Ferdinand

@ProDave is sensible. For gaps, my golden rule is that it needs to be wide enough to be maintainable or not exist. What will you do when a small cat falls down it? For the soffits, you would need an agreement to overhang into their airspace. I think what you need to do is give them a quid pro quo big enough so that you can do the optimum. eg Rebuild his garage such that you can go on top of it to maintain your wall, and a suitable agreement in the package. But also need not to be a doormat. If you fall out, all he has to do is ban your builders and scaffolding from his land, and it will become much more difficult. Ferdinand

Further thought - do you have a particular problem with one half? Can you go for one of those with a full width freezer drawer at the bottom, which would give you more than half freezer - or vice versa if such exist.

Really not sure what to suggest here. You are going to compromise on something here. It is an important one since a definition of house is "a group of rooms arranged around a fridge", I think I would look into redoing the whole thing, and looking carefully at what the different elements cost. Cupboard doors and cupboards are not expensive. Fridges are, depending on the fridge. My 'American Style Fridge" is actually German and 610mm deep, and the thickness of the doors need to stand proud, but they open to 170 degrees on stand-forward hinges - not sure if they are all like that. But a new one (actually a fridge freezer pair in a frame, so that only half of it loses power if a motor dies) is nearly as much as the one mentioned above. Personally I went for a model without gadgets for low maintenance and long life, and my watercooler is a carafe in the door. But that is personal taste. There is the option of choosing the ff your really want and building custom around it; but unlike slab doors, those cannot be butchered and look OK easily. You also need to allow enough space to the wall in case your fridge doors do not open fully and you can't get your shelves out. That may argue freezer on left as they have thicker walls and narrower shelves and are more tolerant in this respect. Ferdinand

I think it depends on the surface. If it were smooth I think I would do it with Osmo. If natural sawn or whatever I would leave it. Also dependent on what it is - beams and posts I might leave. Floors I might do with something. Thinking back to our house with centuries old oak, we had treated all of it for woodworm, and all the floors and some of the beams had a slighty glossy finish - not sure what it was. Also consider potential stains, and how easy to remove they will be. What does eg red wine or frying fat do to untreated oak? I would be oiling not polyurethane-ing or varnishing. F

Welcome. I think we need some photos, and ideally a sketch plan. Ferdinand

I would say yes ... but you need to be sure. Risk and reward are perhaps both higher than usual. Perhaps also some finish items, such as tiles and floor products and silicone and so on. Ferdinand

Mine is driven by the water butt being a couple of feet above the garden soil, plus the water level in the butt. I leave it on for the morning then turn it off, when the birdbath is empty. Plants get watered simultaneously. The birdbath is a biggish plantpot saucer at ground level.

I believe you are on raised beds. Have you considered an auto-watering system? Not expensive - I have one linked up to a waterbutt in my front garden - surprisingly effective and I have a birdbath on the circuit so that I have a flag as to when X amount of water has come out. F

I would think you should be able to do a mixed development, but I do not know this in detail. I think the environment after Rona will be different such that the sweet spots in type of development may change, which brings both risk and opportunity. My suggestion would be - in addition to continuing to listen here - to also frequent a couple of more development oriented forums, such as propertytribes.com (lots of relevant content, and good ethics). There are a lot of sharks out there. If you are intending to do this yourself, then I would suggest a period of learning and being mentored by a HOG - hoary old git - if you do not have relevant and significant experience, as there are market, legal and taxation issues that will affect everything. Ferdinand

3' X 2' and 50mm thick. I did do a patio with them a few years ago on my own. My main concern would be that I live alone for now, and do not want to risk serious injury in the current close-down. For the pile of 20kg bags of river pebbles on the pallet, some wag at the gym suggested a Workout of the Day involving 50 lifts of 20kg each...

A lot of mortgage valuations are just drivebys anyway.

Welcome.

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These are the building materials I have on site. A pallet, unfortunately under about a ton of river pebbles. A fence panel from my bin stores, where the posts snapped in the wind in Jan/Feb. A good quantity of half-rounds, which could make a dense ‘horse fence’. Have about 20 rounds knocker posts elsewhere. Which one to use? Those pavers weigh 65kg each, so I am not playing with those on my own and they are probably sub optimal as a material.

Think I know where I am with this now. This is my veg side of the garden, though in the later years mum let one frame go to potential bamboo and another to mint; may have to deal with this. I think I'll pair the dalek with a bin in one end of one of the frames - made either from pallets (frames are 4' wide) or post and half rounds, which I have here already - then I can turn the stuff from one to the other if necessary. Presumably the soil under the movable Council Bin will be improved, so it will be good to reposition that occasionally. That bit of wall is next door’s that fell down, and is waiting for them to repair. Ferdinand

I think one of our Scottish members is doing that with a plastic tin and a dry toilet(?) I think it is fill 'er up, change the bucket, put a tightfitting lid on it and leave alone for 18 months. No idea who, though. F

If it's your only suntrap then I perhaps sun loving veggies or plants. How about tomatoes or aubergines? Something to nibble whilst sitting on the deck. Or something slightly exotic with flowers, or something scented when you are most likely to sit there.

Can you post something with details of: Where's North? Plot extent and boundaries. Neighbours, trees and views. Extent of upstairs. A sketch plan would be fine. You will get more useful comments. And welcome.

Oh. And sawing old oak can be oodles of fun.

You want them "in stick" - that is on a pallet or wooden blocks, then stacked up with 20x20mm short lengths of wood between them under cover in a place with reasonable ventilation. There may be something in sawing them into thinner chunks (but perhaps not quite small enough for your bookcase chunks in case you have to re-cut) first. If you have one that you will be cutting up to use, you can cut a "bookshelf sized plus a bit extra" length off one end and look at the cross section to see the internal condition. To dry out from damp will take at least several months imo. Perhaps one of our wood people can comment? My parents' house still had original medieval cruck beams in the wall in sound condition, that were probably oak. OTOH the ceilings were full of reused 10"x10" to 12"x12" oak beams - one poor condition one (woodworm damage) ended up in the garden as a lawn separator and that took 15+ years to decay in contact with the ground. Ferdinand

I think one approach would be to saw a few mm off the face, to remove damage and give you a good surface. Or treat it like restoring a floor, and use a belt sander. Then treat them .. or just treat them and leave the surface as is. Ferdinand

Looks great.

Welcome.

It is around, and you can get router bits to do it, but not common. F

They are answering the phone if you want to negotiate ? .