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Weeks 91 to 105 In May we started in the Bathroom. It took us almost a month to first fix plumbing inc wet room former, create stud wall behind sink and toilet, plasterboard, tape and joint and then paint. By mid June David handed the bathroom over to me and I was dry laying the floor tiles out it took me a while as you may remember the plant room floor was the first floor I had ever tiled and I was about to cut larger, heavier, more expensive and diagonal cuts, Oh and it was a wet room. Once I was happy with the tile layout I used Impey water guard system on the walls and the floor. I chose Impey because the former has a sort of backup weep system in that should any water get through the grout on the floor it will drain on top of the membrane and has weep holes in the long trap to escape. I was a bit nervous about unrolling a sticky membrane on my own but I found that ok with the laser for guidelines and just removing a bit of the backing at a time. The sealant that you use in-between the membrane joints on the other hand was the most sticky and messy sealant I have used. Particularly on the floor I could not help getting a bit of tile on the floor/wall joint or the toes of my shoes (when kneeling down) in the sticky sealant days later. I had read on Build Hub about this being sticky but had not comprehended how messy compared to other sealants. On the 24 August I handed the bathroom back over to David to fit the shower, toilet, sink and mirror. Whilst fitting the bathroom David and I also put the plasterboard up in the front bedroom so that once the bathroom was finished I could move straight onto another room with the plasterboard jointing. I have started this and the photos are the end of the first coat so tape not covered yet, screw heads one coat. Could be a while before I carry on with this. David has fitted the kitchen and pantry and the worktop was fitted by Wren. Our water connection has been completed this required a small road closure which had to be completed during school holidays as its the main route the children use who walk to school. The 3 phase electric supply has been moved from the temporary location into the house and we will now start looking for our supplier. We are still temporary connected to the house we live in as the solar on the new build is feeding the old house this will be changed to feed the new build hopefully only a few days before we get the supply connection. Openreach are here at the moment installing our line. The original plan back in 2023 designed and plotted by Openreach was to connect to an electric pole on the border with our neighbours where our electric also comes from. The electric company have recently stopped new connections to their poles, (I don’t know if this is everywhere or just local) so although its been coiled up at the pole a few years from when we made the temporary electric connection, we now had to find a new route. This meant finding our existing connection that was underground (from a different pole) breaking into this and pulling a few meters of cable back from its coiled up position to a junction box with the existing house cable, or digging up the shared drive and laying the cable back to another pole that already had a connection on it. The timing of this meant we had only just dug a trench down the side of the drive for the water, had we known earlier about the change made on new connections to poles we would have obviously laid the cable at the same time as the water. A big thank you to open reach who I think felt sorry for us as had one of my emails been answered in June (when I wanted to check were still putting copper in the ground) we could have laid a cable down the drive, unfortunately new connections sent me round in a few circles but the current solution is ok for now. I guess eventually we will pull a fibre cable in and presumably they will use the copper cables to pull the new fibre though. It’s 2 years from the start of the foundations and we have come a long way and are happy with our progress. Of the most common hiccups that I see on TV programs we are doing OK. We didn’t have a ‘blow out’ on the ICF concrete pour, we haven’t run out of money yet, and we are not expecting a baby (I'm 57) so I think that just leaves health. I am now on a break from the build whilst I recover from surgery but as I had 6 weeks notice we planned my jobs in the build and I now have at least 6 weeks to catch up on a mountain of paper work before I can return to light duties on the build. I have two companies for which I need to complete and submit end of year accounts, the self build VAT to catch up on (see below) and a website for our new holiday rental to set up to take bookings for next year. We are on schedule to move in to the build later this year but Im not sure if I will get back in the build to finish the tape and jointing in our temporary bedroom this year or we move in as it is, but at least we will have a working bathroom and kitchen. The costs to date are: General £4230 Plastering (open Plan area) £4160 Plasterboard and jointing by us £1124 Tiling Plant room floor and bathroom walls and floor £1000 Paint £246 Carpentry £746 Kitchen/pantry £11130 Kitchen appliances £1385 MVHR £3490 Roof insulation and airtightness £4778 Electrical Connection £4969 Electrical installation £2588 Plumbing installation £4257 Water connection £4566 Services trenches £3730 UFH £909 Drainage wastewater, soakaway and guttering £8538 Floor insulation £2669 Screed £2737 Wood Cladding £5694 Render £3090 Solar 7.5kWp £8574 Roof covering £23311 Windows £20869 Shell build excl roof, inc founds £119614 Pre build costs (architect, SE, BC and surveys) £10528 Total Net £260,000 VAT to reclaim so far £9500 Cost per m2 £1900 Big costs still ongoing Plumbing, Ensuite, Tiling in hall and pantry, Wood floors in bedrooms and open plan area. Landscaping and now all the service connections are in we can resurface the drive, as part of the planning condition, for the first 10m near the road.

The key word is “reality”. These drawings are single discipline, unless you have provided a ‘line out’ of your other large bore services such as soil and waste pipework etc, so that is always the crux. Current project, CVC supporting and myself installing (and adapting the design to suit) on the fly: I changed a few bits around, and did my own thing with the manifolds to make it more sympathetic. Actual install when it was WIP: As you can see, I abandoned the square box manifolds as I had other services in some of the posi joist voids which took up too much space; these needed to take priority so needs must. It gets very busy very quickly, but this is a sizeable home (~400m2) and I had to get a lot of ‘stuff’ squeezed in. The MVHR install is considerable, but I have installed it all with ZERO impact on GIA; no boxing in etc, and CVC providing solutions to achieve this wherever I needed to reach out. It would 100% been a complete PITA to have to do this from scratch with no initial design, and I have a long history of such installations and am very capable, so any novice or DIY self-builder should defo reach out for support and CVC will do their best (based on the information you give them ).

This totally sounds like a scene on grand designs where the woman boasts about her expensive kitchen widget and kevin Mc Kevin understands how they are 10 million over budget. Sounds like a way to lock you in to only being able to buy a certain type of hob, whereas a normal one is basically the same size hole. I'd do myself a favour and just keep it simple and not create my future self another nightmare.

Do NOT have the connector and isolator tap behind the appliance. Fit it inside an adjacent cupboard unit so it is accessible, and does not restrict the appliance going fully back into it's recess. Same for waste fitting and electrical socket.

New Tank Fitted over the weekend Grant Tank - 180L 2.7m2 coil surface area couple of errors in pipework configuration that are resulting in increased heat loss but I'll fix them over the next couple of weeks. meantime a quick experiment on boiler efficiency (compared to old tank data) revealed Boiler efficiency Old tank when heating HW - efficiency was 88.97% (condensate volume 157 grams - condensate stopped after 10 mins of a 30 min cycle due to return temp being above 54 deg) New tank when heating HW - efficiency is 93.29% (Condensate volume 332 grams was generating condensate all the way thro the 45 min cycle) Can show workings if required....... Heat Loss Old Hot water tank fully lagged pipework - london loops everywhere (U loops on any hot outlets from tank) best I could get in term of temp decay in the tank was 0.4 deg per hour (most of the time it was 0.5 to 0.6 deg per hour) so heat a tank to 50 deg and 20 hours later it would be down to 40 deg (thats a just bearable shower according to SWMBO) New Tank - no lagging on pipework yet and minimal london loops and the tank losses are down to 0.19 deg per hour - so heat a tank to 50 deg and 24 hours later it's still over 45 deg - I think I need a better hobby!!!! PS Yes I need to fit a tank stat PPS The tank is set up as a vented tank (so no G3 certification is required)

I think you have to change your expectations or nothing will suit. I don't know when I last used a decimal mm in construction. I appreciate it may be a mindset and things like cutlery laid approximately can be an issue. I'd be interested to know what measurement would have been acceptable 1mm? 0.5mm? Measuring tapes aren't even that accurate. pencils get thicker as you draw a line. Saw blades have thicknesses, materials are variable, hands are not machines. There will be many worse discrepancies in your house should you choose to look for them. Nobody else will notice.

It’s what I do / have done, in every single kitchen and bathroom job I’ve ever done. Dulux Diamond for the finish stuff in kitchens for most folk, or appropriate bathroom paint from whoever. 2 coats on brand new plaster in the same day, and customers think I’ve gone the whole 9 yards. Contract stuff is fine to leave on ceilings, but it isn’t very good on walls as it’s quite chalky and doesn’t wipe at all well. I use it sacrificially, for obliteration, and as above for use as a paint-come-filler for the very minor imperfections that you cannot see with the eye (until you pole sand lightly to show any defects). You must leave this to go bone dry before sanding, and I only say to dilute 10% water if spraying; current client is about to go full on Picasso and that’s the instructions for dilution from Wagner. Depends on how fussy you are whether you pole sand ceilings, or not, but my go-to plasterer is on site atm and he is shit hot, so very little needs doing tbh; he’s incredibly fussy in corners etc, and is pretty much the best plasterer I know or have ever met. If the plasterer is of ‘lesser finesse’ then you’ll have it “all to do” downstream and will soon regret not getting someone better. He’s Coventry based, and if anyone needs (wants) an exceptionally good spread then PM me for his contact details. He’s also an excellent external renderer, and does micro-cement and Venetian (etc) plasterwork. He has pics of some of the jobs he’s done and it’ll blow you away! Tres bien It’s all in the finish folks, and you’ll be staring at it in every room for the next couple of decades or more, and if that’s not right then what was the point in getting everything else behind it A1?

Two thoughts: 1. If designing from scratch the additional cost of adding cooling will be minimal in the overall scheme of things so put it in at the start. 2. Why on earth would anyone building a new house in 2026 NOT want to add cooling?

We moved into our new pad just as the first heatwave hit. We are epc A, well insulated, good airtightness, mvhr, ashp that cools the ufh (downstairs). We passed part O (overheating) with flying colours......our experience is that we should have put WAY more thought into our cooling strategy beforehand.....we are in the process of changing track ...(a2a rather than fan coils from ashp), so not sure whereabouts you are but..........

Be very wary as width, length and depth are often confused. It is errors such as these that can lead to screwups. For kitchens I consider length and width to be side-to-side and depth to be front-to-back. Height and thickness can also cause confusion. With some of the induction hobs in a 600 deep worktop there is often only 50mm remaining front and back after the cutout.

I I think these are the type of screws for hangers etc. https://www.tcfixings.co.uk/product/simpson-tx20-csa-connector-screws-50mm-x-35mm/17499?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=17347847741&gbraid=0AAAAADfLLCp7Mywl_VK9JlivX3AWSyoTk&gclid=Cj0KCQjwk5nVBhDiARIsAHNGqadLNGLJMo6ttMmHRe1au_g_ycT8PQaa09USMbr3oTc-UsjKuZZcrDoaAqAKEALw_wcB Normal screws are not suitable, these have a shoulder to fit the hole.

so they aren't brittle in shear. Nails are comparatively ductile

With ours, the stone provider did all this. When they came to template the worktops, as well as making their plywood templates, they took the sink with them, so ensure the hole they cut in the worktop fitted the sink correctly. They also fitted their preferred type of fixings to the worktop to secure the sink (not the ones supplied with it) and on fitting the worktop they secured and sealed the sink to the underside of the worktop. In our case, the hole in the worktop is a few mm smaller than the size of the sink, so there is a very small lip around the sink. I don't find this a problem, and it has the advantage that you don't see any of the sealant used unless you put your head down into the sink. I was very glad it was a supply and fit contract. When two strong men walked in carrying a long heavy granite worktop with a sink hole in the middle and the two halves joined by just the strips front and back of the sink hole, it looked very vunerable to damage at that stage, and I was glad it was them fitting it not me.

I think people would be worried about the unfamiliarity of it because we're all somewhat cavemanish when it comes to our houses. Mind you a few weeks of no sleep in 30deg bedrooms in conventionally heated houses this year might broaden people's imaginations.

Just go with the original SE design. Send the drawings to Keystone or IG for a take-off and quote for the lintels.

I’ve done this umpteen times, with all kinds of services; matters not a single jot what service(s) it is / are . For the split AC on my current clients build I simply used offcuts of 92mm MVHR duct as the sleeves, taped these to the interior AT layer, fed the pipes and cables through, and then the duct will get pumped full of Illbruck FM330 AT foam to complete; the foam seals for AT but is also, in a nutshell, liquid PIR insulation to boot. Condensate cannot be terminated internally I assume? If not, just send that through the same oversized duct. Externally I just use a mastic such as CT1, or similar NON silicone sealant, and bond the duct to the external medivent board, leaving a load of it as excess. Then push the outer membrane into the mastic, smooth with a tool, then go over the lot again until mummified. I’m home today but back on site tomorrow, so I’ll post some pics for you. Very easy to do, so don’t be intimidated by this at all

We’ve gone fancoils upstairs and UFH downstairs. Dual zone setup on Ashp so we can run the fancoils with proper chilled water in hot temperatures. Hoping we will be in in next few months and will report back in summer if it works!!

That's because you are thinking the wrong way. With UFH (cooling) it's not really about cooling the airspace, will come that in a second. The floor surface becomes cooler than your body, its primary cooling method is a radiant heater in reverse. Your body is the heat source and the floor sucks the heat from you. The second thing it does, is it becomes a heat sink for the building fabric, it again sucks the heat away. Biggest thing we noticed when we did UFH cooling was the thermostat on wall only reads a couple of degrees cooler. But you feel way cooler and more importantly the whole building gets back to a nice temperature way quicker. We have recently also added a DIY MVHR cooler (car heater matrix installed into a duct filter housing), not because it's just like Aircon, because it isn't, as airflow rates are way to low, but because it cools the air coming into the building and gets to the high areas in rooms. That air is about 6 degrees cooler than it would otherwise be. So over a few hours has a cooling effect. A chart showing the effect on the air existing the MVHR unit to go into the rooms The yellow line is air temperature as it leaves the MVHR unit. Blue is after the heat exchanger Red is water temperature.

You absolutely should be.

Haha so literally, the architect omitted about the need for plant room space, but when you suggested your ideas for heating he rubbished those plans and asserted the need for something else that requires more plant room space? Smh There's a really awkward circular dependency you need to pick your way around. Ideally you get the eventual installer in before tender pack is created, as heatpump installers are trained (and obliged to provide) design services as part of their industry certificated supply and install package. But obviously you can't tender the work until you have a tender pack. And if you're going for a single principal contractor to run the whole build (this sounds like custom build rather than self build so i very much assume you will), many principal contractors have their own tame subbies they much rather work with and will slap a hefty P&A surcharge on dealing with anyone else you foist on them. (And/or use it to play the finger pointing game when issues occur). My own suggestion would be to specify the thing that's cheapest in professional fees that you could definitely live with if the install price is right, e.g. UFH everywhere, and be very upfront during tendering that you're open to engage in constructive value engineering on anything that is adding undue build cost, and flag that as one such candidates. A good builder will come back with their own suggestions or loop in their preferred installer to participate in that decision. And yes, you'll have full SAP figures by then so it'll be a more substantiated discussion. To your other points, 1. ufh can work fine with thick carpets, so long as all the building exterior is much more thickly insulated, and you run the ashp low and slow (as is best for it anyway) the ufh heat will warm the fabric of the building and make its way to where you need it rather than being lost outside. 2. Even if you're 100% set on not having cooling, I'd still recommend running the numbers to confirm exactly what your overheating risks are, do some stress testing of it based on increasingly warm summers, and also do a little bit of future proofing thinking on what you'd do if retrofitting it proves necessary in the future. Considering window placements and external shuttering to minimise overheating is even more important at the earlier design stage than stressing over active cooling.

The architect telling you rads won't work is essentially the architect telling you they're going to design a shit house that needs more heating than you would like. Did you talk about levels of insulation and airtightness? You're doing mvhr so I'd start there, figure out some heating (and cooling) demands then decide if you need. IME architects will often speak a pile of bumkin about what is and isn't possible in terms of heating. In most cases this is based on having one bad experience and wanting to have themselves future hassle. Passivhaus/ AECB qualified architects are sometimes better, but they can swing the other way and under specify. Also in my experience you can spend many hours and pounds on iterating this at design stage, only for the eventual contractor that gets the job to rip up those plans and do something completely different. Case in point my current project (BMS for a london town house reno), I suggested ashp for heating+cooling, architect said it's not possible in a Victorian terrace, client paid M&E consultant who specified system boiler and multisplit Aircon, that was all thrown out in value engineering and re-tendering (not to mention planning application refusal), eventual contractor is now installing a single Veissman ashp to do everything via a mix of UFH, fan assist and even cast iron rads.

fancoils over UFH for 1st floor / bedrooms all day long. free air con.

Is agree. UFH all the way in 1st floor. We bought towel rads as well, still sitting in their boxes. As we had concrete and screed 1st floors, cost of UFH on 1st floor was minimal, 500m of pipe, pump and manifold. rads would have coated way more and compromised the rooms.

It is a lot more complicated than it first looks. Will you want cooling? Why place radiators against a potentially colder wall Wil any of the bedrooms be used for other purposes i.e. children doing home work in them. Will forced ventillation be fitted, with, or without heat recovery. Will secondary heating be fitted i.e. a wood burner (just don't fit one). How is the house expected to perform during the day and different seasons i.e. solar gain, or lack of it. How simple do you want the system. How controllable do you want the system. Do you want to take advantage of different, and potentially unknown, time of use tariffs.

I suspect there is a stronger correlation between sites with good paperwork and low accident rates.

That's the trouble. Many are generic rubbish along the lines of safety being our priority. Also you need to see their insurance... the whole document. Eg I once had a roofer who was highly competent but on checking, his insurance excluded work above 3m. He knew it said that, and it was cheap or all he could get. but nobody had ever checked. I've met HSE inspectors several times. They asked for the paperwork but actually wanted to see competence and safe practices. They were genuinely interested and helpful... but tough. I'd hate their job... squashed people, missing digits... look and report. Meanwhile being disliked by the workforce. What they hate is to find nobody in control. On the occasions they told us or our contractors off, they were right. The safety people who like paperwork are safety consultants and company safety officers....

You ask all bonafide contractors for their RAMS too, before they step foot on site, and you also do inductions (regardless of how “busy” you are). And make the site a safe and organised place to be. Allow a lot of time clearing up, sweeping (M-class vacuum needs to be on site as you’re not supposed to kick up dust these days), festoon lighting, don’t have sharp or ‘stabby’ things poking out of ground (rebar protruding needs to be bent back over itself or a mushroom cap put on it), no unmarked or open pits or trenches or barrier around them, list goes on but not rocket science. Take risks with your own life all you like, they can’t jail you for that, but when you invite any 3rd party there then the onus is on you to make them ‘not expire’ ahead of their predetermined departure from this life.

🤣 Definitely over thinking this one. That's well within fitting tolerance. Whoever fits it on the day will get it approx there and if you are measuring the the millimetre after it's installed you are going to be disappointed. If it looks good, it is good and you won't be able to see 1.5mm by eye. You need a bit of wiggle room as everything moves with temperature and at different rates. 2mm each end will be sealed with a sealant. Obviously, it's an area when you can give clear instructions/supervision. "I want a minimally visible sealant bead". 2mm is going to be required to fit the slab. Understandable, but think in this case your expectations are a little high and could maybe get you in trouble. Focus on the visual result and not the millimetre. Increased precision increases cost exponentially (or more).

Yes. I used one of those hollow diamond-tipped drills with wax in the internal 'hollow'. I dribbled splashes of water to help form a grinding paste - interesting to watch the water on and in the surrounding stone evaporate after a few moments - cue for another splash of water. I find myself increasingly using AI to solve little problems like this. Annoyingly, I also find that AI (Gemini in this case) just plain wrong. Hence the check-question to BH. Thanks everyone for your help.

Yes. You are overdoing it. And another completely unnecessary new thread, whereas you should have just carried on in the existing one!!!! I have suggested this a number of times, but you seem intent to ignore the polite nudges.

Sounds like an deveoping outbreak of common sense. Ie, adapt. Sadly, we will have no money left to adapt after spending it all trying to stop it.

Screws need to be a lesser tensile iirc.

I ordered a couple of high end easily damaged things for the house and found out that the company had gone back to employing its own delivery driver in there own van, they said it was far cheaper than all the damaged stuff from couriers. I think more companies should be looking at this.

No, the laptop fan is ten times noisier.

Thats what I do.

You have two differing opinions, both by people who are professionally registered and insured (I assume that you have verified their credentials and insurance). My first thought is that the second opinion is working on incomplete information/different assumptions. For example, the first SE specified OSB bracing and the second is specifying windposts. Is the second fully aware of the OSB bracing? Are they planning to require both the windposts and the OSB or is the OSB redundant in their scheme? Fundamentally, you should be able to go to the second SE and say 'I have a design from a registered and properly insured professional (who are standing behind the design) that you are calling inadequate, please explain precisely why you think that? Also if you think the design is inadequate will you be raising this with professional bodies for investigation?' That might be seen as a bit confrontational and I'm sure you could soften that somewhat, but they need to be able to explain to you in detail why they are right and the previous SE is wrong. Another way to potentially resolve this is to either engage a third SE to explain this to you or potentially query the discrepancy with the professional body ("I'm being given conflicting information from two registered professionals - how do I resolve this?"). Having said all this, my feeling in this case is that you have a design from the first SE who has heard the criticism from the second SE and still stands behind their design (ie, they have confirmed they have not made a mistake and are happy for you to proceed with their design as-is). As long as the BCO is happy to proceed with the design I would continue on that path. Edit to add: I wouldn't tell the BCO about the conflicting advice. Just review the first plan with the BCO to confirm they are happy.

There is generally zero room left behind the appliance to have an electric or water connection behind it. Run to the cupboard next to it. Water height - doesn't matter as long as your hose will reach. Electric we plug into a dumb socket in the cupboard and have a ready/easy to reach wall isolation switch on the wall. Waste connection also do in the next cupboard.

He did retrofit a split AC in the upstairs landing area, 100%, as they were getting uncomfortably hot in the ‘warm’ times of the year. He also said, even in a sympathetic micro-climate, that not having space heating (a-la the PH ‘way of things……”) would have led to divorce.

Change one thing at a time but another thing you could try is to disable the legionaire cycle (I don't know the heatpump but I imagine it might be possible it has tried to use the immersion for that, detected some fault and got into a loop where it keeps retrying).

CVC Systems - https://cvcsystems.co.uk I know that some others on here have used them too (I believe positively). I've attached a couple of screenshots of the design document - although my comment above was a little critical, it was a lot better than anything I was likely to get from the PD.

We go through icf wall, so pre installed plastic ducts before the concrete pour. You have the two ducts with an 50mm or so gap between them. No issues with SAP, like the Titon units as they are UK manufacturer and the you can actually talk technical to a person on the same wave length. Buying cheap I had a speed signal issue on one of the motors, parts arrived the next day to fix with instructions. Great service. Being Scotland we do a sap at design and completion. I had all the routes of ducts all designed in during design and I actually bought the 2x MVHR units at the design stage, prior to getting the as designed sap. So no issues.

@Novice what is you normal heat system - ASHP?

I should add that she was a lot more stoic about it than I would have been.

It is to strengthen the brickwork. Try demolishing a wall with brick reinforcement and you will see. A bit like reinforced concrete v not.

I've heard this concept from a lot of people on here and discussed at length with our builder and architect/designer. In the end, went with UFH on both floors as I hate rads and would not have them. In the bathrooms, gone for electric towel rads with a shelly relay wired in. The thing that swung it for me was a question from the builder - would you buy a property that did not have a heating source on the 1st floor where you and your family sleep? You may trust the solution where heat from downstairs keeps the whole house warm but a subsequent buyer will not be able to wrap his head around the concept and simply look at it as something that needs to be fixed/money that needs to be spent to clean up the mess.

My personal experience on the matter of RAMS.. The build is being managed by a main contractor, who runs a very professional site and has taken on all the responsibilities. Keeps all documentation up to date and everything that HSE might need to so - no complaints. Any subbies that come onsite through him are known to him and he makes sure they are properly inducted, checks their insurance, gets a copy of the RAMS etc. All good - but the one thing I've noticed is that his subbies for different things are a little on the dearer side. Not surprising but we get a very smoothly managed end to end process with no headaches. The one or two occasions where I've tried to get alternative quotes or bring my own team to come and do things cheaply - all went well until the point where they were supposed to start on site. Asked for their insurance and to fill out the relevant RAMS forms and they quickly decided that there wasn't enough meat on the bone to warrant the headache, so walked away from the job. To be fair, I had negotiated hard (about 10-15% lower than the quote from the main contractor's subbies) - but in the end, went with the known quantity to avoid the hassle.

Don't believe the maintenance free claim on these. A neighbor has some, yes it doesnt rot and get as dirty as wood. But it does move more and need adjusting every summer after it swells up. All the nice lined up gaps are all over the place.

Conifers at 10m are unlikely to be an issue but your designer will confirm that formally for the bco.

After a few months of delays I'm heading toward finally getting the keys to the new house. In the meantime I've been trying to unpick the house extension history and I think I finally got there. Green is the original cottage. Two (or 3 very small) bedrooms to the left, bathroom & kitchen in the middle, living room at the bottom. I suspect this pre-dates 1950s. Livingroom has raised flooring - probably about 20cm higher than the rest. The ceiling has been raised accordingly and the rafters are visible between the ceiling panels as a feature. I wonder if this was done to retrofit floor insulation at some point... Weird. Wall construction unknown, but from memory, it might be ~10cm thinner than the cavity wall of the top extension, which makes me wonder if it's a solid wall. Will need a closer inspection. Blue extensions were added probably around 1950-60s. Top extension turned the bedroom wing into 3 bedrooms + 1 study. Wheelchair-accessible toilet & wetroom was bolted on to the side of the bedroom wing. Bottom-right blue section is a single-skin flat-roof garage. Right above it is a potential garage conversion into a bedroom/dining room/study. From memory, Flat roof is raised above the garage roof, and walls were quite thick. Will need investigation. Top right pink bit is a single skin utility room. Looks like this is going to be my hobby for the next 10 years. God knows what horrors I'm going to uncover on close inspection.