AliG

One thing to watch is that driven rain runs down the door and easily gets underneath it, in our last house, they didn't put a run on the area under the door so water ran under the door and into the garage. I don't think the door closing into a slot is a good idea as it would fill up with water. Looking at your picture, why not run the flagstone just under the door above the Fibran, putting a slight run on it so the water runs away from the door. Then cut a 20mm wide channel in the screed behind the door (or put an edge there when you screed the floor) this way the flagstone will not touch the screed. As the channel is inside, it wouldn't need covered, you can just drive over it. You might want to cover it to avoid it filling up with dirt or rain when the door is open however. Garage_Threshold1.pdf

Once again Costco have had £100 off if you buy 4 Michelin tyres and once again they wouldn't sell me 4, this time due them not having the right OEM stamp. It is a wonder they sell any tyres they are so awkward. Anyway, Kwik Fit have 10% off 2 or more Michelins and 5% cahback on Quidco which made them exactly the same price as Costco. Plus they will come and fit them at your house for nothing. Great service, very impressed. Was more than 10% cheaper than Blackcircles for the same tyres. Put a new set of Michelin Pilot Sport 4S on my 911. A quick 10 minute drive (is it OK to check my tyres rather than eyesight?) suggests a nice improvement over the P-Zeros which were so hard I felt like I had Fred Flintsone's wheels.

There is a lot you can do as you have a good amount of space. I think the upside down house works well if it allows you to see over the other house. Maybe not ideal from a resale perspective and also if you plan to live in the house into your old age, but maybe a worthwhile compromise. I am not a fan of balconies, we have one which is never used, but if you put one on the east side of the house you could create a covered area between the door and garage. 1. As noted, going through the dressing room to the bedroom is not ideal. However, I put the stairs into the stair creator on pear stairs.co.uk and it suggested that they would only be 2.2m front to back. Therefore if you can increase the depth of the master bedroom to 3.3m (which I think allows better space in front of the bed anyway) then you can get a door straight into the bedroom. I would lose the 400mm from the overly large pantry/utility. 2. I don't have a hearing aid but am very OCD about noise. I made sure I found the quietest kitchen equipment I could. In general a good quality fridge/freezer is almost silent. Dishwashers are pretty quiet and you can put them on at bed time. The thing that actually annoys me the most is the cooling fan on the oven/microwave and it only runs for a few minutes. The noisier washer/dryer would be down stairs. We do have a Vitamin, that is crazy noisy. But I don't think you need that much separate space upstairs. What you might want to do is put the dressing room where the en suite is, then go through it to the en suite where the pantry is and have a much smaller pantry. This would free up space for the WC where the dressing room is. You might even just want to have a hidden area of kitchen in the corner where you can hide the sink rather than a separate space. I am struggling to think what you would do with it when you have the utility room downstairs. 3. I wouldn't really change downstairs if you are happy with the small snug, you could steal a little space from the generous bathroom. The hallway would be dark, you might want to consider having the office open to the hall to let light into it. 4. I would have a good think about the stairs coming up into the lounge area. Maybe you would want to box them in to stop sound travelling downstairs or just want to think about how they look from the main living area. 5. With this layout and the stairs being shorter you might be able to move the stairs 200mm to the left making the lounge a little wider, bedroom 2 a little shorter and bedroom 3 a little longer.

Just the scaling thanks.

Before I comment on the interior layout, I have a question. Are you planning for the upstairs to be larger than the downstairs and overhang both sides of the porch? I can see why you might have an overhang creating shelter at the front door, but I am not sure why you would want an overhang at the other side. You would probably need a pillar at each corner to support the upstairs exterior walls and floor. Also it looks like the garage would be at the opposite side of the house from the front door, that is not the end of the world, but not ideal, are you OK with that?

Thanks, that didn't come up when I was looking

They seem pretty robust and you can replace the tap without touching the rest of it. We had one with no problems for 5 years in our last house. The main problem I think is scale in hard water areas. Including CUBE you are looking at around £2k+VAT. It is very hard to justify the cost on rational grounds versus a kettle, but I know a lot of people with them and they all love them.

Hi, I have got a few names from Google but thought someone may have a recommendation of someone they know/have used. We will probably use MBC for the foundations and frame on my parents' house so will need a soil report for them. The SE organised it for my house, but it was extremely expensive and included the costs of coming up from England and staying overnight which seems a total waste of money. There is no SE involved at the moment so I am trying to see if I can organise it myself for more reasonable price. Thanks

The window looks nice there. Depends a bit on the outlook. You get various Quooker taps. You can have a stand alone one with a separate tap that has normal hot and cold water or you can have a Fusion that has both Quooker water and normal hot and cold water available at the same tap.

I just rinse stuff under the cold water tap, you will still have normal water available, and might well leave it running whilst peeling vegetables. You wouldn't want to use water from a Quooker for this, it only holds 2L of chilled water. You could use it but it would seem pretty wasteful.

Sorry just meant a standard single cupboard 600mm wide. Basically these things just sit on the bottom of the cupboard and you don't move them unless you have to. Sounds like the CUBE needs access to change the CO2 canisters. From the description above including a space in front for the canister it will basically take up one side of a cupboard. The main thing to watch will be where the sink waste goes as it probably won't clear the top of the Quooker. These are details the kitchen company should be aware of. I guess you are thinking of putting the Quooker in the island. Our is on the other sink on the thinking that you would keep tea cups in the wall cupboard above the sink. Also you use it to fill up large pots to boil stuff which is easier at a larger sink. I can see you wanting it on the island for cold water though. My family don't like sparkling water so we just use the tap. We had an American fridge freezer before and the water was no colder than tap water so it seemed pointless. Also visitors loved playing with the ice machine which used to really annoy me as I am on the hook if it breaks. Now we have a freezer where the ice falls into a tray inside and you scoop it out. Nothing for visitors/children to see and want to play with.

We prep stuff in the space between the hob and the sink on the island. Actually looking at the close up there, we had a sink very close to the edge of the island in our last house. That was a much bigger problem than the hob as people constantly splashed water out of it and it ran down the side of the island. I move it in a bit in our current place. We have a 7L Quooker plus a waste disposal in a standard 600mm cupboard and plenty of space left over. From Quooker, it looks like they would both fit in a 600mm cupboard but not leave much room over. The CUBE is big. We have a similar system in the office at work. What I have noticed is that the cupboard gets very warm and it melts stuff left on the worktop above. The Quooker PRO3 tank requires 480mm of height space and is 150mm in diameter. The tank is a cylinder. The Quooker PRO7 and Combi 2.2 tanks require 550mm of height space and are 200mm in diameter. They are both cylinders. The CUBE system requires a 430mm in height, 230mm in width, 440mm in depth. 65mm extra space either on front or side is needed for the CO2 cylinders. The tank is square. If you have specified a Flex tap please note we require at least 500mm deep x 200mm wide space below the tap position under the worktop in the cupboard. This is required to allow the weight that operates the Flex hose to move freely up and down. If it becomes restricted it will not operate as intended. We have one stainless steel sink and a white Silestone sink in the island to match the worktop. When it gets replaced they will both be stainless steel as the Silestone sink is just a pain to keep clean. Do you really want such a large sink? I actually measured a kitchen shelf and made sure the single bowl was big enough to put a shelf or pan in the bottom to clean, but other than that we have two dishwashers which my wife says was one of the best ideas that I have ever had.

Yeah. That looks like a dark winter day while we were building. As you say fine with the lights. The hob is around 100mm from the edge which is plenty. I have seen them closer which would be too much. Also it has one of those long areas on the right hand side which hardly ever gets used. TBH who ever actually uses all 5 positions on a big hob. I actually almost changed to a square one but the rectangular one looks better on the island. I wasn’t really commenting on positions of hob etc as I felt you were just getting the building right and there will probably be a kitchen plan later. I do agree with some of the comments though. Our fridge is nearest the table so you can get drinks and condiments. The freezer is at the other side. When you think about it they are neatly always together yet it would be pretty rare you would move stuff between them so they do to have to be next to each other. Also the fridge and the ovens are opposite the spaces at the top and bottom of the island so there is nothing behind you

Forgot. Happy birthday. Now I am in I wish there was a window above the mid height cabinets to light the kitchen

It is a combination of things. All the lights are on there and that kitchen has lots of very reflective surfaces whereas you have shown yours with a dark floor and darker matt surfaces. Sitting at your table you will be in the light. That’s how ours is.