fatgus

We also have several old cars, and some very old farm equipment which I’m assuming have scrap value at best…

There are dozens, if not hundreds of each of these…

Our project has been delayed for an age but we’re finally cracking on with site clearance. It’s something of a challenge as it was quite neglected and overgrown, and the previous owner was a massive hoarder… we have the house, five sheds, four railway carriages and four caravans, mostly rammed to the gills. We’ve spent the first six weeks clearing blackthorn and brambles, burning the lot as we go, so the grounds are now ‘ok’ and we’ve gained access to all the structures. We’ve just scratched the surface of the clearance and there’s a huge amount of stuff that it just seems wrong to get rid of… I don’t want to turn into a hoarder myself, so I’m curious whether these things would be of interest to anyone? I’d be happy to just give them away… There are also hundreds of 1950s newspapers, mostly in good condition… we’ve been through some of them and will keep a few e.g. coronation, death of Stalin. I’m also keeping some of the politically incorrect ads I don’t think they have any monetary value, but it would be nice if they could be appreciated by someone rather than being burned…

Planning hasn’t been submitted yet. We’ve decided to go ahead with the bat survey(s) on the main house, so we can get the application submitted sooner rather than later. Once that’s done, we’ll get moving on the land clearance.

Thankfully (until they change their mind) the 'sufficiently far from the house' comment was agreed by the ecologist. We've actually had three quotes.. one for the main dwelling, which will be needed for the planning application (£900), one for the outbuildings/sheds for when we remove or replace them (£1000) and another for ecological survey... snakes, slow-worms, otters, badger etc (£1000). Our intention is to make this place a haven for wildlife... other than having a decent house with plenty of space, it is our main driver for the whole project. The ecologist is really lovely and seems genuinely interested and 'on board' with our plans. Doesn't mean he won't be expensive though, or over complicate things

Yup... 2 years, I believe? We're hoping the planning process will take less than that, but who knows 🙄 They'll do a refresher quick reasonably, should it be necessary.

Cheers joe90 I'm thinking... get the survey done on the house then once that's done and dusted start clearing the scrub and grassy areas. We have no desire to disturb the wildlife, in fact our entire plan (post renovation) is the precise opposite, but by the same token we're not haemorrhaging money unnecessarily.

One of my concerns was that they talked about the possibility of an ecological survey too... largely because it's quite overgrown and there could be grass snakes & slow worms hiding in the long grass. Irritatingly, it was nicely mown until a few months ago. At the moment we're weighing up the pros/cons of waiting until May, submitting the planning application 'subject to bat survey' and using the delay to effect some clearance work...

Thanks Thorfun... we did get another quote that was slightly cheaper, but they can't fit us in until next year. They also hadn't been to the site, so I suspect it might have got a little more pricey...

😂 OK... so that's a 'No'?

Our project is finally gaining momentum and we need to get a bat survey done. We have found one company able to complete it this season. The overwhelming likelihood is that we'll need dusk surveys. This will be for the main dwelling... there are many outbuildings & random structures, but according to the architect they can wait till next year as they won't be forming part of the application (they're sufficiently far away from the house). For the preliminary survey, two dusk emergence surveys, record search & report they're quoting £900... does that sound reasonable?

Really interested to follow this... it's one of our longer term plans too, in our otherwise really rather dull, flat field. We're in the Brecon National park and it's certainly a planning matter, but maybe you'll be luckier?

Thanks Wumpus. Appreciate the offer I’ve accumulated a few bits of Knx kit including a Dali gateway and some assorted Dali lighting… the plan is to set up a bit of a test installation, so I can play around with the lighting control. It’ll be a while til I get into it, but if I need any pointers I’ll be sure to ask

Indeed they do. I’m hoping for 3 years to the point we can move in, but longer to get it properly finished…

Do you know something I don't? 😳😂

We’ll be very much hands-on and reasonably confident 😉 That does make sense… we’ll have a downstairs shower room regardless, two if you include the dog shower. Having an ensuite for a downstairs bedroom doesn’t really bother us. I think if we get to the point that one or both us can’t use the stairs, we would look at a lift. They’re not outrageously expensive, if the alternative is only being able to access half of the house. We were going to have a full annexe (back when we had the original, crazy 600sq.m plans!) but we have outbuildings that lend themselves to conversion for that purpose instead, and possibly even nicer for guests?

Maybe something like this, although not in a hole in the floor… pic from designboom… https://www.designboom.com/architecture/abraham-cota-paredes-cave-house-la-cueva-mexico-06-29-2017/ or this… https://www.nshoremag.com/northshore-home/your-guide-to-growing-a-happy-ficus/

Umm… yes, we do

👍👍👍 It’s a very good point. We figured the cinema room would be Ok to repurpose as a downstairs bedroom if necessary. I’ve only halfheartedly looked at lifts, but thought the end of the ‘folly’ corridor by the cinema room could work for that. We could presumably design the joists over it so the appropriate ones could be easily removed. The corridor is 4ft wide… just did a quick Google and that should be sufficient for a small wheelchair lift. Interestingly, they sometimes seem to need a trench underneath them… if we keep the steps to the corridor, the floor would be naturally raised so no need for a trench, and we can replace the steps with a shallow ramp if we need wheelchair access 👍 True. Other than the stairs, we’re kind of used to that… current bungalow was less than 100sq.m when we bought it but we’ve extended it to over 200sq.m in a way that deliberately segregates the bed/bath rooms from the living areas. It works really well, but means there’s a fair walk between some rooms… We’ve never felt it was a nuisance though. Because I’m very sad indeed, I just measured a few… Living room 2 (our current ‘screen room’ with home cinema… my evening space) to main bedroom = 57ft Swing chair in living room 1 (my favourite seat in the house) to main bedroom = 56ft. Both the above to nearest loo = 33ft. Our current design means the main bedroom will actually be closer to the kitchen, shower room, bathroom, and all three living rooms than in our bungalow. The dog room is further away, but only about 15ft so we’ll cope with that That’s a really good idea 👍👍 What are your thoughts on PH certification? We’re not really that interested in a certificate, provided the house performs well, but I wonder whether we should look into it… Indeed it will I’ve learned from bitter experience. I made a living wall in our office a few years ago, watered by a mains fed drip on a timer. It was lovely, until we had a two week break for Christmas… I turned the water off, fearing a flood that would go unnoticed until the new year, with the intention of popping in every few days to manually open the flow. I was struck by some grim bug, really ill over the whole of the break, forgot about the wall, the office heating got stuck on full whack and by January 90% of it was dead or dying 🤬 The plan is to have a large rooflight above it but it should also get sunlight through the corner window of the first floor living room. Hopefully that will be enough. We’ll have plumbing to deliver water directly to it… I’m thinking of changing from an enormous pot to a kind of ‘raised bed’ that is attached to the cinema room and boot room walls, which would make the plumbing a lot easier. One of our friends is a horticulturalist, so we’ll be making use of her expertise

👍 Only got to do it once though, well, until it needs replacing… It’s a valid point though… Our first house was upside down. We installed oil central heating and I remember three of us battling to get the floor standing oil boiler up the dog-leg stairs to our kitchen. I think it was something like 150kg. Not fun Our current washing machine is much lighter than that thing though… around 80? Still not easy, but doable I guess so, but we‘ll be fine on the exercise front. Maybe the laundry chute could give me the slide I’ve always fancied? It would be really interesting to know if anyone on here has a first floor laundry room?

We’ll see!! Indeed… and no-one else to blame for the mistakes. Very gladly… warts and all 👍 Yours is one of the builds I’ve followed… it looks lovely. You must be delighted with it

I agree… a central entrance could be nice. Unfortunately, the site doesn’t seem to lend itself to that… the access & parking is from the west, so a central entrance would probably necessitate a bit of a walk, given the size of the house, whereas we’ll be able to park directly outside the entrance with the current layout. I know this is very much a personal thing, but I love the idea of opening the front door and having an unobstructed view 70ft through the house to the eastern garden The corridor doesn’t bother us particularly… it’s 35ft ish, so 10ft longer than the one in our bungalow (off which we have four bedrooms, bath and showe), but it’s over a foot wider. We’ll have some alcoves with nicely illuminated ‘art’ (upcycled tat from eBay, bits of tree…) and the roof lights will mean it’s much lighter than we’re used to. It will also have a 12ft(ish) high ceiling. The second staircase breaks it up nicely too. Upstairs laundry is my wife’s idea… I’m in favour too. Almost all the dirty laundry is generated/discarded upstairs, so the rationale is… why bring it all downstairs to wash and iron, only to have to then take it back upstairs? We’ll have one of those ceiling mounted pulley drying racks and I believe (could be wrong!) that the MVHR will lead to it drying quite quickly. The downstairs utility is really a dog room We only have two at the moment because we just don’t have the space for more, but we’ll be adding more when we move. The shower is for the dogs, or me if I’m filthy from whatever I’m working on outside at the time. We’ll very probably have a washing machine in there too, for dog bedding and work clothes, but the room is primarily for the animals. I agree absolutely! We’ve spoken with nine architects (or architectural designers) and met on-site with six. We will certainly be using one of them, but dear god they were a mixed bag. We gave the same brief to all of them (wants, needs, likes, dislikes, budget etc). Some were great, very receptive, asked loads of questions and tried to get to understand us and the way we live. Others stuck their chest out and spent an hour telling us how amazing they were (ironically, not something necessarily reflected by their portfolio). Some seemed intent on designing the house they wanted. Their fees ranged from a few grand to many tens of thousands and there seemed to be little correlation between cost and ability. We’ve narrowed it down to two. I think the most likely is a small, relatively local practice. I really liked the guy and he’s done some good work for one of my neighbours. He also collaborates occasionally with quite a well known architect. If he designs something that works well for us, we’ll very willingly drop our plans in a heartbeat With that in mind, what we’re designing ourselves may never be built, but there are, I think, good reasons for going through the process anyway… We’ve really thought long and hard about the way we live, the way that’s changed over recent years and the way it is likely to change further over time. From morning coffee to late night routines, weekdays & weekends, the best and worst bits of our current house, previous houses, old family houses. What we’ll miss when we move, the things we care deeply about and what we don’t give two shits about. The more depth we go to now, the better we’ll be able to inform the architect. We may not actually show them our design at first (or maybe even ever, if their proposal is stellar) to see what they come up with. Primarily though, we just really, really enjoy the process, particularly me. We’re now on iteration 128, excluding the hand sketches I did before I got an iPad

You’re absolutely right, it could be much smaller, but we don’t really want it to be We’re not planning on building again and we’re comfortable we can finish it with the funds we have. I know it might not look like it, but we’ve already reined it in quite a bit…. Our original ideas were nudging 600sq.m, which would have been really insane. My wife has an almost pathological loathing of circular staircases, but I’d love some ideas That being said… IMHO the tree is the main feature and the stairs are largely a means of getting to the next floor! Bear in mind that the study is one corner of an open 22ft x 31ft space, which will have a vaulted ceiling and a tree! It should be a lovely place to be. The lack of window/view is deliberate. My current study faces very roughly the same direction and has a window with a decent view, but any sunlight, even indirect, makes it uncomfortable to use the screen, so the blinds are always closed. As the study is currently laid out, if I look to the right I’ll have a view into the garden and left I’ll be able to see the mountains across the valley, but ultimately, if I have work to do I want to get it done as quickly as possible with least distraction, so I can crack on with something I actually enjoy And if I need a break, the upstairs living area is only a few steps away! We could do, but then we’d only have one shared upstairs bathroom. I’ve mentioned before that we’re not really into en-suites, so we could ditch it and just use the shared shower room/bathroom, but several people have noted that the building size really demands at least one en-suite, should we ever decide/need to sell. We’ve kept the bathrooms & laundry together to make plumbing easier, hopefully, and eliminate noise from pipes/waste travelling under/over/past bedrooms. That bedroom will be used very infrequently. Our washing machine and dryer are incredibly quiet, but even so we figured it’s better to have the machines backing onto an unused bedroom than onto the bathroom which will be used daily, sometime for long periods. It’s not unusual for one of us to spend a couple of hours in the bath (it has a tv, which we’ll certainly have in the new house too). It’s probably not obvious from the sketches, but placing the machines on that wall means they’re closer to a ground floor supporting wall too, which I thought would make sense. We’ve done the same with the bath… it’s directly above a supporting wall. Interesting… I didn’t know that. Something to bear in mind We’re in the UK. I’ve been using ArchiTouch… It does metric, but for some reason I much prefer feet & inches. Weird, considering I was born the year before decimalisation 🤪 Thanks… it really is I’m very grateful for every comment & suggestion, even if I’m not necessarily in full agreement 😁 👍👍👍👍