So, things hae not particularly gone well at chez us. While we wait (and wait) for builders to return with quotes, made more complex by the fact that ‘green’ builders charge much more for their services, so instead we’re considering using non ‘green’ builders and they’re having the fun and games of learning about the products and tech we want to use which presumably is adding to the quote period. But since one of them is going away and promised to quote before he went away… well, we can but hope.
On the house, we’re waiting on two quotes, Timber Routes reckon roughly 20k putting them on the upper-high-side at the moment (although, to be honest, we’re still going on architects quotes). I couldn’t make head-nor-tail of the bloke who came around; first I thought he was completely negative, then he seemed a bit more positive; he kept saying “well, with no drawings it’s hard to give you an idea” which is irritating because we sent him the damn drawing. Yes, it’s a rough sketch plan, but frankly, we’re asking for a box with windows along one side and a Sedum roof. It’s not deeply complex.
Granted we’ve now moved the staircase from the left to the right, for the sake of simplicity and reducing costs, but other than that it’s pretty much as we sent it.
But mostly he spent the time explaining that we need structural drawings to meet building regs; which is true; but as I pointed out, we’d need different drawings if we get it done in high fly ash block to if we get it done in timber. Therefore we need ballpark figures to decide
1) can we afford it at all (probably not)
2) Is the ballpark timber estimate so far different from the ballpark block estimate that we have to pick on price.
And then we can pick, and then we certainly *do* want to get someone to do us proper structural drawings that can go off to building regs or the planners, if required. But until we know what we’re going to make it out of, at least in principle, and indeed whether we’re hopelessly optimistic even considering it (which I suspect we are), then we can’t really go any further.
The process is not, shall we say, filling me with joy at any rate.
Anyhow, so let’s run through the joys of the last week.
Nikki got the G-Wiz going, but we’ve found that the EMS on it is dead, or the loom, or somewhere in between. It isn’t working correctly, anyhow. And since I’m unwilling to spend more money on it, and the wee beastie’s being recalcitrant it’s now up for sale (anyone want a G-Wiz? It works-ish, but does need a new EMS). The batteries appear to be working well, though, which is good.
We got an offer for the Enfield, but with the G-Wiz dead I’m slightly inclined to hang on to the Enfield with the hope of fixing it. That’ll be new: Controller, Batteries, Wiring, Charger and a service for brakes and suspension/transmission components. Assuming the screen’s not delaminated any further it should be okay though.
I am a bit worried about the screen delaminating though. Given the way things have been going so far…
The tuner-string, who’s name escapes me, on the Bush Type 61 has snapped, which is irritating as working out the routing is a pig (thankfully, it’s the same model John has so we can copy it)…
And the Vision Plasma TV which we hoped was fixable, after an enormous struggle we (mostly John) managed to replace the module presumed to have failed (the infamous FMSD102A), sadly the set still does the awesome ‘click’ when you turn it on (as the relay clicks over) but doesn’t appear to do anything else. There is the possibility that the audio works (which the previous owner claimed) but without a remote it’s impossible to tell – and because the screen doesn’t work I can’t discern if the one-for-all remote is set to the right settings…
So that’s a bollocks.
On the plus side; Bull Motif, after some discussion have opted to replace the heated rear window in Rebecca. The only problem being that’s another 4 hours driving! If they’d have done this in the first place then it’d’ve been much easier, but I have to say that being direct and not actually asking for anything has, for once, worked. Having initially said ‘no’, they’ve discussed it with the manufacturer and decided to replace the screen. Which is good :)
