Ferdinand

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 !

You could try building a tall garage now, and inserting the middle floor later. Not sure what the height would need to be. I have always thought that should I ever do any self-build plots, I would have an item in the Masterplan that each house must have a tall garage - so that the van issue will not arise in St Ferdinandberg. You need a tall garage because Winnebagos and other RVs can be up to 12 feet tall. F

Can't he make a glass one? Like Versailles Hall of Mirrors but flat and not mirrors?

Should've bought a secondhand scaffold tower... /gloat

Aren’t you supposed to be on holiday in Lubricious, with your Truss left at home?

First explore the difference between the two different sets of founds. I would think the extra to do it now may be negligible. A deeper slab or perimeter need not look much different to the simple one, surely?

Take care with those wall blocks. They look like the 40s reconstituted kind that look fine until the crust comes off, and then go patchwork like a London Plane tree. F

Town edge plots can be awkward. You also need to be aware of your responsibilities, which will include removing travellers and cleaning up fly tipping. And that an empty field will deteriorate if you do not maintain it ... even getting someone to cut the grass to stop tussocking will cost a couple of hundred a year. So on that try and get one which does not back on to sources of chukaway crud eg gardens and for which you have a practical holding strategy eg rent bits to hobby farmers or hippies or a husky racer, or to a bloke with 4 cows to deter trespassers and a friend in a slaughterhouse, who gives you half a carcass per year. For optimising your opportunity, take a look at barriers to future development and which ones you can rule out. Eg is it in the Community Boundary, has it been in the Shlaa etc. Look up Shlaa . Be aware of other and that may go first. If you are happy with all of that and treat it as a nice thing plus a possible windfall. My opinion would be not to be Mr Inbetween .. go with enough for you and your future house perhaps bearing in mind the various dividing lines, or enough for a decent size housing estate, which in this case I would set as 5.1 Hectares due to the extra advantages of the rule. Big developers will not piddle about with say sites for 17 houses without a good reason. If you find yourself going for planning permission, then over a certain area they charge you by area to process tha Application, and it adds up quickly. To apply for 17 houses, should you take that option, will cost approx not much less than 17x the fees to apply for one house. Ferdinand

I would suggest coming up with your own estimate for the exclusions to get a ballpark total, and for the bits you have commissioned ... architect, future PM etc. And get your total figure. Another 150k? Agree on another quote, and perhaps an online service QS too? Perhaps a quote by a package supplier, such as a TF company with a higher spec. Ferdinand

I don't think there is any easy solution to this. Ultimately if you still end up with the issue, you could paint the rest to match the banded look of the house in the background. It may be easier to bit the bullet and redo part of all of the courses. Ferdinand

@Mc9 Further to this, you need to make sure that the product you select is the correct one wrt H&S etc. There are products designed for external and internal use; make sure you use something suitable should you choose to do so. Check it. (Thanks @PeterW) Ferdinand

Rather restrictive terms ? without referral to the insurer. No one over 65 ! And referring solicitors along with Football Club Directors and bodyguards to the insurer first seems a little harsh. I would say this should be in line with the likes of Hertz. https://www.evezy.co.uk/info/terms-conditions/ I do, however, agree on the variety of models. Provided some one-club golfer political panjandrum doesn't decide that everything except their pet idea must be discouraged or banned without good reason.