Ferdinand

Can you talk me through that £7500 for nothing? I have not yet absorbed the detail of the package - how does that work. Ferdinand

Hello Jane Try the Historic Houses Associaton, which is an association of privately owned listed building owners. They may know who are relevant experts, but also be aware of ‘the ones that got away’. https://www.historichouses.org They may be willing to pass your details on. Just checking ... if I recall correctly, you are building on a (slightly expensive!) former vicarage garden in London near the river bought at auction, and run a couple of successful small businesses (?), and have an inconvenient third party drain across the middle. If someone has successfully fought off a similar thing, they may well be willing to advise / encourage someone in the same position ... there will be a solidarity. In your place I would also place a speculative call to the Chancellor of the Diocese to ask for any useful contacts they can give you, given the history. The. Chancellor is the Senior Legal Advisor to the Bishop, and would not advise but may be willing to give a couple of pointers in a short phone call or email, if you bought it from them. Speculative, but on the occasions I have dealt with them, often willing to spend a few minutes helping me. The Church of England have more listed buildings than anybody else, and they should know who to talk to etc. The other official who deals with buildings in the CodE is the Archdeacon, which in London (last time I knew) were organised on an area basis similarly to the ‘Area Bishops’; they could be an alternative to contact. OTOH you could have found them hard to deal with. I could say the same for the National Trust, but I do not know their internal systems. Best of luck. Ferdinand

+1. Not cheap iirc, but I found this under a 2 for 1 deal at Wickes. Perhaps somebody can comment whether a ‘roll your own’ idea of ‘normal coating plus sprinkle sand on it’ works at all. Ferdinand

if you have an internal division, you could use that as the feature wall, which would not compromise your fabric. Or put a lead to orangery or extension of some sort on the back of your feature wall to make it internal. Ferdinand

I would think you could either roll your own, or buy something off the shelf designed for a boat or caravan. But I would expect that solar PV would be less buggeration-ful over time. Ferdinand

Does anyone on this "oak" thread need a 0.9m or 1.8m high oak barleytwist chandelier? Promise it won't turn into walk-on glazing at midnight, like Cinerellla's pumpkin ! Ferdinand

Delighted to see the generous shower size. These are worth their weight in kittens. And the stuffed cockerel.

I''m very innocent - pure as the driven snow in fact. Why did you think of that? I feel corrupted.

Love the site, but what's a pube tree? I can't see an obvious typo. *very innocent face*

Superb. Glad to hear it. Photos ? However, I will be in social isolation, so I can’t come and see it ?.

We sound like daffodils...

Can you explain what elements are fixed by your Change of Use permission, if any? Cheers Ferdinand

I remember voltmeters :-). It's in the cupboard with the epidiascope.

Thanks for all the comments here. F

And then you come and join ours. Bah Humbug !!! Welcome to Buildhub, @John w. Do tell us a bit about yourself, and what you are thinking about or planning. There are several renovation project blogs, and mine below has some bits on there. One good thing to do early, is to build a heat model of your house, using the spreadsheet that is around somewhere. If you ask, someone will link. Ferdinand

Lots of options. My backup service is via the Unlimited Data option on my mobile phone. Virgin Cable do not use a BT Socket. You can get standalone data services over mobile, or things like Microwave beam or satellite. Ferdinand

Wassail ! Drink Heil (or rather "Drink Ale")! (I won't get a Sieg quip in there and survive Deletion by the Buildhub Cyberman ? ? ?.)

Seamus O Hoolahan? !!! HOTLIPS ?

Thanks. I think our sustainability credentials should be up there, apart from the concrete basement that is! ?‍♂️ Make like Hitachi, or .. er .. Albert Speer, you two, and use a 1000 year time horizon in your calculations. Then it is suddenly sustainable. Abracadabra !

That is the general spot, but I think going out onto the agricultural land will make it much more difficult. Stick on the garden land, and your life may be 10 times easier. But ask the q.

If I wasn’t diabetic, one of the things I would buy now would be a full size 25kg sack of potatoes or two, which will last for months. We used to give them to a couple of friends at Christmas. ? But I moderate-carb So I bought 2.5kg Last thing I expected was to be learning to grow veg the spring after mum passed away. But need to do the last list of seeds tonight to pick up tomorrow.

This after 9-10 days, with labels. This years spicy salad leaves, and old seeds for pea shoots, Curley parsley, little gem lettuce and spring onions. the parsley and lettuce have started, pea shoots and spring greens not yet. Spicy salad will be eatable next week. D,

Just spoke to my Council. They are planning to continue to run services, potentially with a reduced staff if employees are affected, but with no public access to the offices. Very rational to keep going as nearly as possible. I am thinking about doing an Change of Use app that needs to be done during my period in isolation. Ferdinand

Potentially very tricky plot in planning terms. To ask this assume you have some sort of approval / pre-approval. I would take a long time thinking about it, and I might even think bungalow or an outline profile inspired say by Diana Princess of Wales conservatory at Kew (below), as you have loads of space. You need exposure to the South-West but also complete privacy from the other houses, which they will want not to try and stop you. You also need to have them on side, or at least not horribly off-side. I would be thinking top right of the yellow box, a path width away from the boundary, oriented South West with exposure to the North and East through windows or perhaps an evening patio or balcony hidden from the houses. What are plans for all the land around - is it zoned for housing in say 15 years time? If it is that changes what you do. How much of that half-demolished-for-the-driveway house is left - is it viable? Ferdinand

Welcome to the OP if you revisit the thread. Sorry for missing you in Jan - must have been flat on my back dying from a winter lurgy at the time. How are things now? Ferdinand