Jonathan: In the post today was a ‘Notice of Acceptance of Completion Certificate under Section 18 of the Building (Scotland) Act 2003’.  In short, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (the council for the islands) agree that Carrick is now finished. All the paperwork I submitted to cover the changes to wiring and heating, finalisation of structural calculations, my own ‘as-built’ SAP calculations and Energy Performance Certificate have been approved.  In reality there is still miscellaneous bits of finishing work to do, indoors and out, but nothing major and all can be done a bit at a time. What a weight off my shoulders! – a weight I’ve been carrying it since April 2009 – almost two years – since we opened for business. And by the way, even after correcting the architect’s ridiculously optimistic and unachievable assumptions on airtightness (which the building control officer refused to accept), my own SAP calculations resulted in improving the energy performance rating from a low D to a mid-C, and the carbon footprint from low C to high C. There were so many other minor errors in the architects inputs: so much for the professional expertise!