Ferdinand

Just a heads up to think about how you will use the doors. If 1-1.2m it can be a pain walking through with eg a tray, as you have to put it down and open both. OTOH 1m is wide enough to be awkward for a single upvc door. In accordance with Hitch Hiker tradition, the width is probably almost, but not entirely, exactly unlike what you actually want it to be. If you are having it made, rather than a £100-150 nearly new thing off eBay, then it may be worth considering a sidewindow and single normal width door.

Good point. Though as camouflaged PPE it could be mentioned ?, and demonstrated by hitting with a mallet or crowbar. Just don’t have similar looking soft-skinned wellies ?. On the hedge cutting, I thought that non-Farmers could cut with care as the Do Not Cut was a recommendation not a ban for them, and that an offence was intentional disturbance of nesting birds without much chance of getting caught .. but in practice my tree surgeons for example would refuse to do a job involving disturbance to a nest. So they have a look first and stop if they see anything. In recent years I have unfortunately employed more tree surgeons than hedge cutters, and these are what they explain to me. I believe the restriction for farmers is as a result of EU Subsidy Rules. So If lobbyists for hobby farmers / small holders currently complaining about the 5 Ha lower limit before you get to count as a proper subsidised farmer succeed, then the restriction would potentially apply to those under 5Ha as well. Probably tend to agree with your comment on Best Practice, though. Though cutting hedges could get some publicity via Mr Packham. All good stuff to talk about in a vid. For OP: hope you do not feel daunted by all the onset of detail. The flip side is that there is all this wonderful extra stuff you need to tell people about in your videos. Ferdinand

I have my moss control weapon of choice. £1.29 from Home Bargains. Range is about 12-13m on the flat, and it will reach the top of my roof. One squirt is about a pint, so Jeremy’s 2kg of CuSO4 should do it for starters. Though 15 for 2kg is galling when one can get 25kg for either £50 or £75. Then I need a calm day and some careful and delicate aiming. F

Thanks. A pleasure. Remember that I am only giving my opinion, too. One test you could do is show some friends and ask how they perceive it. It is always about what other people assume and perceive about you, not what you think you are projecting, that defines you in the long run. It is an ideal sort of question to ask on eg Twitter or Facebook (if you avoid the cess pit bits).. or join Ben Adam-Smith’s (houseplanninghelp.com) Facebook Group and ask there. Just engaging like that helps create your community. And as you go on you tweak you mix to fit the community you are building, or to change it. F

Do you have a link to do your "I paid for mine out of the referral fees from the rest of you" thing?

Enjoyed the video, and looked at a couple of others. A couple of comments. My important comment is I think there is (others may differ) a possible tension between you doing: a - A "townies escaped to the country for the sustainable life" or "farmers returning to how we grew up" lifestyle / diary / experience type blog / vlog. b - A "products reviews" type blog. c - A "this is how you do it" verging-on-instructional type blog. All 3 can work well, and the community you grow will respond to your content and change it over time. There are a number of people out there who have done various things such as smallholdings and green-revolution type things and offered services, and they get audiences of either people wanting to do it, people who want some experience without a wholesale change, people who therefore convince themselves not to do it, or those wanting skills and tasters. *But* combining a and c is imo problematic when you are using potentially dangerous tools. If you listen to eg Farming Today you will know that smallholding / farming are dangerous lifestyles. The one that I noticed was I think you were using the big rotary mower in wellingtons - imo they need to be steel toe caps, whether trainers or work boots. Toe chopping is a classic injury, especially with hover-mowers as well as wheeled. It may be that you know the stuff, but the audience may not. In my limited experience, a lot of people from other places are closer to country-living than many here; UKers may not to have the innate knowledge. If the audience is partly beginners, or urban escapers, or dabblers, who might never have seen more gardening than mustard and cress on a windowsill in Clapham, then you need to teach them the safety aspects with a cluebat - which might clash with your own "we are beginners" image. You may also at some point risk get someone turning up on your doorstep with a "we followed your chainsaw demonstration and lost 3 fingers" story. My thought would be to go for option (a), taking care not to look like "instruction" or "demonstration" videos (ie "this is what we did", avoiding 'demonstration' or 'how to' language). But also to include safety notes - which could eg be a 30 second "safety spot" at the start (2nd potential set of vids...), and treat you learning about the safety as part of the lifestyle diary. You could even position it as people from another country being responsible and learning how it is done here. If taking a beginners stance, your positioning needs to be as the animators of a learning community, rather than as any sort of teacher. You could do spots with the supplier, or you going on a course, or have a real expert who is a third character in your programme (in a way how the Countryfile presenters play the idiot to ask questions they already know but know that the audience does not). I am sure you have a local grizzled smallholder or self-employed outdoor worker type who would enjoy the publicity in return for their time and not needing to edit videos. Just thoughts. ATB. Ferdinand

South Ifrican? ?

Can anyone report on the quality of this? Tempting to get a couple for stock.

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If it is to do with being perceived to be fair ... agreed a very good objective ... then I suggest a better vehicle would be for him to write his will now, and giving copies to everyone. But making it clear that it is *his* decision first. Then you could be disinherited of everything else ?. You could have an understanding that you will be more responsible for caring as a quid pro quo. But tbh if it causes severe problems then it means that it is s waking up sleeping dogs, and they would awaken at some stage anyway. IMO whatever is put in place now will be effected by ‘events’ .. so the important thing is to accept that that will happen and decide no one will resent it ie love over money. If you accept this as your lot, then you lose out if he finds a Faberge Egg in his attic and all the rest share it. Alternatively he could be repossessed and you are the only one with any value left. Best of luck. F

Apart from that, enjoying the ping pong of debate on the thread.

OP: Use whatever system you like but don’t put more on top of a bodge. Start again.

Gold Star for a comprehensive first post. Aerogel for your floor if you cannot build up far? Make sure the asbestos is done properly. Asbestos in a ventilation system got my dad we think ... and he was just the supervising architect.

Have now ordered a Claber Kit. Will report back.

@PXR5 Your Council Officers can be gelpful in discussing process and policy; usually you can phone up and ask for the Duty Planner - though it might be called something else. Another way is to read through a few similar applications from the past. The record on the website will gave dates when the various different parts of the process were done, If you find one that eg had a short time between submitted and validated, that is an indicator of a well put together app. if you have particular qs, then we can try and help here. F

I meant how orientating spaces across the narrow dimension makes it feel a better shape ... like putting obtangular tiles across rather than along a narrow bathroom helps the perception of width. tbh I had not noticed quite how big the dimensions were. But 6m is still tight for 2 comfortable rooms, so I think the thoughts are a reasonable comment. Are some of those elements eg doors, beds, bath, drawn bigger than is the case?

Hard to comment without North and a needs statement. But it feels that everything has been crunched from top to bottom, and I think you need to reorientate some elements across it. The plan feels like a collapsed soufflé, and is too squashed imo. Try putting your two main bedrooms right across each end, and see what happens. I think you want as many of your doors as poss to be in top to bottom walls on the plan. Too much space on your tight dimension is occupied by door swing and walkthrough areas, which knocks out most of a top to bottom slice of your plan each time; you do not have the space for that 8n that dimension. Make people see the long dimension when they are moving around when possible. A crossways or dogleg or out and back staircase may also help. A plan of @ProDave‘s static caravan might help at this point. F

Can you estimate what the effect of that change might be? One of my Buildhub holiday projects is an Ebook called EPCs for Landlords, and it would be useful to be able to give a steer. I would estimate a fairly major improvement of 4-6 points based on the better pollution mix of electricity vs gas compared with what it was. Also they will want to talk up ASHPs and so may slant it a little. F

Absolutely, If it wasn’t rather vague there would be a risk that you might understand it too easily.

Supplementary question. One of my Roku Stream Stick + remote controllers (ie the handheld) needs a replacement (it is lost). Does anyone know which one I need, and if a third party thing is available. Roku say they sell them, but on their website only seem to have the whole thing available. Cheers F

For elegance I prefer something that is not pretending. So that would be a coloured upvc say dark grey, which could use wood grain as a texture, or a upvc that is like wood but needs to be convincing. Personally I think white is fine on a house where it matches. F

Probably wrapping up. So I bought one of these design-led air-redistributors from B&Q ("Evaporative Cooler"), which looks like a cross between a Triffid and something else. It even twists left and right. They call it an air conditioner, which it is not. https://www.diy.com/departments/blyss-white-45-3-speed-variable-air-conditioner/1270235_BQ.prd Comes with nice features like a sleep function which switches it randomly to prevent constant noise, and very good at keeping the place cool once it is cool. Also comes with a basic design flaw in that the water is added through a detachable door on the back at the bottom, and the only way to empty it is to run it for hours or to turn the whole caboodle upside down outside. So it is going back, and I will find one with a jug unit that can be taken out and filled under the tap, like a normal dehumidifier. Ferdinand

Bugger. Placed my Lakeland order this AM. That's what I get for not working it.

Interesting little insight into changing attitudes. I am being discouraged from getting the Lakeland Sunflower one on the basis that the £2 post and packaging cost will be saved if we wait until we next need a set of oven gloves or three and can get over the minimum £40 order in 6 months time or so, or if we wait until we next get to a Lakeland shop. As dad used to say - "in some ways we still live in the 50s". This is probably why my garage is full of bits of wood.

Could one burn it off in situ, assuming a concrete container?