Dreadnaught

Thanks. Makes eminent sense. As a bungalow, I suppose only bullet three is less relevant for me.

Ah, I see what you mean now. Makes sense.

Good point. That is a (gated) path there between my plot and the neighbour. The path runs behind the neighbours gardens. Easy access.

Pleasing to hear. Thank you. Good point. The snug however could conceivably be contained by walls to make an office/library. What do you think of that idea? Very interesting idea. I would like to explore this at timber-frame-design time. Note that the area above the bathroom area is constrained by its skylight. Good point. Will do that. Fair challenge. Aesthetically better having them in a cluster? Or is that overridden by reduced cost/less frame of having fewer? Unsure. Oh, interesting thought. I don't know how planners view number-of-bedrooms for a site like this. Is more always better? I imagined two was plenty for the site. Yes sure. It was like drawing teeth to negotiate even the solar pipes. That neighbour, the seller, is (understandably) concerned by unsightly light pollution on that side. It is close to his house. Notorious for? Unfortunately for those who are fans of that tree (and there are many) its quite sick. The tree specialist says it has bleeding canker and honey fungus. I (a non expert) suspect it wont last more than 10 years. But it is in a conservation zone and has an army of fans. Its located just off my property in the unadopted road (no known owner). Haha, sounds about right. The location is plumb, even if the plot is a squeeze. It is just 10 mins by foot to the centre of town, opposite (across a river) from an ancient meadow (which has the town's annual fireworks display), within 200 yards of a Michelin-starred restaurant, etc. Thanks for your comments. I'd welcome any more.

You hit a bulls eye on the main compromises. Natural light. The bathroom has a skylight. We could not fit one in the roof in the corner so moved the utility room there. That areas is a bit of a compromise. It's a flexible space. We could even enclose it in walls to make an office. Possibly yes. My architect thinks four in a grid looks better. I am open. Privacy yes. View: not really, just sky. It exists because of a window in the building to the left which as a high-level (above head height) window there (just visible marked on the plan). By pushing our wall back it prevents even the impression of obstruction of that window but in doing so creates the small sheltered area, which is a flexible space with could be used for outside seating or even just sheltered storage. That's the idea. Thanks for your comments. If you have more, please don't hold back.

This is what has gone to planning for approval. I would welcome people's opinions, observations and suggestions for floor plan tweaks. The aim was to design a floor plan with an eye on saleability The constraints are that we are forbidden to overlook to east or north. Even roof windows are not allowed on the east but are allowed on the north. We are limited in height. And we cannot remove any trees.

It is an interesting question. It seems surprising pricey to me. Which is unfortunate as, as form of insulation, it has many advantages. One brand, possibly the main one in the UK, is WarmCel. I believe it is manufactured in the Czech Republic or Hungary and imported. And I believe there is only one importer in the UK, PYC in Wales. I would be interested if anyone knows whether what I have said is correct and about competing products and prices. I also wonder how much go the cost goes to the pump operator, and the requirement for the pump equipment and operator is the reason for its priciness, at least as I perceive it. If it were cheaper, I think it would be a good product for pumping into internal walls for sound proofing (as well as external ones). Just my tuppence worth.

Thanks @lizzie. Yes I am. Very helpful. The subject I am puzzling over is how to run my build. Who to help me by providing timely local advice, a double check on on-site quality, and local contacts. This should be the subject of a new topic I think.

Those of us with IT project management experience, and I know there are a quite a few here, know that open communication and trust is key. I visited a build in Buckinghamshire where the owner was a seasoned old fashioned IT project manager (Prince2 for those who know about such things). After watching progress by his team for a few weeks with growing horror he intervened to set up a weekly all hands face-to-face meeting for coordination and communication.

Personally I’m keen to try Google Sheets for this. It’s collaboration features are strong. But it’s key of course that whomever else is involved is willing to play along.

And sound proofing too I suspect, if that's an issue.

Interesting. I don't think even that would fit on my site.

(Sorry for going of topic slightly off topic) Having been involved in business planning, I tend to agree. Mere numbers within a spreadsheet sadly do not advertise their reliability. They wear a disguise: they don't shout "I am nothing but a misleading guess". Having said that, I assume OP is referring to a project schedule (the GANTT-chart-like thing) showing the sequence of events, not a budget. That is something I am keen to have my architect prepare for my project soon (she is experienced in running builds, not only drawing plans) and, as a beginner, will leant a lot from seeing it. I would imagine that such a schedule, when combined with a budget full of guesses and the various detailed plans, make up the key "bible" of documents which form the core set that are referred to throughout the build. Am I right about the core set?

Just to be clear, its not them suggesting the alternative wall. Its my architect and I.

Good point. Will look out for that. Not specifically no. Not yet.

I have a mere single ticket price for the whole shebang, no breakdown. They do. I pay for scaffolding but they provide a specification. As always @Russell griffiths, plenty of food for though there …

I know you know about such matters. That photo is before the crown lift but, as I am sure you know, a crown lift really only takes off the twigs (lots and lots of them) but not any main limb. There is one limb that encroaches across the gate which effectively provides a height restriction (and couldn't be removed). Its worth noting that you cannot actually see the gate in the photo. Its hidden from view on the left beyond the small silver car.

I have and its just as spectacular in real life as it looks in the photos. Still envious! Yes, I wouldn't be surprised if that will prove to be a solution. I am quite keen to give the challenge to another company to handle, another attraction of using a company like MBC. I don't but I did witness @vivienz panels going up and the crane was enormous. But I am also led to believe that they can manufacture smaller panels if they must. I will be quite pleased to lay the entire challenge at their feet to solve.

Thanks for the photos @JSHarris. Who's MJ? Shouldn't it be JSH?

Yes indeed. They had cross my mind too. Will be quite a challenge. I imagine my frame will require the smallest of everything: the smallest skip, smallest concrete wagon and pump, the smallest crane, the smallest forklift or telehandler. Hence I am proposing to use a smaller frame dimension too. At least that's my current thinking. The neighbours are all quite lovely (they might be reading this)! Actually, it is generally quite neighbourly, with just a few "exceptions". The boathouse opposite my plot is being rebuilt at present and I have a good relationship with them. I have offered them the use of my plot during their build and they have indicated they will extend help to me when it is my turn. A challenge is that the access road gets plenty of use, by the small silver car shown above, by boatclubs with boat trailers, and by hordes of students heading to the river to row at the crack-of-dawn. Beneath all that lie my utilities, all of them.

Thanks @JSHarris. What a sight! And then I imagine you had a big crane for the offload, like @vivienz had? I suspect neither is a possibility on my site, which is why in their quote to me MBC allowed two entire extra days for the necessary manhandling.

Regarding access, here's a view down the access road towards my plot. The gate to my plot is under that (slightly brown) chestnut tree at the end past the small silver car. Hopefully in the event I can convince the various neighbours to temporarily move their vehicles on frame day. As you can see, driving a digger around may be challenging.

Good point. Thanks. My architect mentioned this as an advantage too. I forgot to mention it. Oh, interesting. Why so when the U-values are comparable? Was it decrement delay and better sound insulation? Did you have a direct comparator to draw the comparison I wonder?

Thanks. Yes, Peter. I have a quote from them (and visited two of their builds). I must say I rather like Touchwood's system. And they would also offer me the advantage that their frame team are relatively local (Hertfordshire I believe) so would avoid the expense of local accommodation. Disadvantages are that, as far as I know, they only offer a full Passive-House specification product, which is inevitably more expensive than either MBC's passive option, let alone the 140mm-open-stud MBC option that I am now considering. And they don't offer a in-house foundation solution (although they do seem to recommend AFT for foundations).

Building on your comment further, @Russell griffiths, I think I am lucky to have chosen a good architect. She is a certified passive-house designer and is experienced with designing timber frames (she has, at various times, even been retained by frame companies to do their designs). And I feel I have excellent working relationship with her. The only disadvantage in choosing her is that she is not at all local, she lives many hours away from my site. And she not overly keen on wielding spreadsheets for some of the more detailed building physics work. My choice of architect has presented me with a puzzle to solve about how I should structure my build team. I could do with somebody local (to Cambridgeshire) to compensate for my total inexperience, to have a rolodex of local contractors (and mental list of ones to avoid), to attend weekly onsite meetings and advise on quality, sequencing, and resolving problems. It would seem to be that that person would be an experienced old hand but ideally someone who appreciated the importance of airtightness, etc. Is this a good idea? It did cross my mind that I could all but rely on BuildHub (BH) to act as this party. BH has been hugely valuable to me thus far. But am I being unrealistic. I would welcome others views on this. As some others have said (was it @recoveringacademic?) I am huge fan of building empowered teams filled with trust, but given me short (and no doubt unrepresentative) experience thus far in self building that does not seem to be usual culture. Or am I wrong? Its a hugely steep learning curve (which I am secretly rather enjoying).