Ferdinand

I’m waiting for the pantry-panty cockup.

This may or may not be acceptable to you. I use a PIV combined with fans with a continuous + boost mechanism for the extraction rather than through the gaps. That seems to work for me in being robust to whatever tenants do. Can post more info if required. Ferdinand

Customers required for sofa delousing unit...

Volunteers required with sofa sized freezers...

Tenants can be educated. More generally they tend to hit themselves with a cluebat after they have once moved from a property running at £60 per month bills, to a seemingly identical property with a £25 a month lower rent costing £150 a month to run. But such culture will take a looooong time to develop. As ever, if you can buy a restorable E, spend £x on it, and by upgrading to a C gain £2x value on it in capital or the NPV of increased rent over your relevant timeframe, then it is potentially worth doing from a business POV. If people can restore things at half the cost of doing it as a layperson employing Trades, that opens up opportunities. In-tenancy projects are more interesting, but Eg I can count them against the 500-2500 I would need to spend for every tenant change. That is one aspect of this loft conversion, plus it also justifies the project in value terms ... just. I agree there in insufficient knowledge in the market. But the flip side of that is opportunities. Cheers Ferdinand

So have you worked out the amount you can charge them to put a pipe through your track ? ? Ie £1 less than it would cost them to do it the other way ?.

I think "mains service" would include the obvious. This phrase, of the bit you quoted, seems to be the key to me: What is this transfer? And who's benefit is it for? If the field owners' were not a party to the transfer of the track (to you?), then I do not see how the right to install services could apply to them. Probably need more information, but that looks like the angle of interest. Ferdinand

Looking at the EPC, boiler is +3, heating controls are +1, flue gas HR is +1. Presumably shower HR device is also +1-2. So I need about 10 more points. The intention has been in law since the Energy Act 2011 ,but it will be in regulations so there is still scope for variation. "Proposals for improving the energy efficiency of domestic properties also include a legal obligation requiring the government to take action to raise the EPC ratings of as many fuel poor homes "as reasonably practicable". EPC ratings should reach Band E by 2020, Band D by 2025 and Band C by 2030, according to the consultation. " https://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2014/july/uk-government-sets-out-long-awaited-energy-efficiency-standards-for-new-property-rentals/ There are exceptions (eg listed, or LL who can prove it is not viable within a 7 year payback), but the system for registering an exception is complex and the register is public. Given that EPCs are a political document that changes every few years, the draconian nature of the punishments, and unpredictability of the process and the environment, that any changes will be reprospective, and other factors, my stance is that I renovate to a high-C or a B, or at least know how I can get there, and charge some % more rent to cover it; I work on me getting 50% my estimate of the tenant's savings on the bills. We need the same system for Owner Occupiers, enforced at sale time. Ferdinand

> so not a true Islam Cough, cough, splutter. I spy with my little eye a fellow iPad user. F

Those are two very different photos (or 3d models of your proposed kitchen?), and I want to go on a perambulation before talking about kitchens. This is something I am thinking about this AM, in the context of marketing a student property. I thought I would do my thinking here, if that is OK. These are musings, and I am quite open to being shot down in flames. One is perhaps a good example of a cheap-and-cheerful which can be replaced by 2 in a decade. First of all - DRESSING AND PRESENTATION. Need to filter out the presentational differences before looking at the substance. How much is the presentation affecting your perception? The light is different in the pics. The first looks washed out and with less variety of colour. Compare the histograms - (this is luminosity, but colours all also have a far narrower depth of palette in the first than the second). Your "next level" piccie is on the left. What does that mean? You can see the difference in the histogram. To me the one piccie looks like a snapshot, and the second looks dressed (in addition to the furniture differences) fro eg Instagram or Dezeen. I would say that is an artefact of our culture now being more universally visual (as opposed to in islands and subsectors such as Architects or Artists or Photogs or Models). In a way the first looks like an aspirational room from Ikea Gen 1 (say 1975 in design environments, as popularised by early Ikea). The second is more sumptuous with a greater range of colour, which we are now getting perhaps ith the 1940s/50s (rather than 1960s/early 1970s) being in fashion. I think that just with a small adjustment to the 'old gen' kitchen makes it more attractive to 2019 eyes. All I have done is dialed in richer colours via changing the Gamma for the photo. Here is the luminosity histogram for this pic: Content Differences However, there are also some photo / lighting differences - the second one is photographed to include the snug, and more sitting places. The first one says "kitchen with nowhere to relax", like something out of a Hall of Residence which is primarily functional; the second one is clearly a home. (This is one way my letting agent describes their philosophy of designing / marketing student houses). These are probably subliminal, but communicate a different environment where the viewer might be ore comfortable existing. (A great example of this was when digital artists started displaying their Gicle images on Ebay as if hung on a wall behind a sofa by plonking a floating sofa at the bottom of the pic. I first noticed that in about 2005 when on Ebay when a photo-printing blogger pointed it out). There is also (not sure whether intentional) the classic "before and after" manipulated photograph thing as you saw on Trinny and Susanna. Compare those 2 kitchen piccies to this weightloss before and after: There is a weightloss, but also mucho photo-shenanigans. On the left - flat frontal lighting, no highlights to give depth or definition (eg rh picture, lighting from rhs giving a halo to skin and boob), body and bounce in rh hairdo not there in lh piccie, stomach on rhs tensed (LH to me looks relaxed), rh picture has model smiling and engaged (lh has just been told her puppy got run over), variation in colour/tone on rhs and depth of colour palette ( not on left) etc. It may be instructive to compare the colour histograms. And those arms and waist look Photoshopped. There is a lot similar going on in your 2 piccies - especially eg flat colours in the first compared to the second, and perhaps lighting. But that is also true of the design. Not saying that it is deliberate as in the model piccies, but it could be affecting the subliminal perception (does with me). So, where are we? Underneath all of that, to me the second one looks about twice as expensive eg compare the material for the island worktop, or the designer staircase. But there is a big difference bewreen the 2 piccies before we get to "what is in the kitchen". So my comments are: 1 - Visit as well as look at pictures. 2 - "Klotzen nicht Kleckern" - don't spend on everything. Work out the bits that matter to you (eg by working out where you spend your time or use most, and spend money on that). Spend the money where you will often touch the quality. 3 - Focus on reducing price for a given quality , not on buying cheaper things with extra gewgaws. 4 - Think about external factors - how you use the rooms etc, layout and so on. Fabric.First. 5 - Really pay attention to the detail. 6 - As for Designers etc, you need someone to facilitate your process with their skills, not someone who will tell you what to do. 7 - For colours, a limited range of contrasting colours with different tones, rather than a range of shades of similar colours. The current Renovate Don't Relocate does this well (I think it is a product of murderous Stamp Duty in London). You also get to see a TV series with Sarah Beeny not pregnant. For an example - I have an expensive (£600 bought online for £400) sink with a non-standard drainer-sink-halfsink arrangement as I use it a lot, and like to be able to flap around with guts and gore in the halfsink *away* from the drainer. I think you start with your own philosophy and perhaps a "statement of needs", then evaluate different things against that. "Next Generation Kitchen" is not a statement of needs - unless you are a Boutique Hotel. Buzzword-driven kitchen design (which I do not think you are doing except a list as a way to provoke debate) ends up with a lottery-winner's gin palace or a City-Boy's never-used swank pad kitchen; it's a kitchen version of a trophy-wife. Sorry for the long post. Hope it was useful. Ferdinand

@puntloos What interesting questions you are asking. Just responding on the other thread. Oh No it isn't ! You are being subliminally conditioned by the Zillons from the Planet Tharg. Take care and at least watch other options. I did a fish cookery course last year in the Cook's own kitchen, and she had a hole in the island worktop, with a lid, which went straight through to the food bin below. So just sweep all the waste straight in. Great idea - for a cook. Alternatively, if you build model soldiers on your Island - Bugger! I just lost General Wolfe! F

Perhaps plastic sofa coverings will come back into fashion...

I am hoping someone has done this, I am currently looking at doing a loft conversion in a rented property. One aspect is that I am likely to need an EPC grade of C by 2030 to be able to let it legally at that point. I have done most of the low hanging fruit already .. 50mm celotex IWI where needed, 250mm loft ins., 2G and so on. there is a boiler swap to condensing and HR to be done at some stage, but the EPC is currently D58, which is quite poor given that energy bills only run at -60 per month, and I do not think that a boiler alone will give me 12 more points. So I need to take some care. If I do a well insulated loft conversion .. say to add 25sqm to the loft area in addition to the existing 85sqm area, does the per area algorithm for an EPC mean that in practise I get a nice boost for the extra area with only a marginal increase in energy use? (I am in a position to do a cost-effective conversion for various reasons.) Cheers Fedinand

if you have time to wait, find a friend of a friend who works in a furniture factory as an upholsterererer. I have such a tenant, which is perhaps an unfair advantage :-). I have no idea where furniture is made for Scotland. F

if you want one there is a 2 Ha site down the road for sale with PP ready to build... https://www.rightmove.co.uk/commercial-property-for-sale/property-66993055.html

They have my sympathy on this one. The EPC seems slightly strange in the handling of the GSHP .. no star rating. The price is £415 per square foot. interesting . Ferdinand

What a glorious site, even though it a bit rainy up there; you should be able to grow champion marrows in your field. I would consider that *very* carefully, unless you know exactly what you want and that it will never be anything involving weights. An extended garage with a thick slab, or other building with such a floor, is a far better option for a gym. (Writing as part owner of a gym that started out upstairs). It looks like a dream project. Ferdinand

Depends how hot they need to get I suspect. Our UFH rarely ever gets the floor more than 1°C above room temperature, so we can't actually feel that the floor is warm at all. If we had skirting rads instead they would need to run a bit warmer, but I'd guess they'd not need to run at more than around 30°C or so. That is very possibly the case. As someone with no experience of self-building passive houses (yet), and a bandaged finger, I need you to come and live in my garden for 3 years and build me one. ? I can supply a slightly leaky 8x8 shed for weekday accommodation and storage, which includes a complimentary (non-passive) cat-flap for potential companionship.

Why would you want to do that? Because at weekends I am Delusional Dan, the Multitasking Man.

At the moment I only have bad experiences of skirting rads; they seem to click interminably. I think we may need to differentiate between those "inside skirting" rads, and the ankle-height ones mounted at skirting level. The installation I have in a tenanted property were supposed to be the former but were ordered as the latter by mistake. F

Also worth a note that ufh is excellent at frying washing and shoes if you need it done quickly - either spread out or on a drying frame. One trick is to have a warm spot or room - my own inner downstairs bathroom gets seriously warm. F

Personally I would lie down on the ufh. ?

That's quite funny. Dismantling someone's scaffolding even slightly is the most effective way of stopping their build dead, 'cos it instantly invalidates their H&S environment. All it takes is removal of one brace. Started doing that once when a bloke who had built his scaffolding on my garden without permission wouldn't talk to me about removing it (despite written notice), and was trying to create facts on the ground in violation of planning rules (things like abalanced flue straight over my garden, gutter overhand etc) to create a 'do not change it' balance in his favour when enforced upon, rather than rectify his design. PP had been passed and these items missed. Scaffolder and the police were there in about 15 minutes. That was quite a worrying one, as there had been after physical threats in the gloaming a couple of days before, and I needed quite a bit of moral support. My fault was not watching the rented property closely enough beforehand to catch it early. It was at nearly 1st flr level before I noticed, and he could have had a roof on it before the Council would have processed any paperwork - at which point forcing a change from an exposed to a hidden gutter becomes more complex. Not something I would enjoy doing often. F

They actually all had carrying slots, so that should be possible with a little enlargement of the slots if oriented outwards. I suppose the insulation could be fitted before they went into the wall. And could the "boxing in" be used to hold the wall together (maybe not)? I thought that they did OK, and that the problem was the lack of an advisory HOG. The main issue seemed to be the initial overoptimistic forecast, and inexperience. To my eye they skimped on the screw quality, and it was strange that they had non-collated screwdrivers. 28,000 high quality screws would only be about £100 extra over cheap ones. Ferdinand

Perhaps they found a pipeline and had to move it ?