Ferdinand

To wrap up my project on this thread, here is a list of my blog posts based on it, and the final sheet of costs and components and sources:

For the shower I do not need one yet, and it would have entailed disturbance to the waste and digging. Should one be needed I have the space to raise the floor and provide a ramp that could be removed later. F

This is the last post in my series, with details of a couple of finishing touches and details of what I bought and what it cost. Summary For drive-by readers, the total cost came to just on £2200 including VAT, or about £2500 if the project had replaced everything - I kept the washbasin, vanity unit, storage unit and mirror. There is also potential to reclaim VAT on the approximate £200 spent on specific accessibility pieces such as the shower seat and grab rails. Counting up the wall tiles in the bathroom, I find that no fewer than eleven from about 60 now have holes drilled in them. That is the smallest number of spares I will need to buy now to restore the bathroom to should I need to do so later, of for example an elderly person dies or moves into a care home, and the property needs to be sold on. A thing worth bearing in mind; these are not projects where 2 or 3 spares will be sufficient ... "for a want of 15 tiles the bathroom was gutted". In practise in this case I have umpteen spares as someone gave me 10sqm of tiles when I only needed about 6sqm. Extras I added a shower caddy storage unit. These figures do no include fluffing. Lists of Costs List of Suppliers Most of the products above should be easy to locate. Here is a list of clickable deep links that I have available. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01CC6UNZG/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B017O89SG2/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01CC6UNZG/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B074T41X9F/ https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Modern-Rainfall-Square-Twin-Head-Exposed-Thermostatic-Bar-Shower-Mixer-Chrome-54/232674611695?var=532155236037&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20190212102350%26meid%3D48370791d06f43a1972ba71707e98bf6%26pid%3D100012%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D332130829568%26itm%3D532155236037&_trksid=p2047675.c100012.m1985 https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/lillangen-washbasin-cab-1-door-2-end-units-white-s09188045/ https://www.tiletown.co.uk/en http://probablythebestpubsintheworld.co.uk/ Wrap up That's all folks. Ask any questions below, and I will do my best to answer. If you are between about Junction 24 and Junction 28 on the M1, check out http://probablythebestpubsintheworld.co.uk/ - a local company with about 5 eating pubs, which are decent quality and very good value. And have good beers - my local one has Abbot and Taylor's Landlord.

Yep and the use patterns match when the sun is out. So a good option. They have and do invest heavily; according to OFWAT somewhere north of 100bn since privatisation. Quality is massively better than before. I like the public regulation / private management model because it removes conflicts of interest. In the first few years investment doubled - but there would be a level of politics in that. On the SE, they have a huge reservoir project on the stocks called Abingdon Reservoir, Nimbies and CPRE notwithstanding, which would be the largest in the UK. It is basically ready to go when needed, subject to Planning. About 10 years ago the Govt decided it was not yet the best option. I can recall documentaries about preparations in eg purchasing property back before the millennium. I think that reduce would be a better option for the South. Uk water use levels are 150l per person per day - Germany is about 120l. Universal metering would be a good option, as would further use of rainwater, and further leak reduction. That 20% alone should be worth some years - though I am not sure what the rainfall reduction profile will be. In performance on investment and leakages, the privatised parts of the UK water industry seem to do better than the nonprofit publicly owned. Not my normal source, but the numbers seem right and comparative figures are hard to come by. F

I know the feeling :-). That usually means that somehow you have only rotated the thumbnail. A Refresh on the thumbnail may rotate it back if it has not worked. Plan B is a mini app like eg Irfanview.

There is some irony there ... the system came in with Attlee in 1947 and a major intention was to assure supplies of land for development. The original wartime reports make interesting reading. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_and_Country_Planning_Act_1947 F

I think that as an Engineering Operation, which will apply at least to the foundations, you will need PP anyway under the definitions in the 1990 act. Especially as that channel is potentially a flood relief thing of some sort. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/when-is-permission-required IMO any debate about avoiding PP is probably a red herring. Though there may be other relevance. I would call that the other way, on the basis that Wales has for 80-90% of the last 20 years basically been an elected one party Principality controlled by the most theoretically centrally-controlling of the mainstream UK political parties. Though given the current English situation, any of the three main parties could take that crown. Not intended as a political remark. Ferdinand

Called trench arch. Used in eg rural churches where the average over time might be equivalent to one person occupying full time, or under a path when there are skeletons and archaeology everywhere. Church archaeology costs a fortune that makes self-build versions seem a smaller challenge. I was involved in one where they found a plague pit under the floor. 300 tons of sand to fill it rather than several months for archaeology. How to here: https://www.gloucester.anglican.org/content/pages/documents/1352755360.pdf https://www.greengloucestershire.org.uk/content/pages/documents/1424700436.pdf

I am full of admiration for the creation of a smallholding from scratch in a decade of hard work, and that it is a working business by the look, and that it has been done inside the system. But 290k plus the need to fund a house build puts it into Southern Hobby Farmer territory, which I think is a push too far. Might be 290k is the House was still there. I think they are deserving of a healthy gain, in return for the risk they have taken and the work they have done. But, as ever, they can hope for what they would like, and the market will pay what it is worth. Ferdinand

The newspaper report says £290k. Which means - that like everyone else - the most value was in the Planning Gain ?. I would accept that they have built an impressive unit - the Planning has output conditions attached under the Welsh regime - and eg they have installed 1500sqft of glasshouses growing things like vines. But £290k seems a little ambitious - I would say £150-200k potentially. F

If it was a CC payment, all you will need is to be sure that they have gone through. An email, or even a statement that you have checked should get the payment reversed. F

Once you have checked that the windows are safe - assume you have done this, perhaps get a list of installers from Velfac and start phoning around... F

Not sure when you can get a new Belle from Wickes for around £250-270. https://www.wickes.co.uk/Altrad-Belle-130L-Portable-Electric-Cement-Mixer---450W/p/505040 F

I see that the Grand Designs Hobbit House (which burnt down and now has PP for a new one) in Lammas Village is for sale. 9 acres smallholding. http://www.simondale.net/index.htm Seems to have an interesting price. I would say 30-50% less would be about right. How well paid did you say you were ? ? https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/welsh-homes/grand-designs-revisited-what-happened-15969483

As further grist to the mill, it turns out that my contact David Clark has retired and now lives in Bakewell, and has a blog where he discusses some of his thinking. Here for example on "The Human City". https://www.diaconalchurch.com/human-city/ Mid-30s by then !

There may be something in one of these. I certainly mentioned our Aquatron, which is how I dug them out.

That's part of the point. They exist naturally in the cracks and at the edges of society, driven by unusual people who want (sometimes for now) to be different whilst being useful or serving unmet need. Even the Centre for Alternative technologies started somewhat like that ... hippies with a common focus hippy-ing who found a way to make it work. You need to go out of your way to investigate alleys in society you would not normally pursue. Religious Orders are interesting (modern nuns are brilliant usually), people at the joining points of lots of networks who have an awareness (eg Bishops or their staff, or people running training colleges), as are the odder bits of Universities, people with bees in bonnets, chaplains - eg hospital or industrial - of all denominations and none, and the quiet fulfilling things people do in their lives but not normally talk about. Follow up obscure asides in books. Knock on doors of interesting people and ask interesting questions; they will love it. My most diverse contact was probably the Quaker aspect of the Selly Oak Colleges in Birmingham, where they used to have a "Centre for Communities", and a chap called Rev David Clark who wrote books on the subject. This is some years ago. Ferdinand

3 longshots. 1 - In England at least, I believe that since the Giant Haystacks case there is case law which says that deliberate deception loses you the right. 2 - There are places where resi plots with PP or very likely to get it can be found for 25-50k. They will be small, but they exist. 3 - They can feel permanent. But Tiny Houses are more expensive per piece of what you get istm. Fairly easily renovatable terraces can be 50k in lots of places. Don't forget that there are still live-in jobs around like Hostel Warden and National Trust House Warden and RSPB Island Keeper. Ferdinand

Welcome. (Currently choosing not to get into the debate as I only have half an hour). I don't quite get the concept of your own terraced house not feeling like yours. It is. If you move out of London, doer-uppers can cost very modest amounts of money. It is probably worth pointnig out that now is probably the best time for decades to have a mortgage, since you can get 10 year fixed money at less than 2.5%. And that will leave you with something at the end if you want to spend some time exploring alternatives. I would also mention that a lot of people who head off into, or are icons of, the "deep green lifestyle" actually have a foundation in a more conventional lifestyle that is a permanent Plan B should they need it, or are quite well off, or have the backup of strongly-rooted families. eg the famous "Hobbit House" of Pembokeshire was built on the family farm. Throwing a wildcard on the table, if you are still 'searching' in some ways ... for what you want to be and do ... you might enjoy an experience for a time of living in, or attached to, a community. The value is in being exposed to something 'other' as a contrast, and in offering service. I am familiar with communities such as Little Pilsdon and Iona, based in historic traditions, but there are many other forms and some which are secular, and some which are networks. I was for a time involved in a setup called the Othona Community, which has a dispersed membership of hundreds, but a base on the Blackwater Estuary near London. Imo the advantage of the older communities is that they learnt how to manage themselves already, and are full of older people with decades of experience from whom much can be learnt. Find people who have been marching to a different drum for 30 years or so, and buy them a pint of Stout. Just thoughts. Ferdinand

I do not know if I put it in above. As an architectural student in the 1950s my dad was aware that his family smallholding could be potential development land, and actually did a couple of fill in bungalows along the road side in the 60s. They were aware that there were only 2 wedges of land around the town left, so when grandad died they rented it to a local farmer, who - followed by his son - kept the tenancy as extra land for him for 60 years. Then we went for planning a few years ago and got it approved on Appeal following a political refusal (ie Councillors not wanting to upset their voters today, despite having zoned it for potential housing and having a good analysis in the local Shlaa). So I would say 3 things: - Make sure you can get it. - Make sure you can use and manage it practically, and it is substantially worth it without the windfall. - Be aware of what the barriers to surmount will perhaps be. The play farmland spot the ball. Ferdinand

You can rotate images directly from the Windows File Manager using the "Manage" tab. HTH. https://www.intowindows.com/how-to-rotate-images-in-windows-10-file-explorer/

That should be ample, unless there is a big gotcha somewhere. I think the required fall is 1:40, plus the size of the pipe, plus whatever you need above it. Ferdinand

This post is a brief interlude in my "Accessible Ablutions" mini-project, and will be followed by one more post reporting the costing and sourcing detail of the project. I found that I needed to hold a hinged shower screen firmly in place against a slopoing ceiling, and needed a custom part. Through the good offices of Buildhub and @Temp, that was able to be done in a few days to the custom design required. This is a short description of the process, taken from the thread. The Problem I have repurposed the former hinged bath shower screen as the end screen of my walk in shower, as it is under the stairs. A side benefit was to be that the narrow 450mm entrance gap would you be opened a little wider for horizontally more extensive people, or putting a shower seat inside more comfortably etc. Due to a need to reposition the shower closer to the stairs, there is now such a minimal gap that I need to fix the screen in place, rather than let it move. So I need a part with a 42 degree upper surface and a slot to fit over the top of the 6mm hinged screen, which I can then glue or silicone in place. Pics and a diagram are below The Answer We came up with a design incorporating a toblerone shaped 3d-printed "thing", which could be glued to the top of the glass screen, and glued and screwed to the ceiling. After creating a "prototype", which was nearly but not quite right due to a measurement inaccuracy, it works beautifully. The full story is in this thread:

Twice as much on mortgage fees as on the architect designing it. Ouch.

Looks good, Great to see ideas still flowing about the inside. On that grey door, I knew my new header image would come in useful. Don't be the grey man !