AliG

Took some pictures I love that there are no hinges or latch plates visible when the door is closed

I have these Eurospec Ceam hinges. You can get them for around £17 each ex VAT here, a little more if you need fire proof or heavier duty ones. These were by far the best value I could find. https://www.doorhandlecompany.co.uk/concealed_hinges/ These are the magnetic latches that I have. https://www.doorhandlecompany.co.uk/excel-hardware-precision-bolt-through-magnetic-tubular-latch-18364/

I don't have flush handles on room doors, I have them on a couple of sliding wardrobe doors and they don't feel nice compared to a normal handle. However, for the minimalist look I do have magnetic catches and concealed door hinges. So I don't have any visible furniture other than a handle when a door is closed, I think it looks much better. It adds around £50 a door in cost.

We have metric 826x2040 pretty much everywhere. I liked that the metric doors are 2 inches taller without gong to the expense of taller bespoke doors. The occasional 726 or 926 where design dictates. Metric FD30s were hard to find, FD30 glass doors even harder. We have veneered walnut doors, an astonishing number of them were either damaged on delivery or by the joiners putting them up. Thus although the builder wanted to hang them himself it may have been a false economy for him. One issue for us is we have an enormous number of non standard wall thicknesses, so it was easier to build the frames on site.

I reckon that the Mila or Hoppe high security handles would help as they cover most of the lock but not the keyhole. They also increase security and the Mila ones are a much nicer feeling heavier handle. I replaced the handles in our last house with these after someone snapped a handle then the cylinder to try and break in. https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/390827040981?chn=ps&var=660234689367 But if it is mainly the cylinder they won't fix that. For that you could drill a small hole hole into the handle and make a swing plate like you get on a covered escutcheon. Those slim handles are quite difficult to replace with different handles and locks due to the position the screws. I guess a smart lock could cover the inside whilst not being easy to open if the glass is broken.

Is the draught coming through the cylinder or around it due to the normal massive hole that people seem to cut and then cover with the escutcheon? I found this keyhole draught excluder which may fit depending on the size of your escutcheons. https://www.handles4doors.co.uk/handles4doors-keyhole-draught-excluder-aluminium.html You could also try a security escutcheon which covers most of the lock, or a security handle if the lock is built into the handle. https://www.morehandles.co.uk/escutcheon-euro-profile-armoured-british-standard.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMItL6_-aD94AIVzL_tCh2Y5g8-EAQYBCABEgIFxfD_BwE If the draught actually comes through the cylinder then a thumb turn or leaving the key in would presumably help.

Yes, council wasting your time and money. Make sure that the ecologist doesn't write a report which requires them doing even more work and getting paid more. What a great job where you get to generate your own extra business.

I think the issue they will be having is that a tilt and turn window that shape will be able to open but it won't be able to flip over all the way as it would hit the frame. Some of these windows also have very long hinges at the sides that might be an issue. I don't see why it cannot be done as a casement window though. But I wouldn't be telling a window company how to make a window, if they don't know how to make it already I would be concerned. How high is that window off the floor, it looks like it might be too high to be a fire escape window? Why not make one of the lower windows the fire escape window. It would I think just need a restrictor. This would solve the problem, make the higher window fixed.

The builder of my last house gave me a discount to complete on the end of their financial year, they paid my bridging loan until the original expected completion date and turfed the back garden for free. They used to regularly offer massive discounts on unsold finished houses in the last month of their year (June). I am still disappointed that my parents didn't buy a place reduced from £470k to £400k. They said it was too big, I said at that price just close some of the doors and pretend it's smaller. I never could understand how they got themselves into this position, if they simply stopped for a year it would even out. It seemed to cost them a fortune. I should have asked the CFO, he used to live next to us. TBF they did almost go bankrupt in the recession, when I looked at their accounts they owned over 10 years worth of plots, so maybe it was all about showing the best possible balance sheet and cashflow position on the last day of the year and they didn't care about the effect on profit margins. I think we only had 200 snagging items! They were pretty good at fixing them and none were too major. Oh although we did find out after a couple of years that they hadn't built the roof properly and they had to take all the tiles off to fix it.

The argument you always seem to get is that you have to complete when the builder says the house is finished. It would be nice to see someone say "sue me" and refuse to complete.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6772563/Family-hit-breaking-point-700-FAULTS-new-280-000-house.html

This place is a little cheaper. https://www.ultraleds.co.uk/led-aluminium-profile.html I have one room that probably should have this, but I couldn't bring myself to spend a couple of hundred pounds on aluminium channels and diffusers. Just to clarify, the £50 strips in the link you gave are for three packs, so they are around £8 a metre.

It's a good idea, but I am fairly certain no such thing exists. Proper WiFi access points need to be wired back to the main router using ethernet cables. If they are just wireless they slow down the network. Indeed your ceilings do end up with a lot of bits and pieces there but they don't seem too intrusive. I tried as much as possible to put things where they cannot be seen, for example we have chimney breasts where I put switches on the side you couldn't see when you come in the door. I put wifi access points in wardrobes in some rooms and behind TVs, but we ended up with a few on the ceiling too. If you really don't want to look at them though you can probably hide them all like this. Bedroom ones will work from inside wardrobes, or even above the ceiling plasterboard. They are thin enough to put behind TVs mounted on the wall also.

I tried to keep stuff on the ground floor and out of the lofts but the various service people kept trying to move things. I ended up with most stuff downstairs but still 2 MVHR units in the loft. Maybe they like to make them inaccessible so they can charge you to service them. I insisted on stuff being on the ground floor and close to doors so that if it ever broke it could be easily swapped out. I always got the answer back that it doesn't usually break. Again maybe not, but why not make life easier for yourself.

It is always a good idea to actually place furniture onto your plant to see if it works. 1. Do away with the central pillar to the carport, it will be much easier to put the car under it. 2. The study and living room have a lot of windows and very little wall space. Make sure you have places to put all the furniture that you want. The study is quite large for a study, maybe put another cupboard there allowing it to double up as a bedroom if necessary in the future. 3. The confluence of doors at the WC, study is awkward and as mentioned the WC is small. As mentioned you could reverse the stairs, you can then utilise the space under the last couple of steps to make the entrance to the WC wider. The WC can be wider by steeling space off the utility room. The cupboard can be part under the stairs. 4. Do you need a breakfast area and a dining area right next to each other in the kitchen, it would look quite odd if there were two tables there. Turn the island around to face the dining area and living area, consider doing away with that bay to the side. You can probably lose that run of cupboards to the left hand side and make the island two cabinets wide. 5. Again as mentioned mirror the living room and kitchen doors. 6. Upstairs I would probably bring the coombed ceilings in to the 1.5m height. Particularly where you have corners meeting, bringing it down to 1m will look like you have a loft conversion. You won't lose too much floorspace by doing this and you do have the space. You cannot put the back of a bed against a wall only 1m high. (TBF you can but it won't feel nice to be in) 7. I would plan out the bathrooms with the ceiling height in mind. You cannot put showers in areas below 2m high. Baths can go in lower areas and the backs of toilets are a good use for lower space. You probably have plenty of room but it could get quite awkward. For example the master en suite prob wants the door to swing the other way as at the moment the corner behind the door would be quite difficult to use. 8. Bedroom 4 is large yet I do not see anywhere that a double bed would comfortably fit. The LH end is too narrow, the bed would be quite hemmed in. The area behind the bed 2 wardrobe blocks the entrance. I would move the bed 2 en suite over to have around 3m across the back wall of bedroom 4. Bed 3 will still be wide enough. Put a wardrobe in bedroom 4 either where the roof corner is or the little dormer window. 9. Again a wardrobe in bed 3, probably where the roof corner is. I think it looks like it will be a nice design from outside, and the general layout looks good, but I think it is better to have slightly less floor space and not have awkwardly low ceilings upstairs.

I thought so, quite a bit is coming through from the old lawn already. I think it might be as much the enormous number of stones and they just want an easier way of levelling it off. The sandy soil, root zone I think it is called, may also help drainage a bit. I have dealt with them for a while and they don't have any incentive to give me a more expensive solution. Indeed they cut the quote by over 20% when they did the final measure, so I went with their advice. This site looks a lot looser and and less stone filled than my site so seed should be an easier job.

I asked the guy who cuts my grass and they recommended turf as the soil has a lot of clay. They want to put down a couple of inches of sandy top soil before laying the turf so the cost will be just under £20 a square metre. Seed would be cheaper, but they didn't think it would do well. In your case the earth looks quite sandy, if you can rake out all the small stones then seeding would work. It is just more manual prep. As to the containers, are they temporary whilst your neighbour builds something? If not they could be deemed to need planning permission. If they are temporary wold you not be as well putting up with them until they go and designing the garden how you would want it in the long term. I think trellis would look best if you want an instant screen. I couldn't find any 3m bamboo screening, you could attach bamboo to the fence half way up but its a nice looking fence and that might look odd. Longer term something like western red cedar will grow reasonably quickly and eventually screen this, but you retaking a good few years unless you pay through the nose for mature plants.

Re my earlier corner plot issues, you are probably OK as the two storey element is in line with the building line and the garage which is outside this is single storey. Sounds like the neighbour behind will probably object to this though. Before reading this, looking at other comments and my comments below I do wonder if it is worth spending the money on this house. My main concerns is that the back of the house faces north and many of your light issues will be very difficult to fix. 1. Garage/carport/driveway It is difficult to get a car into a garage at right angles to the driveway, you could easily get one in at an angle, but not two. It may be that you can swing in from the left hand side of the driveway but it will be awkward. You cannot move the garage back and I doubt that you can move the driveway forward due to proximity to the corner. How do you propose holding up the corner of the carport, it will be right in front of the driveway? Also, as the carport is drawn, would you drive forwards into it and then back out onto the street? An idea may be a single garage and a carport net to it. I am guessing that you use the carport all the time at the moment and the garage rarely. With the carport across the front of the garage it will be awkward to use the garage also. Further I would consider a single flat roof for the whole garage/carport area. It would seem a shame to build something new and have a mismatched flat roofed carport stuck onto the front of it. 2. Windows I am not sure that the patio doors on the study and snug will sit well relative to the house next door. It will also seriously eat into the wall space for furniture in the study. The doors off the back of the kitchen are fine if you use them. The positioning facing north is not ideal. I am sure losing the small pillar wold not be an issue. Again 6m doors are only worthwhile if you plan to use them. It his always nice to have a window on the stairs/upstairs hall, but I think the window you have in is overly large. You will be totally on display as it is quite close to the street. A light tunnel may work better than that void and small skylight. Putting a little bit of the skylight on a pitched roof looks unduly difficult to build for the extra area. I see why you want the big kitchen skylight and they are usually really nice, but it will be very shadowed by the house. 3. Buildability That is a lot of steel you will need to support the outer upstairs walls. Looking at the pictures, I am guessing that you only have 2.4m downstairs ceiling height. The steels will be thick and there is a strong chance that they cannot be hidden in the ceiling. Thus you would end up with a patchwork of beams across the kitchen ceiling. There is also the expense. I think you should get a SE to look at it. The roof is a mess. To be fair this seems to be considered entirely reasonable in the south east. Extra space is valuable and a patchwork of different roofs is acceptable to get more space. I am quite OCD about these things, so maybe others would disagree, but it seems too much to me. You could make life a lot easier by not having that little 1m piece of kitchen sticking out. Is the plan to simply build a new piece of roof on the middle part of the house spanning over the existing roof on the west side and not actually do anything to the west roof, it is just disappearing underneath? I am not sure that I like the aesthetic of the extension roof as the tiled area will be quite short. Why not just go flat as it doesn't look like a proper pitched roof anyway. It might be better to lower the middle roof rather than raise it so you only have two heights of roof. This would probably be cheaper also as it has no impact on the current west side roof. You are constrained of course because you have to attach to next door's roof and this may just be a compromise that has to be made. 4. Layout Less to say here. Could you not squeeze in the utility room in the corner where the door between the kitchen and garage is. It could eat into the garage. At the moment the utility/WC has a precious south facing window. I also don't think the WC through the utility is a good idea, see my thread re not skimping on the WC. I see what you mean about "the cave". I am not sure that you have fixed it. That central space is very far from windows and the skylight is small and 10 feet above the ceiling. I would be inclined to put the dining table there. OR open the area up to the hall and make it a dining hall, then build a wall separating he kitchen family room. That way you would have more of a proper hall separating the study and snug. Depends on if you want a dining room and like a hall. Upstairs is pretty much fine. I would put a fitted wardrobe on the south side of beds 3 and 4. The dressing room behind the bedroom is probably too narrow, I would move the bed forward a bit, there is plenty of room. I like your bathroom and ensuite.

I went back and read the email from the Council again. It says they expect me to cut 300mm into the road to install the new kerb as that is their specification. I think this is fundamentally wrong as I am not messing with a council owned kerb, it is my kerb. I don’t see why I can’t install it from one side. I will speak to the builder then put this to them.

Good points guys. The issue is that we probably can’t put in the kerbstones without cutting into the road. However, they may be thinking of the normal situation where the pavement is adopted. I guess I might go back and argue I won’t touch the road. Who’s to know.

Unfortunately I have already asked the council and sent in pictures of it. The builder was all set to do it until he realised this issue, now he doesn't want to be held responsible for it.

I certainly will take it up with my councillor, there is nothing to lose. I don't want to encourage complaints as the land belongs to me so it will be my responsibility to fix it. The road permit situation seems to be statutory, although as far as I can see different councils charge differing amounts for permits. On another note we got a notice served telling us to cut branches away around the streetlights so they can replace the lamps. If we don't the council will do it and charge us. This notice was very vague, I don't really want to hack away at my garden more than necessary . But also the streetlights are on my property so it is not clear that I have to create access at all for the council. You may also note from the pictures that for years the grit bin was actually on the pavement, I have moved it out of people's way into my shrubbery. I am sure if I just put a heavy object in the pavement the council would be the first to tell me to move it. They tell me to cut the hedges every year at the other side of the house where the pavement is adopted.

At some point I will start on the state of the road. Although the surface has been scrubbed away and looks a mess, there aren't actually any potholes and so it is reasonably flat. I cannot therefore see it being a priority to repair. Looking at it though, it does look as if prior repairs have not been to the correct standard, but I don' know when they last happened. Sadly there are many roads in a similar state and I doubt much will be done. It will get resurfaced when they get round to it. The road was originally private and apparently the residents argued that tanks parked there during the war had damaged it, so got it repaired for free then adopted. The roads off the side of the road are still private and are a mess. Annoyingly there is no hard stop between these roads and my road and so my road is scrubbing away at the two junctions where it meets these roads. I really think there should be some kind of kerb inset into the road to stop this. The galling thing though is I want to fix the road and pavement at my own expense. The permit system was put in mainly for people looking to drop kerbs and other things that damage the roads. I want to improve it but end up caught in the same net and there does not appear to be any flexibility in the rules.

I am really quite annoyed at bureaucracy today. At my own expense we repaired 40m of pavement in front of my house when we had the new driveway installed. The street is in the odd situation where the road is adopted but not the footpath, so the footpath belongs to me. Many houses in the street have just red chips for the footpath and some have an unsightly overgrown mess. I suspect this is actually to discourage use of the path as it belongs to the householder anyway. When we repaired the path we found in one place the path had a steep slope on it that we thought could be improved. Further investigation showed that this is due to missing kerbstones and a sunk area in the road. My builder was going to put in new kerbstones so we could riase the dip and finish everything off nicely. Then he realised that this involved working on the road which needs a permit. I thought I would call the council and see what they said as I am doing a public service helping people out. I spoke to someone in the local office and he was sympathetic but says that we need a permit and an approved contractor. This will close to double the cost of the repair. Of course I could just leave it and not be public spirited, I am effectively being charged by the council to improve the local area. On top of that the road is in a woeful state and you can see that it has in the past been repaired ignoring the correct standards. They have just surfaced over cobbles with 20mm of tar andit is eroding over time. Apparently the regulations don't apply to them. Any thoughts on what I can do here? Pavement before i repaired it Fixed Pavement Problem areas

Before commenting on the plans etc, is there a building line on the street to the east? If the current side of your house is in line with the front of the houses round the corner and you intend to build dramatically in front of these houses you could have planning issues. Generally corner plots have more space but are considered more sensitive from a planning perspective as they are very noticeable.