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Well, at last we have finished our renovation and have had an offer that we have accepted. It took longer to get here than we ever thought, over 17months, but I think it was worth it. After Christmas and our little party, we had the estate agent in who had already sold one of the neighbours houses and before we knew it, the photographer was there and the next day it was online! we still had a few snags to sort out but we soon had those done, apart from the wooden mantle for the lounge fireplace, which we hadn't found yet. After a couple of weeks, we had a good offer and so we are now in the hands of the solicitors. I am hopeful to have it all completed by end of April. Our buyer was in the middle of selling her place to a first time buyer so I am keeping my fingers crossed that there are not too many problems. We did say we didn't want a chain, prefering a FTB or cash buyer. So here are a few of the photographs of our amazing house, together with the origonal shots, if I have them. The dining room. The lounge. Our lovely bathroom - Am very pleased with this The back bedroom. I am so proud of what we have acheived. it was our first big renovation and we had to take on many challenges that we had not done before. But apart from the builder (who did the structural work on the side gable wall and removed the wall between the kitchen and dining room) and the plasterers, we did the lot ourselves! Poor OH has still not recovered, although his knees are much better now that he is no longer crawling round the floor doing plumbing/electrics/boarding etc. Whenever I mention another nice place I have seen on Rightmove that needs renovating, he turns a strange colour of pale and goes to lie down. I think I shall have to wait for a little while before looking too seriously. I hope you have enjoyed sharing this experience/blog with us and maybe have learnt some things on the way; I know I certainly have. I shall be sad to see the house go - it has always felt a friendly /warm house, even in the middle of winter. But onwards and upwards! Maybe we will eventually find a plot and can build our own house or, if not, a renovation for us rather than for profit. And whatever, I shall make sure there is a blog on Buildhub! Cheers, The Mitchells.

We have converted the old inspection pit in the garage to a cellar - this was part of the original garage and when we took the old slab up we cast a new lid on it and insulated over the top. Edge must be near 280mm thick of concrete and underground is a steady 9c permanently.... just need to sort the door, the steps, the floor, the rack .......

It’s not to everyone’s taste, but I’d be tempted to go open plan. Something like this, perhaps?

Hecateh, that's the very picture that started this nut job idea rolling.... wish I never seen it now. I am impressed with that wine rack plus site I have seen similar sites from America not here. Will need to study further.

If possible (hard to know without seeing a site plan) I would look at putting windows in the south facing wall of the living area. Even at this stage I would be adding storage for coats, hoover, ironing board etc and built in wardrobes. ensure the window(s) in the stairwell will bring light into the first/second floor halls

Easy to think the worst, nothing you can do at the minute so best chill until you get there.

@newhome I wonder if it might be a good idea if possible to let this dog lie sleeping until you have a normal insurance policy with a legal cover option? Sod's Law says it isn't possible. Are there possible options through contacting the local council re: Nuisance etc. ? F

Mention of second floor? So, ground, first and second? Do fire regs require some sort of protection of the stairs area/ escape route? Maybe precludes the full open plan option.

I am planning a small project of a wine rack under the stair. Local cabinet maker has came back at a hefty price so was planning a diy attempt in American oak. So i need some new toys.... Router:- was looking at the 2000w dewalt one. Plus table prob diy. 2nd fix Nail gun. Dewalt dcn660 (already many batteries) will have to buy this at some point anyway. Table saw. I haven't got a clue where to start. Doesn't need to be mobile I like options for guide rails etc. Came to conclusion buy new for 1st 2 tools in list as they hold value pretty well. Any options or opinions on all 3 tools. greatly welcome. Something like this.

Don't worry - I am just throwing some ideas about :-). I suffer from washer vibration noises during the spin cycle even though it is in the utility behind a door. Not intending to sound abrupt. Apologies if so. I always feel that it is better to stick my neck out whilst things are still on paper (said the giraffe). We comment and In the end you are best placed to choose the best ideas for you.

So you can enter via the gate, and drive STRAIGHT ON into the white bit? That is how I would arrange it, so you have easy and clear access to your own land. I might even go as far as fencing off the orange bit, effectively not using it, just leaving it as their access. Then as long as they don't block your access to the white bit I don't see a problem.

Sorry .. and the overall dimensions. I am thinking that it looks quite conventional and there may be quite a lot of potential for space saving and simplification. Three thoughts. 1 Your plumbing is very spread out. Put them more of less above each other? 2 That 1st floor bathroom could become 2 ensuites were you so inclined. 3 You can gain a square meter as @ProDave says, by moving the loo partly under the stair run. Dave said move it whereas I wonder about reversing the staircase which would give you either a squared off living area, or a closet by the front door which could be a coat store, or could take a washing machine and dishwasher in tandem to get them out of the kitchen which would be better noise and space wise. Ferdinand

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Have you found the clause in your documents specifying the noitce period? Something like that is usually very clear. If you have correspondence from your original lawyers setting this out then it should be easy to find. Do you have legal expenses as part of your home insurance? If so might be worth a call to see if they will take up your case in defending the access notice point, dont think they would get involved in negligence cases in relation to your previous lawyers though. Litigation of any sort is very costly. If it is a negligence claim against your former solicitor then there should still be professional indemnity insurance of some form in place, if your former solicitor was an employee or partner then the continuing firm would be the responsible party or otherwise either what is termed ‘run off cover’ if they just simply closed down or via the insurance of any successor practice. A call to the helpline of the Scottish Law Society to explain your situation may prove helpful in pointing you in the right direction to. begin your action.

I would go half way house, not open plan but join the kitchen and corridor together so whole of front is kitchen and whole of rear is living room. Try and move the stairs forwards and WC under the stairs.

Can we see the upstairs plan?

Yeah, fenland, so an underlying layer of peat. Engineered foundations are pretty much par for the course round here. I've just checked the paperwork - my mistake, 24 piles not 26; in round figures, £9.5k for the piling and £13.5k for 111 linear metres of ring beam ...and this is what it looked like!

How many times will you enter the house and head straight to the kitchen? Surely mostly you'd head for the living room, and then the kitchen is conveniently located off there. I get the point of the double doors is to open the space up (you could also consider losing the actual doors as I imagine they'll be open much of the time if you want an open space thus encroaching into the living space?) It wouldn't be an issue having 2 lots of doors into the kitchen if you had lots of space but as it's at a premium I would look to lose one set. With the current trend of having more open spaces I would lose the single door. Can't advise re the hall I'm afraid as no expert on the design of stairs etc .

Maybe do away with most of the internal walls and go open plan...delineate by finishes and lighting

I'm definitely no expert lol but do you need to have 2 doors into the kitchen? If you lost the single door it would give you more usable space in there.

The very reason I chose charcoal coloured grout ?

I have pale cream grout too (big mistake with dogs). When I asked the tile shop about the best way to clean it they sold me this which was ace. The dirt just lifted out with no effort and wiped clean. I have tried other things but this has been the easiest so far. Last time however I didn't have any and resorted to thin bleach and a small brush. Was a lot more labour intensive but it did do the trick. I resealed the grout afterwards but it's an uphill battle in truth. I'm sure that the bleach affects the colour but as my grout was so light there didn't seem to be any difference. Mine are ceramic so do check the compatibility of anything you use.

One woman = any woman??? (I know we are rare on here but ... )

Try this lots of different ideas https://www.pinterest.co.uk/search/pins/?rs=ac&len=2&q=wine rack&eq=wine rack&etslf=8372&term_meta[]=wine|autocomplete|undefined&term_meta[]=rack|autocomplete|undefined This is particularly fab

New build was £108.00 using http://www.sapeasy.co.uk/#newbuild

The As Built SAP has to be uploaded by an Accredited person, and my experience was that they wouldn't take someone elses As Designed SAP as a starting point to reduce the fee. From memory I paid £175 for the As Designed and then a further £35 for the update to As Built and the upload to register it.

Well, since you ask, here goes, Here's what I have already written....Using the site search feature you come up with this list That'll make for some quiet fire-side reading If you don't want the detail; The good: it's relatively cheap, but not the cheapest. It lends itself to self-build. Properly organised (I haven't been) it's quick. Once cured, the shell is very strong indeed. The roof has still to be fitted; wind and weather are irrelevant. It's easy to adapt it - to tweak it to the shape you need. The Bad: in the sector, as yet there is limited experience of the system. Need more blocks? Go to Wales and get them. You can't pop down the BM to get some more. DURISOL dust is 'king horrible. Get just one rouge labourer (who mistreats the blocks) and he can cost you many thousands of pounds. Luckily I used a time-lapse camera and have evidence of what amounts to gross misconduct on the part of one man. The original build company has not been paid for it's poor workmanship, and Durisol sorted the mess out for £1500 less than the original builder charged. The system is fine. In the hands of a company (if that's the route for your build) that knows what to do, has a good deal of experience using it, then you will have a fast, strong build. If you want to DIY, that's fine too. Almost all the significant problems I have had (see list above) have been of my own making; unjustifiable confidence in local un-skilled labour failure to identify shortcomings and then to demand proper standards of building failure to project manage well: The support I have had from Durisol has been faultless. They were on site instantly when we add big problems. They were flexible about price when we needed another £1500 worth of blocks (see Nightmare in the list above) If there were to be a next house (there won't be), I would use Durisol again. But I would do it all myself. Every last block. It's about attention to detail. And I now know exactly which details to look for.

I paid £140 for as built SAP and showed them my PHPP output for the design.

HG range has always been my choice. HG

@Ian D i looked at beattie, signed up to go to their training session. got a quote from them to design a stick build that i would then build and canceled the training. i could buy a kit for the price of the design went along the route of an i beam construction reckoned in the end that it would be easier than twin stud construction

I paid £200 and a further 50 to make a few changes

We had quote from Beattie. Spent a lot of time with them saw various projects of theirs. Lovely people, really liked their product but what made the decision for us (and it was the only reason) was that the company we went with offered a slab and frame package and Beattie didnt. We were advised it was a safer and easier route to have frame and slab from same provider and so that made the decision. No experience of Beattle beyond that but I really liked them and regretted we had to say no.

Just to say that I've taken your advice Nick and started my own thread in the barn conversion forum:

We're always happy to read, and then you'll struggle with the deluge of input!

Welcome! Sounds intriguing from what little we know (yet ) Is there any specific element in all this for which you think some creative input might still be useful? If so, post away in the relevant forum. There are some awfully smart and creative people on this forum. Hopefully someone might spark some ideas that haven't come to you yet.

Welcome to THE forum, sound like an interesting project with loads of challenges, you can look forward to support and advice. I guess we would need slightly more detail to help us help you but one thing is for sure the self build game is not for everyone. A journey of 1000 miles starts with the first step - you will go through a lot of ups and downs but in the end what does not kill you makes you stronger and by self building you get what you want, where (or close to) you want but not always at the price you want or when you want. Just have a reality check every so often and keep your head down.

I trust it isn't that Island in Winchester with the water mill on it :-). Welcome. Just read a lot and ask a lot of Qs.

Tell the pair of chubsters they'd best lose a few pounds if they want a crap round your place!

Remember your broker is working for *you*, so will know that different lenders will want different amounts of information. There should be no worries about being completely candid with the broker.

Yes around 6.5 - 7% - you can usually afford more than you think because the interest is only a proportion of the payment (assuming you have a repayment mortgage.)

Correct .. it is what the bank will simulate.

Could you clarify what you mean by "Current stresses are set about 7%"? Do you mean could I still afford my mortgage if interest rates went to 7%? Probably not! ?

No they will be looking at the big stuff and will use your credit file to check things like outstanding credit card balances and the like. Essentially they will look and see if you can afford it even when the mortgage rate rises - I think current stresses are set at about 7% so provided they think you can afford the monthly repayments at that rate, with everything else squeezed they will go for it. If they don't they may come back to you and ask how you would go about affording it. Given what @ragg987 has said I may have misconstrued your post!

My mortgage company did not ask for too much detail. If memory serves right I submitted a simple spreadsheet which they asked me to summarise by key phases - e.g. cost to wall plate, etc.

You will need to take account of fire regulations in Part B.

On a much smaller scale, we were assured by all the utility companies that there was nothing at all under the lane in front of our house, in writing, as a part of the mandatory checking your have to do before digging across a highway. The water company even came out on site, twice, to check, when we were arguing the toss with them about a connection and assured me there was no pipe under the lane at all, and that the nearest pipe on our side of the stream was 140m away. We needed to dig across the lane to put a drain in, and what did our digger chap find running down the middle of the road? A water pipe. A bit of checking showed it was the supply to the cottage over the road, and ran to a nearly-new stopcock that the same water company that said there was no pipe in the road had installed a couple of years earlier. When they were then questioned about it, they said we couldn't connect to it as it wasn't a water main, but a communication pipe. I asked how they knew this, when they didn't even know the pipe was there, and, after a bit of digging around their local engineer told me that they had deliberately decided to call it that to try and extract £24k from me to run a new pipe up the road. The existing cast iron pipe had been laid back in 1934 and needed urgent replacement, and they were trying to get us to pay for it............. Bear in mind that we found this unknown water pipe during construction, and I'd spent several months double checking the location of everything before we bought the plot, even getting a survey done with a CAT to locate another unknown major power cable across the plot and factor in getting that moved as a part fo the work. There is no such thing as too much checking of details before purchase, and really no substitute for carefully walking all over the plot, ideally with a surveying tape, and noting down where there are any indications at all of drains, cables, pipes etc. Often there will be indications on the site that don't match the plans, and it's also very common for there to be errors in the actual position of boundaries, relative to where they appear on plans. I'd go so far as to say that the majority of site plans that haven't been derived from a proper survey will be in error, often by several metres.

The pipeline maps from the linked post. What the official drawing on the Approved Plans said: Where it actually turned out to be: Caveat Aedifex :-) They basically lost 8-12 ft off one side of a tight plot. (That's me done on this topic ... things to do).

I agree with Ferdinand, 7 days after planning permission is granted is way too short. The only way you could complete within seven days is if you have cash and have done all your due diligence beforehand. edit . Just a thought, you need an exclusivity clause, otherwise what's to stop the seller selling to someone else, after all the plot would be worth more to someone else after planning permission is in place.

I know Jason's choice was limited by transport costs, but seeing that makes me glad I opted for the Conder. I am sure the Biopure will be fine in operation but disadvantages over the Conder as I see it: No legs, so you have to hold the Biopure upright while back filling the hole. (conder has legs) I don't see any lifting eyes to lift it and hold it (Conder has 4 lifting eyes) It looks like you have to lift the pump unit out to empty the tank (Conder has separate access point for emptying)