Ferdinand

About 175m here. Can sometimes be a bit windy, but not on a Scotland scale.

£250 ouch. i think for that one I would try a jet washer with a nozzle on a pipe long enough that it reached all of it from one spot. Or learn to love lichen, which may not work for you. Ferdinand

First issue with the new bathroom. The slighlty textured tiles are necessarily wonderfully grippy, to avoid eg slips, trips and broken hips. but they also grip dirt eg bits of remaining mud on shoes. Does anyone have good suggestions for day-to-day light cleaning? The best I have done so far is probably the pull stroke of a sponge-mop. Cheers Ferdinand

+2. Talk to the Carncil now. Or I guess that if it is marginal, you may be able to accidentally get it a bit too wide. In any case, just check that the error margins on your structural door width calcs will leave you still in the sweet spot.

Welcome. With luck the covenant may be unenforceable. It can be quite difficult to do so. Suggest concise advice from an established local solicitor with a suitable property specialist. Crucial things are who the beneficiary is and whether you can show if anyone has breached it successfully. It is unlikely that people will take the risk of attempted enforcement either if you are doing something minimal or they have a low chance of success. Unless they are Mr Suburb with money to burn and/or hate the ground you walk on. There can be 27 PPs in existence if you like. But be clear about what you are implementing. The terrace idea may be better if you can combine parts of adjacent plots and make it a small cel de sac. F

lawnmower racing,

From a design blog, a stencilled patio using masonry paint. Interesting idea for a shortish term makeover to concrete slabs. But stencilling is real attention-to-detail stuff. We had a stencilled border on a floor to detract attention from the floor material, and it took a lot of care to do. The design here looks to me to be intolerant to slight misalignments, though the curved shapes and space in the design at tile-edges would help. A bold random texture might be an easier alternative. Credit: https://iamhayleystuart.com/2019/07/04/my-patio-makeover/ . Worth a quick read. I do not understand keeping the fence; that looks like the cheapest form of panelled fencing you can get, and may disintegrate when coughed on by a goldfinch. Unless it is next door's, in which case it formally needs permission to paint it.

Potentially shocking?

Bit of a boob there, if you try eating every pasty you see.

It's quite funny isn't it - these are back with a vengeance. Did they ever go away? Though I guess that it might be more likely to be a man to doing the ironing than the cleaning in my experience (taught by the forces?). Even at home we have a woman to do the cleaning every fortnight, and there is a Ironing service round the corner called Pressed for Time. Ferdinand

I make that you now have a full set of answers. ?

A further one is that if you ordered online, you have 30 days to return the goods as of legal right. No idea how that works out with a bust company, though, and for goods that are not here yet. Ferdinand

I do not see how Development can start whilst you only have Outline Planning Permission, by definition. I do not think that you can start development in law without Detailed PP. Outline is about the principle of development. But this is the sort of area where it may all turn out to be muddy water, and I can well see someone trying to argue that you had started because you did and therefore xyz, even if it is not allowed to happen. I would definitely be wanting a Council Confirmation in writing to cover my back.

If you plan to collect your clippings, shredded grass is more difficult. The other option would be a traditional scythe, which might be quite fun on half an acre once a year. (Full disclosure: I do not have half an acre of grass.)

Might argue for a decently strong ride on with a big collection bag or even a trailer. TBH that is traditional management of hay meadows. I would check with someone who has a small wildflower meadow of your type, or eg your local Conservation Organisation, or cold call the council verge man. For example our previous Residents Association ran a community hall and woodland in the village; they would know. Of course, in a strict world that means you would have to poop a scoop your goats. ?

You win the game of lawnmower bingo if you get one that is as old as you. .?

Do meadows not require to be unimproved soil,and so the clippings need to be removed after their summer cut?

If you paid recently by Debit card you could try a ‘chargeback or claim under the scheme. https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/visa-mastercard-chargeback/ You will need to read your card terms.

Hi Mark. I believe the local authority has a legal duty to fund certain adaptations of your house if it costs less than £1000. ’Building Regs’ sounds like a bit of a red herring, though that could be the convenient standard your HA has adopted as policy. This rather comprehensive info sheet from Age UK covers it I think. You will need one or several pots of tea to read it ... 28 pages. Then talk to them, and you may get a visit from an Occupational Therapist. I might anticipate attempted buck-passing between the LA and the HA. Though it is Age UK, disability is covered too, which should ... by the sound of it ... apply in some way to you. The key is to pay attention to what categories of need they have to meet, and place yourself in those categories. They like to do things like keep you out of services requiring more extensive and expensive support. I suggest checking in whether it is means tested. Though we did not qualify due to savings etc, they were still happy to come out and advise us before I installed an Accessible Bathroom for an elderly relative. .Ramps are specifically mentioned in I think 3.2 . https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/factsheets/fs42_disability_equipment_and_home_adaptations_fcs.pdf You can also talk to the Disabled Living Foundation, and other orgs. Age UK may also have a directory of local tradesmen and installers who MAY be pre-approved in some way. Ask. HTH Ferdinand

I think for secondhand mowers it is the same as anything else. Buy a recognised brand, especially of engine, and probably one that is heavier duty than you thereotically need, and do as much as you can to verify it. The best ride-on I ever had was a brand called Simplicity. We were advised to buy American at the time, and because it was specced via a pto for things like rotavating the basic machine was solid. Would recommend as robust. F

Two other options. One is a wheeled strimmer. Eg https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cobra-WT56B-22-Wheeled-Lawn-Trimmer-Grass-Paddock-Strimmer-Field-Lawnmower-Mower-/272732108034 The other is a ‘two bladed scythe’, which is like a two bladed hedge cutter on the front of a mower platform. https://www.frjonesandson.co.uk/products/apache-m210-sicklescythe-mower-87cm-cut The difference is that both of these will cut your plants and grass from the bottom, rather than shredding it like a Flymo. They should have large wheels, and are perhaps less prone to go wandering than a flymo . These are perhaps the sort of machine that you would use once or twice a year to stop a small field going to scrub. Ferdinand

For another possible example, I tend to pay about £30-40 per barrel for anti snap anti bump keyed-alike locks ordered together from a local hardware shop. These are for rentals. Ferdinand

Maintainability? Perhaps likely to need easier access to a blind than a window?

I am in Englandshire, so will not be participating, but I think you may have an issue with not having given a definition of "environmental sustainability" as used in your research project. It is largely a matter of opinion. I can think of dozens of different meanings - it is a chameleon word like "ethical" in investment, which I think of mainly as a flag of people who think they are morally superior. For a specific example, there was a lot of shouting when subsidies on solar panels were cut off at the knees back in 2011-2013-ish. Some green campaigners demanded continued subsidies at that level, whereas others took the view that reducing the level of subsidy would enable more solar panels to be adequately subsidised for the same money. That is different concepts of utility in those circumstances. If you have a definition, it may help to post it on your survey page. Best of luck. Ferdinand

I would probably go with normal masonry paint, in a colour and type that you know will not leave the market. I tend to use Sandtex if I have to paint masonry or render, and redo it every few years as required. F