Ferdinand

That - sorry - made me giggle, having also spent much time stripping woodchip. Will buy you a pint if we ever meet.

Well. I have plumped for the 3 year deal, saving me a couple of hundred pa over Standard Rate, but approx £150 over best short term fix without Switching. IMO it would not be worth the risk of a tangle for that difference.

PS Unused multifuel stoves can be quite attractively left exactly where they are, black-leaded with a flower arrangement on top, or as a "focal point to make you feel warm".

Pleasure.

Are you sure? What about secondhand E7 heaters that look suitable for a "lived in" bungalow? Here is a bloke in Wakefield offering 9 Dimplex at £20 each, for example: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dimplex-Night-Storage-heater-radiator-fire-/252819667035 Can you just pass the Free Tank offer to the buyers if you sell sharpish?

As systematic answer as I can think, as I was trying to think this through. As ever, ignore the bits that are gibberish or irrelevant. 1. You don't want the highest price, you want the highest net value add (= extra price over current value minus cash you have to spend to reach that price), balanced against your time. 2. You perhaps don't want to spend time on it over the minimum because you are nurdling the new one. And for you, time and money are both things to maximise(?) 3. ISTM that there are three options: a - Sell as a 'wreck' in current state. b - Sell as a 'liveable but needs work when they have thought about it'. ie Good enough that they can move in and say wait a year, c - Sell as a "it has been done up". It *will* sell in each state, but at what price? I think your obvious choice may be 2, given the 30k or whatever 3 would take and the risk of not getting it back, and the time involved. Spend your time and money on the new one. 4. Budget. When we sold our tired house (albeit different: 5000 sqft former small manor) - the Estate Agent was adamant that we spend *nothing*, because we would just be limiting the options of the new buyer and not adding much to the likely price (2013: difficult), as the buyer would be wanting to do a full renovate and would not give us money for the bits we second-guessed they wanted to do. In the end we just spent on necessary repairs, and replacing the grotty bathtub. Plus a *huge* amount of decluttering, including sending 3 vans of furniture to auction. The photos are online here - that is after 3 Luton van loads of furniture had gone. No point in expensively poshing it up beyond 'liveable' if the reality is that it is a project. Lower the price slightly and attract a wider range of buyers. In the end we had to drop our price by 25%+ to sell, so it was a good recommendation. It felt a huge reduction, but now there is a new bit of HS2 close enough to (unnecessarily) unsettle buyers - glad we escaped. 5. What to do? I would draw 2 Golden Rules and a PS. 1 - Do not spend on anything that moves beyond "liveable", or your target buyers might want to remove (leave that as available negotiation). 2 - Do things that will stop people buying it ie remove barriers or anything that will appear in a Homebuyer's Report. Don't leave stuff that will obviously need doing in the next 12 months .. replacement cost will just come off the price. PS If there are easy clear value-adds or increase-sellabilitys, perhaps do these. Example: if you had an ensuite that was plumbed in but in use as storage not a shower, put a shower in it, or board out a loft ready to be boarded out. Clutter Or rather declutter declutter declutter. We tried to touch each item just once. It went to 1 - Keep 2 - Auction 3 - Burn or skip. Didn't manage it entirely, but it helped. Cosmetics Is there simple stuff to make it easier to sell. Lick of paint? Room sized rug on a threadbare carpet that you then take with you? New doors for the kitchen units? Outside needs to *look* manageable even if not. Advice Get a couple of Estate Agents round to look early - it will just take a promise to give them a run at selling it when the times comes. Personally I am quite impressed with the likes of House Simple. Timing. If you really intend to shift it, *shift it*. Now is a good time - low supply. Can you get it on the market by April 10th - the big buying season is Easter = April 14/15 when you can have an open day. It can be done. Or at least make the May Bank holiday. Price. Suggest price to sell, and sell to a cash or non-chain buyer. Is it perhaps worth losing 5-10% on this to save waiting for an extra 6-12 months before moving into the new one because you haven't released the funds. For most people, 12 months would be up to 5% of the time period between retirement and the move to a very small wooden house indeed. Sell quickly not next year to have that extra year in your new house not the old one . Ferdinand

Good comments and a fantastic question to ask. You haven't said when your PP runs out, which sets a limit to procrastination ! I say take a break and relax for 2 or 3 months, away from your design, so that you can recharge your batteries and allow subliminal insights you have gained space to surface. Then think and make a decision or some changes. Or not. This is also for hinterland ... which helps give a more rounded judgement. Architects get it through variety, and the sheer length of their training. eg In the 1950s when traininng my father was sent from Sheffield to I think Edinburgh with a group of students to do a site survey of one of the Civic Buildings by crawling all over it. I think taking a break gives self-builders a chance to reflect and perhaps rethink. Isn't there a French slogan "reculer pour mieux sauter" about pausing your horse slightly better to jump the fence? If you have sufficient time and have had your heads under the bonnet (so to speak) looking at spark plugs, then perhaps there is merit in stepping away and looking at the whole car. Have you been heavily house-focused for so long that you may have allowed your "life we want" compass to be obscured a little? Perhaps focus away for a month or four and do something completely different or that you love. Go on a weekend course about to learn about oil painting, butchery, or a new skill, cycle down the Rhine Path to find some Euro-architecture, or go on a cruise, or to Le Mans, or spend a week at Iona, or go to Barcelona to visit the Pavilion, or on a theatre binge. And come back refreshed in June or July to make any changes or get started in autumn / spring. And/Or spend some time "window shopping" to see other people houses (see eg http://www.themodernhouse.com/) or there are various distinctive modern / innovative houses owned by the National Trust (Willow Road, The Homewood, Red House, or Hill House for the NT for Scotland) which may differently inspire. The Landmark Trust also has a wide range of contrasting houses where you can stay, such as Anderton House in Devon by Peter Aldington. I still like Aldington, and his own modern house can be visited, and is in a village setting. Are there not also some "Grand Designs" which do B&B? Here are eleven in a slightly out of date article. Who knows .. you may find just the thing to soften your house into its setting. Not so much about finding new ideas, as setting a deliberate semi-colon and seeing some different ideas - for an extra contrast and perspective now you are slightly different people. Vive La Difference ! Ferdinand

Looking around, I seem to be able to save about £8-10/month over the new price for a 12 month online fix tariff by First Direct (pre their 9.7% price rise coming in on 1st April), via IRESA, SO Energy, Flow Energy. I am happy with the service, so rather than flap around with a switch and Meter numbers and so on I have just asked them to match the same £40-50 cashback deal on offer to new switchers via Quidco as an (I hope) easy to accept lollipop. (Update: they said No unless I go through Quidco as a new customer. Need to reflect as I can see that getting tangled up in tracking verification). Current Options: 12 month fix: 853 ((Iresa), 901 (So Energy), 972 (First Utility) 18 month fix: 946 (Flow Energy), 1045 (First Utility) 3 year fix: 1087 (First Utility) That 3 year fix is tempting given possible inflation. Update: In the end went for the 3 year fix. F

Visit your Council Website and read some Planning Permissions? Many of those will have Topos in the attached documents for some more comparisons. Ferdinand

Sorry I have expanded the thread into dual fuel. Feeling guilty so I did a Single Fuel search. * Single Fuel Running them through my process (MSE Cheap Energy Club) the best Elec Only deals seem to be SO Energy for Good Customer Service and Good Price, or Scottish Power for Good Price and Poorer Service, with possibly NPower also for Good Price / Poor Service (but I had awful problems with them seizing next door's supply by mistake for months). These are the numbers for my area Elec Only - "Elec Only SO energy Fixed for 12 Months". Cheap Exit Fees. Electricity standing charge (p/day) 18.90 Electricity unit rate (p/kWh) 12.16 An address in Ardross gave me: Electricity standing charge (p/day) 18.90 Electricity unit rate (p/kWh) 13.93 Cashback appears to be marginal for all of them, but some of the comparison services offer their own £30 or so for Quidco / Topcashback. * Duel Fuel Looking around, of the fairly biggies First Connect are offering £90 cashback on long-term (3 year) contracts for Dual via Top Cashback if you want longterm. Or a £50 cashback for a 12 month fix at a competitive price: "Home Services Fixed May 2018 Online" - Dual Fuel Elec Unit rate 13.859p per kWh Standing charge 14.35p per day Gas Unit rate 3.056p per kWh Standing charge 14.22p per day They are pretty competitive and I have been happy with their service, but as an existing customer I do not qualify for the cashback, so I am probably switching to Flow Energy. Tip: Get another 1-2% off by paying with a credit or Amex card well in advance and getting them to reduce your DD to almost nothing. Or 5% for the right Amex Cashback in its intro period. Need to trust the company to stay solvent for no sleepless nights. Slightly hardcore if you have average bills. Ferdinand

I thought smaller companies were exempt from some levies made on the Big 6. My current deal (half of a dual fuel - First Connect First Fixed 2017v3 Electricity) is: Elec Standing: 14.42p/day. Elec Unit: 11.016p per kWh. East Midlands area. Iresa is my cheapest charge offer via MSE Cheap Energy Club, at Elec Standing: 12.72 p/day. Elec Unit: 10.9p per kWh. But they are 25% more on the gas/unit than current, and are not stellar in reviews for customer service. Tariff: "IRESA Flex 4 12 month Fixed Direct Debit (Dual Fuel Single Rate)" F

That is about right I think as to people's thoughts. Ferdinand

I don't know the firm answer to that; I have not had a conversation with a relevant professional yet. But on a 0.1 u value wall the difference in thickness between EPS and PIR (other things being equal) is over 100mm. 2 sides of a room would make an extra 200mm inside - which seems significant to me. I have just *not* bought a terraced house because the necessary extra insulation to be added to make it legal to rent out in a few years would turn a just-double bedroom into a single. I would love to build 2 semi-detached houses side by side with the different types for comparison. It is just the kind of thing I would do, too ! But let's not derail this thread - was just throwing in a concept for the OP to consider. F

@Gorlando My two comments: 1 - To get some idea of balance between spending money up front on better fabric, and energy costs that will save you, I suggest doing cost models of your house including the first 10 and 25 years of energy bills. There will be assumptions, but you will get a feel for the cost/benefit. 2 - Think about extra floor area from better insulation. It is true that EPS beads or pumped cellulose will completely fill your cavity, but a more effective insulant will make your walls 50-100mm thinner for the same performance and give you more space .. you will be surprised how much. And you can mulitply that extra by perhaps £3k per sqm to work out the increase in value, everything else being equal. I am thinking of materials such as Kingspan Ecobead Platinum or Celotex sheet. Ferdinand (Sorry - the thread title makes me think of Doris Stokes' Sherry Consumption.

So now it is the Cadbury Chocolate Wrapper competition. Solve this puzzle using your skill and judgement, using as little time and money as possible.

I think that if it is anything heavier than featheredge the panels are unlikely to be up to the job of supporting it for any significant period of time.

I think if you drill into the concrete posts you may be OK, but having taken a couple of hours drilling a mere *two* such posts myself I had discounted it due to practicality. Good luck. F

If you have to go on the existing posts then you are into long screws through the arris rails to mount vertical "ties" to put your planks on, or screw the planks directly to the verticals. I suppose you could also strap wooden posts to the existing posts. I think that in any of these cases, you will be redoing it before too long. The other option is to buy premade horizontal-plank panels and save your wood for something else.

When my site-for-sale was surveyed we had about 4 hedges and fences in one section. Their surveyor decided the one he wanted to survey was the one on my side (we kept some land).

Current wife? Are you Henry VIII?

There are some decent US sites about this type of fence. Where are you on your boundary? Can you move forward a few cm. Drilling concrete posts is like demolishing the Atlantic Wall (which is why it is still partly there :-), so I would be inclined to go in between them - either in front of the existing panels or after removing the existing panels. You need posts with pre-drilled holes, so i would use concrete (always for longevity) 1.2m repair spurs, such as these from Travis Perkins: https://www.travisperkins.co.uk/Supreme-Concrete-Fencing-Repair-Spur-100x100x1200mm/p/700248 and then bolt a 1.8m or 2m fencepost to the holes they contain. Then fix the horizontals to that. If you do not like the vertical expansion gaps between planks, then you can put a cosmetic vertical strip in line with each post. Alternatively you could find your local post manufacturer and get them to make you some concrete posts with boltholes ... they just need to insert a bit of plastic tube in the right spot before adding the concrete. Ferdinand

It depends :-). They can be "boundary features"; a concrete post obviously put in in the 1950s, wartime railings, or the corner of a 100 year old house will be given more weight than eg a Wickes post put in last week. A surveyor would make a judgement call based on all the information, giving much more weight to significant features. It is like scholars looking at 28 scrolls and fragments to find the original text of a bit of the Bible - they look at everything the give a weight to each source of 'authority'. We hope that there a small number of features which nail it down quickly. The easiest way is to be on good terms with the person the other side of the fence, and be able to have a conversation. As I am about to do with our new neighbours about their tree and the crack in my wall it is leaning on. I think the answer to your question is "your boundaries are what you accept for several years", because at that stage it becomes too much touble to fix. So check and measure against solid features - developers get things wrong from time to time. If you have lived with a boundary in the wrong place for some time you have not really lost (or gained) anything except an opportunity, unless you have a towering sense of theoretical injustice. My view is that life is generally too short to chase such things, unless there is a very important reason in the particular case. Instead take the trouble to get it right first time. Ferdinand

You should take a look at Jeremy's self-build Walk in Wardrobe article before you buy one in, even though the orientation is different. Potential to save 5k there. It was discussed on this Ebuild thread and I hope @JSHarris can point out a version with pictures. http://www.ebuild.co.uk/topic/14367-building-a-thin-partition-wall-how-thin-can-i-go/ Ferdinand

+1 I don't think there is much more I can add here. You have to decide whether you are going to play and endless game of Planning Poker check and check, or calll their bluff and see their hand. Pfaffing will cost you more than planting a hedge, and the only thing enforcement will likely do is to make you apply for retrospective Planning Permission. That is what nearly always happens when something is not catastrophically unacceptable. The stuff about 90cm (or is it 60cm?) for a hedge being too narrow is baloney.

Cover for an outside tap to stop it freezing.