Ralph

That looks great, I can't wait to get to that stage. I have a Brinno TLC200 in a box ready to be deployed.

Ours did not even have a hex key you just turned a knob. They also had battery back up that would last for a fair number of open and close cycles. From memory you're also required to have some sort of safety mechanism if there is a crush risk.

All the bedrooms and the sitting room upstairs are compliant. We had this before when selling a previous house, surveyor told us we would have to knock £25k off the asking price because our three bedroom was actually a two bedroom because one room did not have a compliant window.

Good point, time to break out sketch up again. Well I do the cooking at the moment but once the new house is built someone is going to turn into a regular Mary Berry apparently.

Oh yeah lots of big opening windows.

Loads of interesting comments, great stuff. Attached is the full plan of the ground floor. The site is long with views to the north. It's not a big house but enough for the two of us, most of the time we will be in the lounge area although we have a small sitting room upstairs. I like the suggestion of stealing some space from the utility, we have a reasonable sized one for dogs and coming in from fields etc but we could make it a bit smaller. It also has the back door. We do need to keep the store for HW tank and secure cabinet. Also moving the dining area is also something we have thought of. "how big does your lounge need to be?" That really is the crux of the question for us. We're trying to keep the overall sqm down but what do you think a reasonable size is for a lounge in an open plan area? Thanks everyone

We could really do with some input on the design of or kitchen. We've spent a lot of time with designers and we're not reaching a consensus. As you can see from the attached we have an open plan design that also has the stairs in the room. My main concern is that the living area is too small at 3300 by 5975 and we've given too much of the space to the kitchen at 4825 x 5975, there is only the two of us, no kids. We also have a utility room at 4150 by 2250 for washer, dryer freezer etc. What I think we should do is make the island smaller and move it too the right and lose a unit from the long wall. Giving us a 600 more in the living room. On the attached the hob is in the wrong place, it would move to the island and we would put in floor to ceiling cabinets along the short wall and possibly round to the long one. Thanks in advance! PS As we get closer and closer to actually building this forum has been fantastic and I'm very glad it's here.

Thanks Peter that's good to know and the blog post is very helpful. They look decent as well.

No little hands but I do like that design, not that what I like seems to carry much weight at the moment ?. I guess the advantage of a wooden stairs apart from maybe being cheaper is the fit can be finessed a bit more.

Thanks. That's a far amount of glass so still seems like a very reasonable price.

That is nice looking and £4000 is not bad at all, I see you're in Aberdeen, who did you use for metal work? I'm down by Brechin.

Hi all, We’re going to have our stairs in the main living area so would like to have it open rather than boxed in. We’re thinking of something metal but I’m assuming prices are going to be high. Has anyone had that sort of thing built or have experience of the modular type kits like this https://thestaircasepeople.co.uk/product-category/modular-staircases/ I’m slightly concerned they may be a bit shit. Thanks in advance.

We had one done recently but it also included a drainage design for a soak away and treatment plant and it was around £1k

How confident are you on those build costs? It sounds like we're in a different position but we are planning to take a bit more on our build mortgage than we need so we can keep more of our own cash. I don't want to be in the position of being maxed out and hitting an unexpected overrun or there being a staged payment delay that I can't cover.

I have and like your book. The idea of the hall being social and a transition from outside to inside makes complete sense. I have a feeling we will end up with more glass to get this openness but keep some sort boundary, your point on internal windows between stairwells and kitchens is exactly what I'm thinking.

Yes the colour does look nice, I've just ordered a sample to have a proper look. Jesus that's pricey for sealer!

I think my tiling budget has just gone up, I really like them.

We have about a 5 meter span and I think we're going with sliders from Rationel. We decided against bi-folds mainly due to the amount of sightlines and the thickness of them. Also given our location I can't imagine that we would have them fully open on more than a couple of days.

You know it's funny, up to about 5 years ago when we started thinking about building a house an old church door would have sounded great, our previous house was 300+ years old. Now no matter how amazing an old house looks I think, cold, damp repair bills. That's good to know, thanks. That's a good point, we've been a couple of years without dogs but they are on the cards.

I'm convinced it's the right thing to do for the space but I'm still hesitant due to heat loss and draughts. Has anyone on here built a house with the front door opening right into the main space without some sort of hall way / porch and how did it work out?

Yeah I have some Aussie mates who say the same thing If you have loads of space then making a feature of grand hall makes sense but less than 6sqm is not really use for much. Vaulted ceilings upstairs so no problem. Lofts are banned because "you'll only fill it with crap." We had thought of putting an open porch to give a bit of shelter and try and mitigate draughts, not sure it will make any difference though.

Hi all, I wonder if you could give me your thoughts on removing a small hallway and having the front door open straight into the open plan space. This is our current design, the concern is that you come through front door into a small hall (2.2 m by 2.6 m) open the internal door and you’re into another hall facing the door into the utility room. If we remove the walls marked in red and make the stair free standing it will open up the space a bit. You can see that the first floor is open to downstairs just above the dining area. I’m guessing the cons with doing this are more to do with heat loss than anything else but I’d be interested to get your thoughts. Many thanks Ralph

I remember that one, the chap had just got over a brain tumor. The borrowing was terrifying on it, including monster amounts on credit cards.

Definitely something to look at especially after last summer. I'm not a fan of heat, in our last place my wife would have the woodburners at either end of the house going and me and the dog would be by the front door just about passed out.

Good points, I had not thought about insurance either. Thanks Any thoughts on a sqm cost for that type of thing with sheeted roof? Cheers