundary. Down to 1M and I think you hit fire proof nonsense for the windows.