Ferdinand

That points out a big risk for you. You can't develop for a different version of yourself; that is really vanity. Not least because no one out there is the same as you and the extra money that you spend on your ideas of Eco may just get reversed. The trick as a developer is to find your market and work to it. There are eco-things you can do, but there is a hell of a lot of eco-snake-oil out there. At the moment one of the worst is the temptation to put big eco-heating in a place where some money spent on eh fabric would mean smaller eco-heating could be use - just because that is what the Govt will subsidise. To me an example is the old Code for Sustainable Homes, which gave points for an Eco-Washer and other appliances. Which means that the developer had to tell the customers what sort of lifestyle they were to have, brands etc. Which to me was just a recipe for lots of washer to be disposed of, especially if the new buyer already had a favourite one.

If you start him at home, make it something like a shed or garage or other small project. F

At this point it is worth a reminder that if you have certain Employee Benefit cards, you can get an extra 10% off at Wickes on top of the Trade Discount. I have done very little maintenance / building work until recently to justify this. And I lost my Westfield Membership as it was mum's Westfield Health card, and she popped her clogs. Covered in my big old discount thread:

If a new housing development is expected to be very noisy, they tend to planning condition on special noise-reducing ventilation devices rather than saying "TRIPLE GLAZED" - so remember that aspect too.

Make sure that your solicitor drafts the clause, or checks it to your satisfaction. Take the time and SWEAT THE DETAIL. Costs should be a secondary consideration tbh. The buggeration if it is wrong will hurt more later. I had mine do one and I now have the right to do virtually anything for any service (undefined) which would by the look of it let me build a tunnel to use a relay of elephants to import water. Fortunately my solicitor was on a fixed price, and very professional - but looked a touch haggard afterwards.

Just bought my first lot of 63x28 CLS for a time. Bottom price here seems to be about £5 for a 2.4m. Last lot I bought was several years ago for about £2. ?

Thanks, both. @Roundtui - the kitchen is adjacent, and is whether it needs another one.

My pro took them out of several boxes with different batch numbers at once and mixed them up to avoid stripes...

That's quite good. I might get a screenshot every week and print it out ? .

No it doesn't. It means doing them in batches of 10 to half then full. Which is fine unless you are one of those silly sods who buys yuuuuuuuuuuuugggggeeeee tiles that weight 35kg each, in which case you deserve every cracked muscle fibre. How many broken tiles will that pay for? You are Twonald Dump and I claim my £5. Suggestions: - Are your tiles OK eg flat? - I'd perhaps take the old blade into the shop to compare. Is it worth looking at a Screwfix "Trade rated" option, or call the Dewalt helpline to check how often you should change blades? F

I am looking around for a way to put a loo in a "leanto" - which is really like a well-built enclosed carport currently used for washer, dog-food freezer etc. Tenant has asked for a loo, as she is getting on and it is a cottage staircase in the house. T is also happy for there not to be a hand basin in it. I have the soil pipe connection, and water supply, and can find a suitable toilet easily. What I am looking for is a way of creating a cubicle. I can probably do it from scratch with sheets of painted ply attached to some of the timbers etc. But I wonder if I can buy one pre-constructed, ideally self-supporting that can just be carried in and fixed to the floor. Is there anything like that in the caravan or commercial world? Any ideas would be most welcome. This type of thing may be one option: https://www.hpl24.shop/en_GB/p/Fireproof-board-toilet-cubicle/63 Ferdinand

Make the temporary kitchen from whatever is going in the utility room if you have one. Or do the utility room now and cook in it. A further utility worktop or a spare cooker hob for when the new £6000 one in the posh new kitchen goes phut, would be useful.

Emphasize your measures to control dust, but also note that if they are able it will help for cars to be in garages or around the corner.

One intriguing thing is that the plan seems to be 2 identical halves. Multi-family house? Or a pair of twins?

What I mean is that your bath has a very wide surround, which makes it catch water very easily if the shower head is "on the wall" not "in the hand", which water then leaks out. So if you get a showerhead which sticks out further, it will be more over the bath than over the surround, which will make more water go into the bath. Normally they just screw off at the point where it joins the flexible pipe; get one that pokes out further. Alternatively you could try one with a narrower fan of water, as they seem to have in Hilton Hotels for doing your feet. Or they even do "extension arms" for shower heads. eg (illustration not a recommendation) https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/160mm-angled-chrome-extension-shower-arm-for-handheld-shower-heads? I appreciate the point about the screen.

My 2 suggestions: 1 - Get a longer shower head. That bath plan is not ideal. 2 - If you don't actually need to open the screen, fix it in place. That could be something as simple as a big bead of silicone after you have cleaned the surface with something like surgical spirit. I'm tempted to say acetone, but I am not sure how that would react.

I'd punt that it was a special for somebody who can't complete and they are now left with a hideous pig-in-a-poke that no one will want. It's not really Lincolnshire. More blingy London suburb that is actually Essex. I'm inclined to think it was a holiday place for Max Mosely, who has passed away recently, and is an estate fire sale. If Lincolnshire was like Nevada, it would be a cathouse.

We need a couple of overall pics. (Or I do; I'm thick.)

Please could you post a site plan, showing the permissioned footprint and dimensions and directions. From the plan you could eke out a little space for Bed 3 by switching to a spiral staircase towards the top end of the current stair. But headroom ...? You could also save a bit of space in the Ensuite and perhaps make the bed end of the master a little narrower. Or swap ends with it. But that would leave the ensuite facing south. Then would change it from a boxroom to a tightish single I won't link to it from here, but I'd consider a new application following the orientation of the one being done on the other half of your plot, which seems to be larger and has permission aiui. But do some intense homework first, as you are doing. I'd also suggest having a walk round the village to see if there are any self-builders who have finished that you could bounce some ideas off, who will have gone through the whole process in your place. Ferdinand

The thing I'm chanting involuntarily every week at the moment is "Yes Sir, I can boogie." It's the fault of the Scottish Euro Fans.

Sounds tense. Can I add my advice to the others? Go get a cup of tea. On your builder, your position if it goes for conflict is not that strong, as demand is so high now. My suggestion is to pick up the Hewlett-Packard idea of Management By Walking Around, and visiting regularly but non-instrusively - preferably each morning - so that they know you are very interested. Keep interested and talking. Keep an eye on the detail, and continue to dream up ideas as to how you can save budget and help the project. If you need to be have minor changes, make sure the reasons are valid but do it if you need to. Suggest you pay special attention to the next 2-4 weeks of work to catch anything you might have missed. Your neighbours are being NFN. Normal for Nimbies. In one sense I don't blame them - who wants a bloody great building project next door thumping away for a whole year? OTOH you have the rights you have to make your home. I would make sure you stick by whatever the LA has set for limitations, and don't worry about Ns as far as you can. Do NOT evaluate them totally on what is happening now and blow up the relationship - when it is really finished tell them and drop some obviously nice wine round (couple of bottles of Nyetimber?). Then leave them alone for 6 months or so and then see how it goes. Even reluctant tolerance in the future is far better than being sworn enemies. I wouldn't invite them to look as a close interaction about your new pride and joy while things are still tense between you might not help, and both your senses of judgement will be affected and both egos tender. When you get to the end do something symbolically to leave any bad feelings behind on your side. I got PP for a small housing estate behind mine, and the neighbours objected vociferously ("you know we have to, don't you?"), but a few years later we are still talking if not yet going to sex parties together. But then we are both somewhat involved in construction. On your budget, perhaps it might be helpful to know how much you will be up financially at the end? Find out what your rebuilt house will be worth (something similar selling price in the same street/area), and compare it to what you paid. Since 2015 it should be quite a lot extra nearly everywhere. Try and think of overruns as a reduction in gain, rather than a standalone loss. Trickery, but perhaps useful. Pay attention to your relationship if you have one. And carve out time for mutual things are *not* building related (ban mention of it, go clay pigeon shooting -just something else) . This is really important. Is the self-builders prayer helpful, or at least the sentiments therein? It's all about focusing on the things you can control, and keeping a careful watch on the progress of the rest: And get a picture of a kitten for the wallpaper on your phone :? Ferdinand

Plan B: do you have a friend with a private explosives license?

@Dazza TBH it doesn't sound *that* big for an old farmhouse. I'd endorse a coupe of suggestions above - do a heat model to work out what your demand would actually be. Should be doable in an evening. The forum has a sprreadsheet available here: And do some planning work on your insulation scheme. There's no problem making it long term - the most important thing is not to do anything on top before you do the insulation underneath, 'cos then you'll never get a round tuit. And evrybody needs a round tuit. How much can you reduce those heat losses by? Then you can get to what size boiler you actually need. Bosch seem now to have some big ones on their list. One other thought (which others really need to comment on) - is this a good application for a Sunamp in series with a not-quite-that-huge boiler, as it would heat the water first from its stored solar or offpeak electricity energy, and therefore reduce the highest demand item? Ferdinand

That graph now says lumber prices have gone back down again by nearly half.

Bottom wide than top. IN the early years keep pruning back to pairs of buds to encourage branching. Trim back to less than desired final envelope, so that the many-branched hedge with leaves will reach that point.