Ferdinand

What an excellent excuse to buy a thermal camera !

Have you considered ceiling mounted rather than sunken spotlights? Personally (having inherited about 55 from the person who built this house and gone through the gantlet of making them all LEDs back in 2013) I think recessed spots are evil.

It's a just in case. With walls to both boundaries it would be tight to meet the "50% or more glass walls" requirement to be a conservatory: Definition of a conservatory: A conservatory is defined as "a building that has not less than seventy five percent of its roof area made of translucent material (e.g. glass or polycarbonate), and not less than fifty percent of its total wall area made of glass or translucent material."

Either make it a bit wider at that side, or use your skill and judgement to decide that it is OK. TBH if it is 3 feet deep I would expect it to be OK.

I would say that in addition to overhangs, you could be raising things like "how will you clean the glass on the outside by our fence", "will you fit opaque or patterned glass", "what happens when we build one", "can you make this side a wall or a wall to 5ft with frosted glass above since you will be looking at the arse of my fence? *", how much more insulating a wall is over glazing panels with a view of a fence 4 inches away and so on. You might also try the reason I moved mine in, which was "what if you need to get a TV cable or an air-conditioning unit connected into your lounge (once the conservatory overheats it)" but that is relying a lot on their knowledge. But you are now in a position where your strategy has to be built on legal rights and diplomacy, rather than planning policy. Most of your easy leeway to make demands turned into a pumpkin when they got the PP. For all of these you need input before they actually order it. At that point it will be a right pain for them and it won't happen. F * you could threaten to put a mural of Homer Simpson mooning on their side of your fence panel, but that is likely to lead to a lack of cooperation.

I'm afraid that 'more fool you' has much truth in it - I also missed one once. You can also prevent them trespassing on your land - scaffolding etc, or charge rent. But what could happen is that you end up with a bodge built from only one side. You need to check where things will actually be, what your rights actually are, what you are actually going to do about it, an what you are going to ask them to do or change - eg I built mine 18" in from the boundary with a high clerestory window because i wanted a bit of "lounge" back wall still accessible even though the PP was up to the boundary. Being a doormat is a bad idea, but so equally is overreaching. Don't get your redlines in the wrong place. Don't let yourself get over emotional, and have a non-involved level-headed friend give you feedback on your findings and proposed action. But you also need to move quickly. NB: If it is a real shared fence, both parties need to agree before eg either removes it. Ferdinand

Try taking thermal photos of the panels and the various gubbins, and see if anything is seriously overheating. It has to be going somewhere if the energy is coming in.

Cut the top off a plastic water or drinks bottle, and use the tall thin "cup" left to hoick the water out. Or since it is hilly can you siphon it out with a length of hose pipe? Then take the water down to the level required by the Postcrete instructions (usually a third full?), and bingo.

Good comments above. I think on the whole it feels a bit over-bedroomed and under-living-roomed. Consider when you want to have two people doing different things privately (eg reading a book and practising the trombone, or sewing and watching TV, or kids playing first-person-shooters and grownups playing poker) - you probably want two separately available living spaces. Depending on the width of that sea view, can you project the balcony? Outside shower? Ferdinand

You don't say what you are looking for eg 2g, 3g, upvc, ally frames, ally covered wood etc. If cost is a driver then eg dark grey upvc is surprisingly good. If you are looking locally then at least go and talk to Eurocell, who are based in the Midlands near where I live. There are also very local / regional suppliers everywhere, if cost is a real driver. F

They seem to have lots of one star reviews on Twitter from people who lost ?.

She's a Councillor not a Member. Los of stuff about "eco-houseboat" on the link. Is it?

I went dancing there a few times in the noughties. None of the ladies were up for engaging in the naughties. But very nice dinners.

There's this rather agonised looking lion, if we count central Shrewsbury as rural. I wonder why it looks like that? It could be an early version of the cat pencil sharpener.

A couple of general points. Have you or predecessor taken the outside ground level down to a sensible place? That makes a difference. When we first moved into ours as a family a long time ago, you could see a damp "tide mark" on the walls at about 7ft, and detect it with a moisture meter ? . The floor joists were laid directly on he earth. Will the listing authorities let you put air bricks in?

You can get sample pots from Little Green for a fiver. And they come with a free brush. ?

To op: One of our members wrote in some detail about how they did their cost reductions:

RE: Gym Have you considered how you are going to get all the heavy gubbins up there with that somewhat intricate staircase route? Have you had work done about structural calcs for the gym? (Personally, as a gym part-owner of a formerly upstairs gym, I think you are possibly mad just putting it there !) Re: Parking I think you may need 3 spaces for that many bedrooms, but you say you have PP already. F

On-topic I concur with most above. I would take a very careful look at 1 - Making it more 'unified', and 2 - Looking at the costs/benefits of a full rebuild, especially if you can avoid CiL (it looks like the sort of area that might have CiL)as well as VAT. Off-topic. I'm struggling with all these chimneys and gateposts. Why? Is the Council run by a secret cabal of chimney sweeps who want to ensure the future of their nefarious businesses by adding unnecessary chimneys to new houses?

Thanks all.

Can anyone recommend? My experience with low/high usage pushbutton loos is that they have a habit of developing "trickle leaks", and wasting water until it is next checked. For me this is a problem with some tenants who naturally look a little less carefully than I do at home. Is there a good compromise flushing system which is both low water usage, relatively inexpensive and robust in not leaking? Thanks Ferdinand

I doubt whether a 2m ceiling will meet Building Regs. There is no formal limit afaik, but docs such as the London Space Standard suggest 2.2m. I think you need more like 2.2m or 2.3m. 2.3m is really the minimum which is comfortable imo. Phone your Buildings Regs debt to check. For heating I would perhaps consider one of those single room reversible heat pumps you mention, and an in line Electric Heater for water - but for cost you will want short durations showers ? . It's really all affected by the purpose eg is it an annexe, or a posh spare bedroom, or with a separate entrance. Then you have things like eg Council Tax to think about. There's a lot of stuff to go into - I would start with talking it through with a professional, or the Council.

Shoulda gone to Specsavers Wickes.

TBH those are minimal amounts of insulation, even if it was just on one side. And since it is scraping through building standards I assume it is PIR. I would suggest something more like 120mm or 150mm of PIR on the outside if you want to use that, and a target U vale of more like 0.13 or 0,15. The extra is far more cost-effective, as you still only have to do one set of structure, fitting and labour. Or go for a thicker layer of EPS, which is less expensive. Do not let anyone tell you to be unambitious.