Kelvin

I’m not sure what you hope to achieve. The planning process is the planning process in which you need to operate within the area you make the application. It’ll take as long as it takes. There’s not much you can do to influence it other than making sure you follow their process to the letter and provide clear detailed information about your plans. Therefore the sooner you get the application in the quicker you’ll get the decision. Knowing in ever granular detail how long the process takes won’t make it happen any faster.

Just to correct one point. To get Homekit to work you just need a smart device that’s Homekit compatible and an Apple device such as a phone to control it. You don’t need to buy additional hardware as suggested above unless you want to access it remotely or use automation then you need an Apple TV etc You used to be able to use an iPad as a Homekit hub but the current version of Homekit no longer supports iPad as a hub. If all you want to do is control the Hue lights and associated accessories and some automation then the Philips App is good enough and will do everything you’ll need. If you have other ‘smart’ devices in the house then another platform that can control all the devices becomes useful such as Homekit. Apple Homekit covers a lot of bases including cameras so worth trying it out albeit the number of devices supported is a bit limited compared to other platforms. This is partly what Matter is trying to address. Therefore, I wouldn’t mess about with a third party Hue app. Just use the Hue app to start with and then Apple Homekit to integrate other devices. Samsung Smartthings is pretty good as a smart hub.

It’s an interesting point as I understand it the same as you. Our timber kit gets erected in April. The timber kit company is taking responsibility for this. They sent me an email last week and in that they mentioned site welfare suggesting it’s my responsibility. I’ve not challenged it with them yet.

We lived near their show home place so went and viewed them. Obviously they are show homes so have a lot of traffic through them nevertheless I thought the detailing was really poor. I also thought their standard designs looked a little tired. The Passiv house wasn’t too bad though.

I had the same thought and from googling it seems Loxone supports up to 6 separate devices playing via Spotify Family which is the limit on Spotify Family.

The do a lot more than just building new stuff on land. Some planning departments seem to have fallen apart after Covid while others are back to normal. Our planning took 8 weeks and the building warrant 7 in Perth and Kinross. You can’t get them on the phone though so everything is via email but they were quite responsive.

Trifle is in the fridge trifling and mulled wine is on the stove mulling. We have a big year ahead of us with our build finally starting. I’ve learnt so much already from this great forum and will be asking a lot more questions once we get going. Thank you all for making this place the best resource there is for the self-builder. Merry Christmas everyone. I wish you and yours all the best.

I’ve come to the same conclusion on the economics of battery storage but we are going ahead with it anyway mostly for the same reasons as above. We’ll have a private water supply and treatment plant so everything is powered. Ultimately I’d also like to be completely off-grid just on principle but it’s not so easy to achieve.

That’s awful for a modern house. Our rented farmhouse with no wall insulation (as far as I can tell) and leaky holes is no worse than that. Very generous offer from @ToughButterCup what a great forum this is. It actually gives me confidence in achieving my own self-build.

34p/litre which is dear imo I get a massive potato box full for £80 but I live on a farm that has 100s of such boxes.

We’ll be in by next Christmas 🎅 😂

Congratulations and well done. First big step completed. I was similarly optimistic on timescales. It took 9 months from walking onto the plot to completing then another 9 months to get planning and warrant. We start kit erection in April so a few months shy of two years since we first saw the plot.

Fortunately I have the space (1.4 acres) to lose everything so not expecting any muck away.

I wouldn’t describe it as being fined a financial penalty. Presumably the contract said the cost would up if a period of time past etc. Ours has increased from the initial estimate we got in the summer too but the original estimate didn’t include all the steelwork, we’ve added an expensive rooflight to the flatroof, made every window 3G and changed one fixed window for double doors.

Nothing for the windows and a few hundred pounds per week but I’d have it delivered to site as we have the room.

I can understand charging a nominal storage fee if they don’t have anywhere on-site to store it. Five figures is ridiculous.

We have a sloping site too. Slopes North to south and east to west. We are simplifying it by minimal cutting and filling to create a level base to build on. Part of me wishes we’d been a bit more brave and gone down the whole cut into the hillside and bury the ground floor in the hill. It would have been spectacular I think but also very dear.

Storage fee presumably. I have the same risk with my timber kit supplier. They’ll charge me a storage fee if the foundation isn’t ready.

You’re being far too ‘British’ about it. I ran a European team including Germany and The Netherlands. They are just very direct and aren’t being rude. In fact they’d be shocked to find out you were offended. Plus of course she’s translating this from her mother tongue to English. It might have been more abrupt in German of course. Nein! I did a 360 degree feedback session with my German leadership team one year. It was somewhat brutal. 😂

That’s true of course. That said our kitchen supplier has told us of significant increases in February, the bathroom supplier is keeping a lid on increases until March then 15%. The window supplier increasing prices by 20% from February. All a bit worrying.

Yes was told the same today too. We’re in a difficult time economically. I know some on here have suggested that the build costs might come back to their favour next year. I’m not feeling the same way.

I’ve never seen those aquapanels that didn’t make me think cheap hotel or camper van. I’m sure done well they are fine but I’ve never seen them done well.

How much of the report was standard canned text and how much was actually written specifically for your plot…

I don’t think I’d bother getting air tightness hero t-shirts printed up if you’re expecting the trades that visit your site to wear them unless it’s just for you. Just explain to the various trades what the goal is, what to do and what not to do. Put some signs up referencing air tightness. Brief every new face to site personally and have someone else on point to brief people if you aren’t around. Create a no blame culture so that if the barrier inevitably gets breeched it gets highlighted straight away and rectified. Have plenty of fixing material available and readily accessible. Make up some notification sheets for each trade and hang them in a visible location probably where the drawings are and encourage the trades to document any breeches and whether it was rectified or not. Do a visual inspection every day and double-check any areas before they are boxed in.

You’d never see your family in a place that big.