Ferdinand

There are some ideas there, but so many that it is not clear what he really wants. And I think it is perhaps unfortunate that the input has come from a smallish, rather expensive, house builder. The numbers are way off imo and should be doable for 70% of that even if we like the scheme and even in The Islands. Running through his house wizard gave me a build cost of 195k for a 136sqm WH202 house, which is a trad 1.5 storey rendered double fronted house with 3 beds and 2 dormers and an extra room at one end.that is standard not posh spec with them building it. Compare with a conversation on GBF a couple of weeks ago where a chap is building passive houses in lots of 4 or so at a cost of 90k each not incl. plot. THese are pairs of 3 story semis at 100sqm ea. Link http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14688&page=2 The closest I can find for HebHaus is 160k though detached. Basically 50% more for a lower spec product, allowing 25k for the detached over semi. A crude comparison, but that difference is not absorbed by location costs and extra things included if any. CLT is interesting, but not afaik particularly enviro-friendly over the lifecycle - about 15% better than trad concrete frame. The scheme seems to be a big government factory and giving houses away to lucky groups. That is a recipe for wasting a lot if money imo, and there are better schemes possible. There already exist LA supported mortgage schemes in England. Do they in Scotland? I could see the benefit of extending Help to Buy style schemes to self build. The timber frame idea seems good as it is weatherproof quickly. But then crofting etc is a little unique and may justify subsidies etc. I wonder if a specialist Housing Association would be a way with shell and basics provided on a leasehold or rented plot and sweat equity for part of it? Needs a custom designed scheme perhaps. Knowing a little about the Scottish landscape, I could see standard house type kits working as there are well defined vernacular styles. Staying off negative equity and market prices this time. Ferdinand

The old PM rule: cost increases x10 for each stage later in the project it is corrected. The old book to read: The Mythical Man Month. F

Welcome @Simplysimon Not planning extensive comments, however: 1 - It feels short on garages to me. 2 - That is a hell of a lot of circulation space. Do your corridors need to be that wide? To me a 1.4m wide passage is neither one thing nor t'other. The space could perhaps be better used in the downstairs shower room and utility. Perhaps others have opinions of living with corridors of that width - good or bad? 3 - I am not clear on the dead space between the kitchen and garage. What is it for? Is it outside the thermal envelope? I might be tempted to make it a cool pantry / wine room with a door for your produce, or put the boot room there. 4 - Is the front door prominent enough? With a house that size, and listening to @ProDave's sales difficulties on a large house in Scotland documented elsewhere, I would want to give some careful thought to exit strategy - whether for you in a few years or 20 years. Will you have difficulty selling it? Presumably the local market is different to Inverness, but for a 230sqm house consider: Personally I would try to make the plan such that it could be turned into a pair of semis with ease (see how some barn conversions do it without feeling like a suburb), provision for full separate facilities downstairs for when you are in your dotage etc, or for use as a B&B (all double bedrooms etc), or as a let. Not because you will need it , but because that will give you plans B C and D with no downside if you do it now. Ferdinand

Yes. The windows that came out of my cottage are now cold frame covers. Ferdinand

@TheMitchells I don't know about timing, but the two threads I started are. To me they seem to be quite random. 1 - Things you can use to get discounts which is pinned in the "Other" forum. 2 - Current offers, which is not pinned and floats back up when someone notices something and remembers:

WHat did that? Heat, electricity, or mechanical?

WHat about one of those trad rotary potato peelers driven off a drill?

If the past is anything to go by, the DVLA might assume you have one and issue a preemptive ticket, at the wrong address, then blame you for not receiving it, then crush your car anyway. When SORN came in they issued then withdrew 1 million+ tickets over a 4 year period iirc, which was 20% plus. Would trailers and caravans be a model of the different principle where they create a record and yadda yadda yadda. IIRC trailers on the continent have their own separate existence and are identified by the bureaucracy. There was some concession required for Brits towing their non-individually-registered caravans to be able to tow within the EU. Ferdinand

That is a *superb* idea.

That is not much less than my Gaggia Classico cost on ebay. Twas advertised as "local pickup only" in Beverly, then it turned out he was willing to post it. Ferdinand

FOr a Christmas Diversion jump to 5:44. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SFXY8sM88q4

Study some Victorian water cisterns. I have not seen a stone one but it should not a problem to have its feet in water. Our small Manor House had one which was like an underground room with an arched roof, under the kitchen garden. I assume it was drinking or washing water. Crystal clear. Or for light relief read how WInchester Cathedral had so much water around its foundations in 1906 that they had a professional diver working in a 4m deep trench for 6 years to underpin them. He was called William Walker. They now have a delicious exhibit in the slightly flooded crypt with a statue by Anthony Gormley. http://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/our-heritage/famous-people/william-walker-the-diver-who-saved-the-cathedral/ Ferdinand

Aha. £550 per sqm estimate here. http://www.theenergycollective.com/david-k-thorpe/2376889/an-off-site-pre-fab-approach-to-passivhaus-deep-retrofit-2

Can you give me an approximate cost range for this type of solution. Just an example of a type of house and a ballpark would be useful. Say a square 3 bed detached. Are we talking 40k, 60k, 100k etc? Cheers Ferdinand

i don't think I can further help here since Megabad do not seem to recognise the concept of Debit Card.

Shades of Clarkson, But without the millions and the explosions.

I had actually never related "batten down the hatches" to "battens" ie pieces of wood fixed over. I had always treated it as a standalone verb. You live and learn...

You should have had one of my recommended double sockets. That is an hour you will not be getting back. An entire episode of Star Trek you will not able to watch again. Your last words: "Holy Polos. Why can't I remember what happened to Uhura's leather boots (*) after the Battle of Xaction Prime?" * probably purchased off Ebay by Max Mosley for use at Klingon-love-tryst themed parties.

To my eye that quote reinforces @Sensus' point because it reinforces independence of each application. But .. having read the doc, they are distinguishing between Policy (which is probably also code for Precedent) and site specific, and appear to treat Appeal results as determinants for their policy. Said policy is then applied to specific sites. So you are urbanising rural Lancashire singlehanded with a radically different out of step design, you naughty person :-) . THe parish church also looks remarkably different to the chocolate box cottages, so they had better demolish *that* and let the PC Meet in the phone box. Ferdinand

Travelex have a currency flash sale from 11am to 1pm today. https://www.travelex.co.uk/ I have no idea what the terms are but perhaps expect a slightly lower spread. Ferdinand

Off the wall, but I had a similar problem with the heavy banister rail installed by our predecessors who had clearly forgotten something (like studs in the wall) and ended up fixing it to the wall with plasterboard fittings. It came off within months. Spent nearly a day with a stud detector and drilling holes to find any woodwork in the entire wall, and only managed to graze a water pipe and find one piece of frame I ended up buying an oak plank for mounting the banisters, and some 10x10cm pieces of stainless steel sheet, bolting through with domed heads on the stair sides, and leaving the back as a talking point in my office. I like showing working. Can you install something the *other* side of the wall (bookcase, shelves, shallow cupboard, a wall-size mural or large canvas 3" off the face?) and fix it directly through the wall? A mural etc could be mounted on the bolts you have showing :-). IF it was me I would think about a false wall entirely in cork tiles or matt whiteboard for drawing pun or magnetic fixing of whatever. I used to ave one when I was a kid. That would give you a clean line on the stair side and the joiner could work on the other side. But this should probably be Plan B.

It reads both ways. 25k over next 5 years and 25k per year by 2022. Trade report http://www.constructionenquirer.com/2016/12/19/chinese-giant-to-build-six-uk-pre-fab-homes-factories/ .

Afaik these never went away, ostensibly for trade. TLC sell them for one. For Lava Lamps you get can them from the original manufacturer Mathmos. http://www.mathmos.com/mathmos-replacement-bulbs.html Ferdinand

Yep. The client is a HA. The 2.5bn cost for 25k dwellings is 100k each, which sounds about right if they get the sites at a reasonable price. The actual build cost looks similar to that for big developers with no Planning Gain or profit on top. I wonder where they will be for Planning Gain? I don't see them killing the PRS; there are too many types of customer, and Council House building did not kill it in the 1970s; the damage was done imo mainly by contract terms and security of tenure. My expectation is that they will be a launch customer and hopefully the factories can supply commercial developers. I hope the offsite fabrication delivers the 30% efficiency gain we have been promised since Egan in the 1990s. I do not think it will help much with the 1 million by 2020 promise by the Govt since it will be perhaps 3-4 years before anything starts to come on stream, but I think they may hit the target anyway. TH critical path for the project is planning not construction. And of course we have the Right to Buy applied to Housing Associations. But good to see new projects. Ferdinand

Indeed :-), which is why you should always tell them to charge in local currency on holiday because you can bet your pet Great Crested Newt(s) that the Glotel Hotel exchange rate will be worse than the one on your Appropriate (ie no FX Charges) Credit Card which will be the instantaneous Mastercard or Visa number. Ferdinand