twiddling thumbs

So the kit comes in July, contractor on site in June.

here is a short video of my driving today, back from a job.

garden plans

Now that we have half an acre to play with, it's time to think about what the hell to do with it. Of course there will be the obligatory vegetable patch, but how big? There needs to be room for the septic tank and soakaway, but other than the lids etc, thats a lot of ground.
I want to put an area aside for a garage/workshop, but thats likely to be a few years, and as its generally flat at that bit, maybe that's the place for the veggies to start with. Maybe if I put a poly tunnel there the neighbours will think a garage will look better?. That said, I can probly do what I want under permitted development, so WHO CARES?
But mostly it will be grass, which leads to a lot of options. There is the expense consideration, and I'm tight as I've said before I'm sure. Also I've been reading re grass and lawns
Lawns as we know them are barren as far as biodiversity and creepie crawlies are concerned. So I read. So then you progress down to rye grass mixes. Rye grass being a hardier species, and we have dogs. But you get dwarf rye grass which is mixed with...erm...other wee grasses, then you get pasture mixes and stuff coos and sheep eat, which if left and cut becomes like most of the grass you see on hills and stuff.
Anyway, the long and short of the prices is this
turf = £7500 per 1/2 acre
fine lawn grass = £850 per 1/2 acre
other stuff seen on hills = £50 per acre

have you figured it out yet?

kit-a-coming!

We have been given a kit delivery date of 10th July. I met with my contractor today and asked if this was fine, which it is. I emailed the kit company and got this back, which is great.

"That's great. I can now confirm that your confirmation confirms our
confirmation for 10 July.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any further queries."

I do like a sense of humour. Not a lot else has happened. One of the neighbours is after some of the hawthorn, so i've told them that there's a section at our access which they can have otherwise it will just be getting hauled out and burnt.

I can't wait for the burning!

Hedge 2

I spent another few hours today hacking...cutting...trimming down the hedges to the front of the plot. Hawthorn, which meant when I finished I looked like that pinhead bloke from the horror film...
Anyway, that's all done now, the hedging left will come out completely as it's on the access, a neighbour has expressed interest, as their garden needs some vegetation after their ground source heat pump system went in. They are welcome to it, otherwise it will add to the very large bonfire pile of bush I have.
I broke my handsaw today, but fixed it with some cable ties I had to hand. It wont fold and lock, but it still cuts very well. A couple of the neighbours came out to chat. Very pleasant, including the ones who objected to my planning application. All seems friendly.
I also had three offers of the use of a chain saw, which I turned down, and explained that this was a fun exercise and was washing away the work stress for the holiday weekend. As I said to the Minister, I will sleep the sleep of the righteous tonight. Not sure how much he liked that, but he did laugh as he walked away.

Laughing at what though?

hedge trimming

School fete this morning. We raised over £1100, which is good considering there are only 30 odd kids at the school. Well done us.
Lunchtime we spoke to our contractor and gave him a cheque for the kit order. He thinks he will be on site in a couple of weeks, with new machine I think. Discussed one or two things we need to pin down later on. I've great faith in him. Everything I've seen he's done has been good, and he is very professional and friendly. A find, no doubt.

I've decided it's too late to move and replant hedges, so am resorting to plan A, which is to trim the existing hawthorn hedge down to get the sitelines for the access onto the road. I'll fill the gaps with new hawthorn in due course. There is a handy gap in the hedge which may be usefull for access for the contractor.
As I am generally unfit, I used a handsaw to trim the hedges. Hard work, but satisfying, and I can feel I've moved the project on a wee bit myself.
Bonfire soon. I'll film that. Which is worrying.

ordered!

kit was confirmed as being ordered now. windows take longest as they are a "special" order.

"We can now finalise the window order with the suppliers and get that placed. We will also instruct the kit manufacturer to begin preparation of the panelised production drawings for your kit. We will let you know as soon as we are able to establish an approximate delivery date."

Goodie.

Don't know if it's the bloke in the photo with the NHS corrective specs on, who will be making it, but you get the general idea.

Building Warrant

Documents arrived today for the warrant. I didn't remember submitting 40 odd drawings, but there you go. I have found the process fairly painless but longer than it should be. Having inside info, I know that this is because of poor resourcing.
It would have been quicker if I had paid for an SER Ltd engineers certificate. If you don't know what that is, and are thinking about building in Scotland, listen up.
Under the Scottish building standards system, you have the option of submitting Certificates of Design. These can be submitted and when done so, the Local Authority are obliged to accept them at face value and not question the design the certificate covers. They can ask for drawings for inspection purposes, but that's it. Great?
Well hold on.
There are only two schemes at the moment. One for structural engineering, the other for energy. The structural one is well bedded in, the energy one not. In fact it is seldom used as of yet.
The problem comes with the structural side when you get behind the process. What is supposed to happen is that the engineer (lets say a timber framed house) is supposed to check and certify the complete structure. Ground report, foundation design, timber frame, roof trusses, cladding etc. Supposed to check it all. They should, some of them will charge in excess of £3000 for a small house.
Here is the rub, which I have come to realise is actual fact in some cases. The kit producer will do calculations and issue a design certificate for their part....ok they will issue a design certificate. The engineer you pass the design certificate to, will not, in some cases (I'm sure there are loads who will do it correctly) recheck the calculations. They may just think....ah i know them, tick box.

So what is the £3000 plus for? You figure it out.

A contractor told me recently that a client of his was charged £2500 for a simple two storey extension, by an engineer. Another engineer charged another client £500 for a new house.

So, tight as i am, i thought to myself. I can do a ground report, I can get all the calcs from the kit engineer (it's in the contract), and I can pass it to Building Control for them to check, at their expense, as they are obliged to do. It's what building warrant fees are for after all.
But as they are poorly resourced, they have to send it out to the same engineers who you could approach for an SER Ltd certificate.
I suppose it depends on timescales. And being a tightwad.