Ferdinand

From me on the other thread: So how would you do it? I am thinking metal or thinnish wooden treads quite isolated from each other, and tuned to resonate at each frequency in the musical scale.

I still don't see what a straight one would not do :-), unless it is an anti-torque / rigidity thing unique to open well type staircases ! Perhaps I am as thick as the two short planks it is supporting. From my youth I recall a house in St Ives (the flat one near Cambridge with the new Guided Busway, and cheapskate cycletrack alongside that has parts below winter floods - b*st*rds) with an open well open tread staircase built on a spiral of metal, and how it used to go bung-bung-bung like a single string base guitar as the 10 year old Ferdinand bounced up or down each step. Cool. Do you suppose a staircase can be tuned to play Doh-Re-Mi as you climb it? How would you build it - an ever decreasing spiral?

I still do not see why it needed that bent piece of steel - one support for 2 treads? What is wrong with one straight support per tread? F

@Shah If you have a 2k budget for a Rangemaster 90cm range cooker you are sitting pretty ... in Currys the most expensive (a 5 zone induction thing in a pretty colour) is only £2300, and it is childsplay to get another 20% or more off that in cash or kind if you are careful, which would bring your pots and pans and buttons and bows, and possibly a small dog to turn the spit, in at under the 2k, or let you get a nice coffee machine as well or a weekend away. At Currys you just wait for a 10% sale or voucher code, then put it through a Benefit Programme for another 8-10%, and buy the Benefit Programme cashcard with a Reward Debit Card for the last 1%. If you do not have an Employee Benefit Programme then enroll in Westfield Health cash grant programme (optical and dental grants alone cover the entire premium) which has a Reward Programme attached (Westfield Rewards) and get 8% off when you top up the Currys giftcard. The same programme gives you an extra 10% off at Wickes on everything - saves me £4-500 a year or so extra. Or as you say use TCB or Quidco for 3% rather than 8-10%. Compare John Lewis prices - but I do not know how to save another 20% easily there. You may get lucky and do better. I currently have a new Rangemaster Professional+ Dual Fuel 110cm Range Cooker in storage waiting for a project. That is a £1600-1700 range which came up for £800+VAT new as I happened to be in the right place at the right time for once. We find that our Rangemaster tall side oven heats up *very* quickly. Ferdinand

Picture of the finished shed. That front is 8'6" wide. it is not leaning; I was rushing in the rain.

I've never really looked into the difficulties of building in a National Park, but I think there may be some commonalities with building in nearly-central London - there can be little or no notice from outside and you need oodles of either money or time, but it can be done. There are certain architectural practices that specialise in particular National Parks. If I put my mind to it, I could perhaps come up with a couple of long-established ones in the Peak District. F

Why do you need the offset crosspiece? Am I missing something geometrical? (I hope it is for a slide)

You tend to get more cash off through employee benefits programmes (often 10% vs 3% for Quidco etc, but not John Lewis), though you should be able to nobble John Lewis via price match, which may help a little. Not an inexpensive supplier, though, generally - so if you have pre-decided to go there you may well pay extra for the privilege. What you pay depends how hard you work at it. F

Agree on the price reductions. If you have a couple of models / makers in your price bracket and the one above, variations on prices should be around +/- 30% if you look around and can wait a couple of months. Free delivery should be a lollipop that is always available, especially if you ask just before signing the order. If you are going for an Induction Hob then ebay is still swimming in £120 (allegedly) sets of Neff Induction pans which were being given away with Neff hobs until recently for about £40. https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw=neff&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR12.TRC2.A0.H0.Xneff+induction+pans.TRS0&_nkw=neff+induction+pans&_sacat=0 But you will shaft yourself if you then negotiate a free set with your new Range Cooker :-) . Ask for something else instead. Free fitting may also be an offer, but that is more difficult if you are buying early for a discount to save a few hundred and storing it for a few months. To my eye keeping it for 6-12 months is worth it if you are saving say 35-40%, as 25-30% off should always be available. Ferdinand

I would prioritise how it cooks over how it looks ! My subjective impression is that Range Cookers have better ovens than standalones or built-ins, and the hobs are more equal. We currently have a fairly basic Range Master Kitchener 90 range cooker which cost about the same as a decent hob + a decent pair of ovens (£999). At a previous farm-style listed house we had an umpteen oven hybrid Aga, which was eyewateringly expensive but we also needed the storage for heating and the house deserved it. Ferdinand

Snip. 8>< Decided to leave the hobbyhorse in the stable.

Estate agents and their piccies ! The cliffs are 100m away on the other side of the A26. Sorry .. google maps not playing leapfrog.

That number was off the floor plan. It is Gross Internal Area, but to a few percent it probably does not matter.

Just in case anyone is wondering, I am relying on the terms in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 which allows reproduction of copyright material for Criticism and Review. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/exceptions-to-copyright Ferdinand

Core-Ten House at Lewes on the Market. Detailed article in Dezeen: https://www.dezeen.com/2016/06/27/south-street-sandy-rendel-lewes-sussex-architecture-contemporary-family-home-weathered-steel/ Article in Grand Design Magazine: https://www.granddesignsmagazine.com/grand-designs-houses/12-tv-house-post-industrial-new-build (Photo Credit Dezeen) Floorplans (Credit: The Modern House): SOUTH-STREET_LEWES_TMH-1.pdf Details: Lewes, East Sussex. 5 bed. Area: 257 sqm. Plot approx. 450sqm. Price:£1,950,000 Plot Price: £350,000 Build Cost: £700,000 Via Mad About the House and The Modern House. Sales Description excerpt (Credit: The Modern House): What do you think? Ferdinand

Off to try Draftsight this morning, and @Onoff's idiot guide.Expect some questions on the thread over there! @Barney12 good suggestion. I think I will try myself this time as I will be needing to do more in future from time to time. F

@recoveringacademic Good thread. On average we are all wrong most of the time :-). I genuinely do not understand how the American regulatory system for buildings works, except I expect it is at a State level since their climactic conditions vary as much as across the whole of Europe including to the Urals and down to the Sahara. Presumably building in Alaska is a bit different to building in Arizona or Texas. F

Go on. Make your new worktop out of these glued together horizontally. I dare you. F

@Russell griffiths Agree with the "need to learn" sentiment. The vid is both thought-provoking, and generally provoking. The chap seems to want to sell us his windows as the solution, while the problem is actually not the previous windows but poor detailing such as that directing water *behind* the Tyvek membrane. I think it doesn't actually tell us anything about materials, but about workmanship, design and maintenance. Do not have your house built by idiots that do not understand either the local conditions or how to build a house suitable for such. @recoveringacademic Disagree. The most exclusive parts of London are full of houses built using stucco and wooden windows, which are still perfectly sound 200 years later - even though many were generally just thrown up by the Barratts and WImpeys of their day. (*) You can argue aluminium clad for no maintenance but painted wood is fine if maintained. Though I am not sure how long a track record aluminium cladding can demonstrate. Can any experienced window-bod comment on the quality of his new installation system? There is also something about Yanks building houses for the short-term, rather than to last. In the UK the median house is 60-70 years old. In the US it is about 30. Look, for example, how much work has to be done to make Frank Lloyd-Wright houses last more than about 30 years. Ferdinand (*) Witness the wonderful reaction by metropolitan journalism-person Deborah Orr when her 18xx speculatively built house failed to maintain itself in 2012. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/may/25/deborah-orr-roof-collapse-insurance https://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/jun/02/deborah-orr-roof-silent-disaster "My roof episode has taught me we need more decent insurers – and newspapers" (Er .. no .. we need fewer moronic silly homeowners who do not pay attention to their responsibilities) (Er .. no .. My roof episode has taught me we need more decent insurers – and newspapers

What gorgeous stone walls!

@TheMitchells - an example of what you can get away with. This is a joint added in my kitchen when we extended the run of units by one to create space for a range cooker further along, and found a worktop as close as possible. The new one is on the left. Even though you can see the small difference in the matched worktop - the pattern is virtually identical but to my eye the one on the left has more cream and purple in its base tones vs more white and slate grey on the right - in 3 years not one person visiting has noticed, even though it is next to the kettle and people look at it sometimes. I would say that the colour difference would even be within that which is tolerated between different runs of the same product, which highlights the importance of buying in one batch if absolute consistency matters. It is also helped by the visual break. If they were just butted up, even as a specialist wavy join, then I think it would be more noticeable. I would say trying to match the Corian exactly may be flagellating yourselves just because you happen to have inherited a horsewhip, by choosing the most demanding option. My order of preference might be: 1 - Contrasting material. 2 - Contrasting Corian (ie very different vs nearly the same) perhaps even black to pick up on the cooker colour or a single tone from the mottled Corian or elsewhere in the kitchen. Advantage of this is that the physical thickness should be easy to match exactly. 3 - Visual break. 4 - Exact colour match. (Note: It could be that colour consistency in Corian is perfect, in which case my analysis falls.) Ferdinand

@TheMitchells Consider the option of making a virtue of the difference and making the breakfast bar out of a contrasting beautiful material. What about something like annealed glass or a different colour or texture Corian?

Depending on the flooring there could be glue and all kind of nasties in it. If your stove has filters or catalytic converters in it that could do it some mischief, apart from potentially burning far too hot and damaging the stove. Back in the day we cracked a Jotul by burning stacks of plywood in it for years. That is in addition to setting fire to the wooden beam that the Jacobeans had thoughtfully built through the chimney... Ferdinand

Sorry to hear that Jeremy. I am quite surprised that a permanent ban is within Council powers to implement, since you are patently entitled to the service as a Council Tax paying resident. But even if they can't do it, it becomes one of those unlawful acts by a local council which is extremely difficult to challenge.

Thanks for all the comments. Will consider today and make a judgement. F