Ventilated cavity - mad idea?

[oldkettle]

@PeterW, thank you

 

I did not get a quote for a rebuild but I did look at the costing Jeremy made publicly available. It was quite a revelation for me that in spite of all his experience (that I don't have) and doing a significant amount of work himself (which I won't be able to do) he still ended up above 1K mark IIRC (that is excluding items that we would not need). Now, yes, getting a shell for £500/m2 did look very attractive but there is so much more to spend on that I honestly got scared. 

It may well turn out to be a false economy, I know, but the kids are growing up and I need to build rather soon for them to be able to enjoy it. Switching to a larger project would delay the whole process substantially.