User Profile

[jamesbrown]

Getting rich, but it's going more slowly than anticipated, waiting for Task Orders etc. Might go and build something useless in the garage

[jamesbrown]

I mean, you've already had a straightforward suggestion above. Open a (free) bank account with Mettle or Natwest, then get your "free" account with FreeAgent. You can then work with your chosen accountant....

[jamesbrown]

Sounds like a good bet. If I were going to use an accountant again, it would definitely be a small outfit like the above or Clare/Craig who were happy to work from within FA. What you don't want (for all sorts of reasons) is a big conveyor belt outfit that uses their own portal....

[jamesbrown]

You will only get FA for free through a Natwest Group account. I probably wouldn't stick with InTouch - IMHO Brookson are a likely target for future MSC compliance activity, depending on what happens with CK and Boox. You could try Clarity Taxation Limited, which is run by Clare and Craig - two of the...

[jamesbrown]

This. And if it is too difficult, consider using a brolly. Personally, I have always found it a bit weird when people connect the opening of a company to the availability of a contract that affords a particular tax treatment. It doesn't really stack up, although I appreciate there's nothing strictly...

[jamesbrown]

Claude is definitely usable and very useful, not least because it has a VM/sandbox where it can run code and hence perform unit/integration test, so it doesn't delivers code that is broken - might not deliver what you intended, which may be because the prompts were poor/ambiguous or because it made...

[jamesbrown]

In a way, distemper paint is kind of like a disease. At least, if you want to skim or get anything to adhere to it ...

[jamesbrown]

Bless, just can't seem to control your temper, can you? ...

[jamesbrown]

That probably was a bit snarky, but skb can take it . There are some quality tradies out there, but there many more that aren't and becoming good at DIY opens your eyes to how many aren't - especially for the trades that are more technical and less visual. There were always crap tradies, but...

[jamesbrown]

It's possible you've been lucky. It's also possible that you don't know what a quality job looks like. Most people don't, which is why your average tradie gets away with it. The more you educate yourself through DIY, the more you realise how rarely the basic building regs are followed, including with...

[jamesbrown]

See the first rule of painting up ladders: 1) don't paint up ladders.

Get a tower....

[jamesbrown]

Also, most "competent persons" are unbelievably fecking incompetent and just want to get in and get paid. Online reviews are a fairy story. I've seen a lot of work by DIYers and pros and the common thread among the quality jobs is getting someone who actually cares what they're doing. Experience...

[jamesbrown]

No respectable contractor is earning as little as £750/day ...

[jamesbrown]

One reason to stay away from non-trivial plumbing and electrical work and to be careful about any work that is in a designated high risk area or otherwise covered by building regs (e.g., work around a fireplace/chimney, kitchen, bathroom) is that you will struggle to claim on insurance if something...

[jamesbrown]

Tbh, you can't rely on either of them. Both produce false negatives. They are fine as a sense check and for tracking/tracing (e.g., troubleshooting zone valves or other situations where you've got a bunch of switched lives), but you shouldn't rely on them prior to working on electrical systems. For...

[jamesbrown]

Mostly old paint, like lead. Also some wallpapers. Yes, also some old wood preservatives and adhesives. All from earlier in the 19th century, though, unlike lead and asbestos, which were widely used until much later into the 20th century....

[jamesbrown]

For hand tools, a lot of the best tools (for the money) are old tools, ironically, which you can often pick up from ebay or similar. The tulipification of stuff, in general, is real. For example, old Stanley block planes are infinitely better than the equivalent crap they produce today and will last...

[jamesbrown]

Choose a tool ecosystem because, unfortunately, the batteries are generally not interchangeable. Tbh, the top brands are not that different from each other. Specific brands do excel in specific tools, but Makita, Milwaukee and DeWalt all offer a full spectrum with solid build quality.

Carpenters...

[jamesbrown]

I think we can safely ignore anything the Tories say about IR35 and, indeed, more generally.