Ferdinand

When all added in £2.00 per length of CLS. Just under £13.00 per 18mm OSB3 sheet 25 off plus delivery. As it happens I am dry lining so my 1220 x 2440 vs slightly smaller celotex 1200 x 2400 sizes should fit exactly with 38mm CLS while 45mm should be too tight. Famous last words perhaps ! Interested to hear of any better prices. I think that is OK but It can always be improved. I couldn't find a way to get the 50mm celotex sheets much below £20 so that will probably be a delivery from the big two, since I reckon I may need well over 50. Given sheds, a better offer may be along tomorrow. Round here, B&Q are making a serious effort to compete on price with Wickes, which is relatively new - but I have been caught out a couple of times with items not turning out to have the the Trade Discount be applicable. B&Q do do free delivery on bulky items over £250, which Wickes do not, though. F

Just flying a kite to see if anyone has done similar, and with which suppliers. This evening I ordered a quantity of CLS (200 off 38 x 63mm x 2.4m) and OSB3 from Wickes, because my local branch had a special 15% discount running until the end of March following a shop refurbishment and related confusion. And to avoid any imminent price rises. With Wickes, because their CLS tends to be banana shaped after moving from the yard to the retail floor and changing with temperature and moisture (I assume), I like to go in first thing and choose the straight ones for the guys to fit that day or the next. This time I have not quite exchanged on the bungalow to be renovated, so they said I could pay now and collect as needed over several weeks, and would just put a tally on the chitty each time. I won't take the P and will pick up 30-40 at a time, and make sure it is cleared in 3 weeks. Has anybody else done this at other outlets? What were the arrangements? it seems useful - though it may just be my local branch doing me a favour and locking in The business. Ferdinand

I have not reached a view yet, but i do wonder about the impact of complex control systems on the next owners of a house. I have seen some on BH that would scare me off from buying as my perspective is that really I just want something I can leave alone except for twice a year, and has no moving parts if possible - while delivering perhaps 80-90% of the performance that would be achievable by adjusting very often. I think that a degree of complexity delivers, but that then needs a maintenance and repair strategy that is sufficiently simple that will last the lifetime of the system. Alternatively there could, I suppose, be an easy "strip drown and simplify" strategy for when it comes to be sold. For me, buying custom controllers from China, whether with custom code or not, may be a step too far. I appreciate that many on BH build with a "house for life" (*) expectation so that does not apply. Ferdinand * (Favourite anecdote.) Or, as Lord Morris of Castle Morris put it in the early 1990s after he bought Foolow Manor in Derbyshire in preparation for retirement: "I have bought a small manor house in Derbyshire to decline and die in" - and he did. Matthew Parris is now doing something similar.

Will the garden room have its own bathroom? What about a hot tub and big TV? That would keep them out there.

Having written the original Wayleave thread after our experience, I would be interested in the situation under Scottish Law. Is there a similar process where they can apply for a "compulsory" wayleave, for example? Best of luck.

Recorded delivery is the usual proof of serving a letter, but a Certificate of Posting (free from post office if it is like England) can also be used. Ferdinand

Edited.

@AliMcLeod I am not *totally* convinced by that 40-50k extra cost of the extra basement, but I am not well placed to critique it since I have never built one. However, I make it about 5% larger than the double garage, at 38sqm or so. All the structural work is there, and you would have access from above, so it should be down to spoil disposal, drainage (and the system is in for the garage), waterproofing, finish, access and fitout. One option would be to leave it as an empty ventilated void without fitout but with the basic structure in just in case for potential later. I am not convinced by £1250 per sqm for that extra work; others may know for real. And there is all the stuff around builder relationships, and also how you are doing your insulation etc on the whole fabric, and how much of it, and how an extra basement room would change that.

Can I politely disagree with that? Maybe not much time, but in my experience they do look. If you have tiles of a different colour they (especially buyers) *will* notice unless they are hidden (inner valley for example, or facing the back of a chimney, or under solar panels), and they may need to be randomised. Or it might not be a problem. (Have to admit that I love the thought of a future person taking the solar panels off a house and finding that the tiles underneath are germoline pink or lime green !). @Dee Do you have any in less prominent positions that you could move around, or where the quantity you need could be justified as a one off "contrast feature" (eg line along a dormer that is a single not a pair, or at the side), and buy some not-quite-matching or different? I am sure you have considered that, though. Ferdinand

Time for the asbestos underpants and the tin helmet methinks. All the best.

Good time to buy this; coal is being phased out by 2025. Though you could be on the HS6 route :-) .

I love the "Servitudes" . Are the Vikings coming back to catch us?

Top hung are rather more difficult to clean outside, especially on a shallow pitch - particularly compared to "Scottish spec" windows (ie are designed to be cleaned from the inside). Bear in mind trees, leaves, access etc. Are you sure Z-Wave is available with Top Hung windows? F

No problems at all. It is always a useful exercise for me as well. I am currently musing either starting a blog or maybe even doing a design qualification - though it may be urban design - so I enjoy chattering and assessing designs from plans.

@AliMcLeod Thanks for the reply. I think your account is really well written. Having marched half way up the hill like that, I had better summarise my basic thoughts here in case there is something useful amongst the maunderings. There is never any issue if you disagree on buildhub ... that helps all of us. Comments: 1 - If your plot faces south towards the sea, then imo the living set rooms of where you spend your time should probably face the sea - especially given that here they are at first floor level and above the road. Here that may give a swap of Bed 4 + Bath and the Kitchen, and a front door coming into a 'dining hall'. IMO that would be OK. Or move the door to the side - more drastic, or entrance ground floor then come upstairs to the main floor inside. Rather than having the kitchen buried at the back facing North and next door's side wall. Given your mother-in-law moving in, I think the balance may be against that. 2 - Main bathroom directly off hall inside the front door does not work for me.Family bathrooms are, in the public ... semi-public .. private succession of space, for semi-public or private - not public. 3 - Kitchen as is, and bed 3, are rather denuded of light - slit windows notwithstanding. Bed 4 does not perhaps really merit a huge chunk of your main floor floorspace with sea views, nor does the bathroom. 4 -That is a huge amount of potential basement space not to be using, given that you will likely have to build foundations round it. 5 - Equally that family room balcony steals a lot of room space and is designed to prevent you looking along the coast without going outside. 6 - The plumbing seems to be very spread out. Lots of pipe noises, complex maintenance, and your plumber able to afford a bigger house than you. Juggle some ensuites etc and save a few thousand (?). 7 - Does it need provision for a future lift given all those steps outside? And to help you and MiL (?) to move in and out. Those steps may be the thing that forces MiL into a home a few years early. 8 - The reasonably generous spaces between the houses do not seem to be used to their potential. Suggestions to follow.

Cheers for the reply. Leaving aside my own slightly tangential opinions, I think that protective films applied to the roof dg units may have potential, or perhaps an oversailing awning - but that is less aesthetically appealing. Jeremy specifically mentioned the "too transparemt to notice" brand he uses on the bedroom window here: Ferdinand.

Hmm. Difficult. Can you put a name to them (will the oldest BCO in the Council know?) ? How many do you need? And are all houses in the area similar? My BiL added a new tile hung dormer recently on his 1930s semi. He did it by knowing what they were and watching Ebay like a hawk for about a year first, and buying anything within range across Surrey and South London, and further afield for the specialities such as corcer-cappers and valley tiles.He ended up with way more than needed just in case and flogged the hundreds leftover off again. If you only need a few and they are used within your area for similar-looking houses, then I might try doorknockiing up and down the road, or putting a card in a newsagent, or even Freecycle. Ferdinand

I'll dip out of this one, because I think the basic concept is mistaken, as to my eye it looks like accepting a compromised - perhaps unusable - conservatory and trying to put a sticky plaster on it. People should not be living in a conservatory repurposed as an inefficient air to water heat exchanger. The better way is to catch it on the roof, and keep the living and heat gain separate. Make it a faux sun lounge which is suitable for summer use with a separate roof or canopy or put the conservatory where it belongs .. on the N side .. and have solar panels. But do you have a calculation of how much water can be heated by air extracted from a conservatory as a sanity check? According to my information x volume of water raised by one degree stores the same amount of extra heat as approx 3000x volume of air raised by the same one degree, and the volume of your conservatory is approx 60 cubic m, of which perhaps 12 cubic m are above head height, but there are many other factors involved, from insolation to efficiency of your heat capture process, at which point I decided I am offered more personal utility by going to bed. Though crudely that implies with 20% system heat collection efficiency you will need to reduce the temperature of all the air in your conservatory above head height say 10 cubic m by approx 15C in order to add 1C to the temperature of a 100l bath of water, ignoring running costs. Does @JSHarris have a suitable spreadsheet :-) Sorry for the ramble. Ferdinand

Most of that sounds sensible but would it be more efficient to have panels outside and a usable conservatory? You could probably mount PV panels on a separate frame above the conservatory ... or perhaps on the wall above as a Brise-Soleil, which would come out over most of the roof. (Underhill House on GD did this and it is a still one of my favourites.) And could you use one of the anti-solar films to help keep it cool? Ferdinand

Clickbait has been a thing for a loooooonggg time. Here was one from the Guardian: "Five reasons hen and stag parties should be saved" But the Mail, Buzzfeed and the Huffington Post are probably the best outrage-trolls. The Huff Post specialise in outraged complaints about women as sex objects and their own pieces about bikinis and side-boob. No - OnOff - I am not finding you any. If you want something really funny, try this ... a greatest ever from Buzzfeed, The 29 Stages of a Twitterstorm Savour the detail. We had one last weekend when a poor guy called Neil Taylor was roasted on Twitter because he had the same name as that footballer Neil Taylor who broke the other footballer's leg. Ferdinand

Interesting site, with oodles of potential. However (if I may) ... are you going to tell us you changed the house design? The practicality and utility of this one looks to be quite compromised to me - are you the victim of "Mirror Image Pair" house design? Has someone really thought how it will be used, and to make best use of the context of the site - relating the inside to what exists outside. If this is architect designed then imo it is a shocker with some really basic errors. I would apply a few changes to the facilities for a start. You have to tramp through the gym with your muddy boots, sandy wellies or oily overalls on to get to the loo :-). Then anyone wanting the loo while chillaxing in the family room has to go downstairs or use an ensuite - not ideal for a cocktail party. But I won't start on that if that is your future story :-). Ferdinand

Personally I probably would pay the extra £15 for a Mira and the 5 year over 2 year guarantee. I have one Mira that has been going strong since 1994 with only new shower heads. Ferdinand

What do I look for to see if mine has any flow regulators in the house? Will they be under every sink? (Do not like plumbing).

End panel from left over cladding?

A standard bar mixer. That looks impressive, and the one review likes it. And a 5 year warranty. Given another £5 off that by various means, it is tempting to buy a couple for stock. Can anyone shoot the product down in flames? Ferdinand