Ferdinand

Won't both showers date to when it was built? A decade or more ago?

I had 2.5p per kWh as a normal average figure for the unit rate on a decent tariff, but standing charge adds to that depending on usage. It is my current rule of thumb for comparisons in my head. eg for one list (example not recommendation) https://www.theenergyshop.com/guides/energy-prices-per-kwh F

So, last update on this. My machine - Makita XUD363V (= 36 vault and can also Vacuum) looks a of a bruiser, and it is not small. I would not give it to my 7st 5'0" mum, as she may have vanished without trace, anymore than I would give a 9" angle-grinder to an office-wallah without at least some manual work history, because s/he would vanish behind the nearest bush the first time it jammed. As a blower it is very powerful. Air delivery is up to 800 cubic m / hour, which is a lot. Airspeed is apparently just about 100mph. In practice that means it blows and sucks OK including damp leaves. It also has the sensitivity not to pick up gravel in my limited experience. Weight is about 4kg as a blower, and 6kg as a vacuum plus the contents of the 50 litre bag. The first time getting to grips with it as a vacuum is a bit of an octopus-wrestle - 2 ends of the shoulder strap go on on a thing that is now the other way round and has 2 big pipes attached, and an extra strap on the bag, but after that it is fine. And there is a set of chopping blades in the intake which gets more in the bag and does cut up the leaves to an extent. Two sets of decent sized Makita batteries (eg 4 x 5Ah or 6Ah in total) should give I think around an hour of work, so continuous should be possible with a dual fast charger. Overall I like it. But the price still hurts. The naked thing without batteries is £250-300, and that is perhaps a little overdoing if you need a dust-out-of-van blower. Random thought: I think the thing to distinguish between gravel and leaves is a lot of air but also a wide vacuum nozzle. This is 125mm which generates a lot of force relative but relatively lower pressure, reducing the force generated on small objects such as gravel. (Update: the machine does wet leaves fine, but not if they have started to deteriorate. The collecting bag is not waterproof, so doing wet leaves gives a wet leg - so wear your gardening trousers.) F

I don't see why a solar water heater can't be made from this walk-on glazing. Obvs it is waterproof. All you need is water plumbed to be inside not outside. The rest is simples.

That's a good call if they exist and you prefer to do that. There should normally be a supply shutoff mechanism for each shower. Mine didn't have these installed by the self-builder, so we added them when we redid the showers. It could look like a tap handle on the supply pipes somewhere, or a little valve you turn through 90 degrees with a screwdriver. Mine on one shower look like this: F

I don't know how they did it, but 1930s semis often have oriel windows in the bathroom. Anything to learn?

Glad to see. AIUI ancient woodland is legally defined in Scotland as continuously existing since before 1750. Hmm. Is there an opportunity for a Green Burial site, or a Scottish version of the long-barrow-columbarium that that Salisbury Farmer Tim Daw build on an unused corner. There's a different company now run by different people developing a chain of them with very nice burial prices thank-you-very-much; they have even been puffed by Countryfile. Are they looking for opportunities? What is appropriate for West Scotland? F

So, took it outside to try blowing the damp leaves in the lane, and it shifts them, quite happily. Then realised it was still on low... Vacuum to be tried a bit later. (Update: Tried it outside on wet leaves for a couple of minutes. Handled wet, but not decomposed, leaves fine on a low setting. Mine is the 36V vacuum / blower from Makita.) What about you @Adam2? F

Mine also just arrived, and it is a vacuum blower one which has a plastic shredding disk on the vacuum intake. Will also report back. F

Never take risks with shelves if they may have different loads on them later, just cos it looks cool. Eg books or tins. especially if dealing with interior designers or other non-engineering types. And only count that bit of the screw that is in the structural bit, not the plaster or whatever ?.

I have 8000+ Opinions myself ?. What about the others? And welcome.

That last photo looks like the way dad used to detail the side of the 6 (!) mainly inaccessible valleys he sealed on t)e roof of the listed house they restored, as a full and final answer to snow backing up and leaks coming in. He would put ply under the tiles up to 0.8m both sides, then GRP over the top and across the valley. Looks good.

I think you get to find out if SE adds anything in a couple of decades ?. Not sure how old you are but you may need a big magnifying glass as well.

Welcome. Wasn't there an "interesting" Grand Design on a similar site? (I don't mean the floating one on the island). Ferdinand

The other minor issue is that they report it was taking 1% of battery capacity per mile of journey. And after they realised it would not reach home and turned on econo-max it still had a Max range of around 125 miles with the horsebox in tow. So the current solution would be to take the Tesla, but make like Roy Rogers for the rest of the journey when it ran out of batteries. ? Another few years yet. I’m another one that is waiting.

It's not hard wired. They are sealed units. The new units just arrived.

An interesting little video about towing a double horsebox (2 tons ish) with a Model X. USA so using air conditioning for the first half. Cut and paste of fuel consumption screen below. It tows but the energy consumption suffers more than a little. F

It is supposed to be a sealed 10 year battery. However, asking around the basic product appears to be rubbish and the 10 year life to be a marketing claim. https://www.propertytribes.com/fire-alarm-batteries-expiring-early-t-127649301-lastpost-user-470113.html F

Yay ! I love that a teasing chink of house can be seen down the drive, that will give a lovely sense of anticipation. F

I think you need Planning Permission and a structural engineer for this. You are sensible in not looking to skimp on the thing that will be stopping your house falling down ?. My suggested start would be to spot a couple on the road that are recent (see Google Streetview Time Travel Feature), and have a chat if you know any of the people. Normally I would say go and knock on the door or arrange to meet them in the street by chance, but that is not so easy in a time of COVID, so perhaps find the more recent ones and then go and do a postcode / number search on the Council website to look for Planning Permissions. That should give you all sorts of useful information.

Welcome to the forum.

Welcome to the forum. Let me jump straight in. How good is the basic fabric of your house? The watchwords are "fabric first" and "attention to detail". How well insulated / warm is it? That is always something to reflect on before cosmetics. If we discover that we need to renovate the structure, we are all reluctant to un-renovate the things we have done on top first ?. Trying to think about this ... a guideline is that if you are on gas total heating bills should be not much more than £500 per year, though the biggest single saving is usually from switching the first time (normally saves up to 25-30% over standard rate). https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/blog/how-much-is-the-average-gas-and-electricity-bill-per-month With normal renovations I do for rentals under say 900sqft I normally aim for as close as possible to £500-600 for total bills for both fuels on a gas heated house as I can. That needs all the usual renovation things to be done reasonably well, and I don't always make it. Ferdinand

Is it interesting enough to be a test project for a lab that they can use to demonstrate an application?

Can these be 3D printed in metal? Or is the state of the art not there structurally or economically yet?

I need to see the investigation report before I really comment on this. It was leaked and redacted, according to the Northern Echo, and the author of the report commented that there was no evidence of concealment or deception. That apparently knocks the "two sets of laws" narrative thing on the head. https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/18560751.planning-report-breaches-dominic-cummings-cottage/ Aspects that interest me: - The second extra dwelling. That's new to me. - Why does Council Tax apply? - Why did it need Planning - the detail, and it what circs it would not need PP? - Is there a Right of Appeal? - Who actually did this report - VOA or Council? - Different aspects between what the VOA, Planning and Building Regs did. If it needed Buildings Regs, then signoff would have told the Council. Ignoring that on a dwelling is more important than Council Tax, as it is safety affecting. - How was it leaked, and by whom? Is this someone breaching professional confidence? I am also interested in Council Tax as an LL, which is far more grey at the margins than generally known. eg Up and down the Country random Councils randomly impose Band A Council Tax on individual rooms in HMOs. AIUI they have the power but most don't ask the VOA for what I assume are pragmatic reasons ie can't afford to lose all the HMOs - at a cost of £500-1000 per tenant (tenant liable) on varied grounds. Some do, others don't. Ferdinand