TheMitchells

I wasnt too sure about this house but I can see why it won. It was certainly different and amazingly designed. I liked the private house in Cumbria which used local stone as well as modern sections and yet it fitted into the Cumbrian town perfectly. I'd have lived there happily.

Great news!! looking forward to reading all about it.

That looked easy to find! I must have been having a bad day

I have looked too and not found it so if you do find the planner and costing part, please let me know.

Am working my way thought the Building Construction Hnadbook. It wasnt quite what I expected as there are no explanations of anything - just lots of facts or how things should be done. I think it would be essential for anyone having their their house built by someone else so they can at least check that everything is being done correctly. Some of it goes way over my head but mostly I can follow things and it also shows the various ways that things can be done.

Blimey!, I didnt realsie there were so many different types of piling! The site we looked at on the Graven Hill site would have needed pilings and they were quoting around 60k for the foundations. Hope he lets you have a go - would be great fun.

Congrats! Looking forward to reading all about the build.

After seeing the trailer where one person fell from quite a height; no safety equipment seen and people were using chainsaws with no regard to safety, Mr Mitchell refused to watch it! I have a feeling we would not have even managed 20 minutes.

Wow, that seems expensive - £60 a tub! I was planning on using Bamboo Flooring Company as we love the look of the wood and it seems much harder than oak so can be used in kitchens. But I had not budgeted for the adhesives. Looks like I may need to revise our budget.

Went over today and got a photograph of the finished wall. I managed to get the painting done apart from the lower areas which I decided to do once the scaffolding was taken away. It was too fiddly trying to get behind the poles and my arms were aching by that time. The builder is there repointing the chimney. Typically it is due to rain tonight and it was minus 2 last night. Hope it does not affect the work. In comparison to before, thats ours on the left, the top was leaning out and it was all cracked. Sorry the view is from the opposite end of the house. I thought I'd photographed everything when we bought the place but I do not seem to have one of the gable from the front.

Anyone up for it?? Someone who has used Buildhub to help with the build? Will ask Bitpipe as he recently finished.

I can suggest it but who would you be thinking of putting forward for the interview?. I did suggest Jeremy ages ago but Ben has had no reply from him. Maybe he could use several of those who are finished or nearly finished their homes and see how much they got from this and other forums?

I'll certainly ask the estate agents for their take on it. Especially as it was the last estate agentwho suggested to ditch the bath and just put in a shower. However, I cant see the back door moving - those rubble walls are too thick to want to knock out a doorway. If we do move the bathroom into the kitchen area, we may also be able to add a small cloakrrom upstairs to help those who dont want to have to go downstairs at night to get to the loo. That would not take much room away from the back bedroom and I would personally like that. Great ideas! Many thanks.

Things have been moving forward last month with the render on the gable wall finished. I think it looks great and so I was able to get it painted as we have had such good weather! Three coats on the new bits and one coat on the rest. And the idiot that I am, I have no photographs of the finished work from up the scaffolding. You will just have to take my word that it looks really good! But with autumn here and winter arriving far too quickly, it was becoming clear that we needed to get some heat into the house. We had had a quote for woodburning stoves for the front and back rooms but it was for over £6k so we said no thanks. After much researching online, it seemed that while we could do it ourselves, we would not be able to certify the work and I found no one was willing to complete a certificate if they had not done the work themselves, understandably, I suppose. A friend recommended one chap who came to have a look. He quoted around £2,300 for a stove, liner, all the trimmings and the certificate. After looking aorund online, I found the same stove for £130 less than he quoted and he was happy to order it for me, and even had it delivered to his address which solved the access issue at ours. So we went with him. And I made sure I was there to watch how it was all done. Before the installation, he told me I had to raise the hearth by about an inch to comply with regs. I managed to remove the tiles, only breaking a few (they had been there for years!) but as we had found a pile of spares in the cellar I was not too worried. So after buying a bag of self leveling compound, I set about edging the hearth with some wood and after mixing it up, poured a bucketful of the compound onto the old hearth. I guess I should have realised that the wood round the edge would not work very well as it was sitting on tongue and groove. Groove being the problem! It was like that chap who tried to keep the tide back.......As fast as I sponged it into the hearth, it seeped out again. Luckily it started to set after 10 mins and after I pushed kitchen paper into the gaps, it stopped seeping out. And I guess thats part of the learning curve! I returned the next day and mixed up another bucketful and this lot stayed within the wood surround but it was too thick and dried uneven. By the third bucketful, I think I had it right. Not too runny and not too thick. It leveled out up to the top of the wood surround and I was happy to lay the tiles ontop. However, when laying the tiles, I ended up being two short! After visits to several tile shops and quite a few telephone calls I discovered its quite hard to buy hexagonal quarry tiles of that thinkness. But I was not deterred! I bought another tile of a similar colour and after making a cardboard template, I was able to cut two tiles from the one larger one and fit them in. Due to the variable colouring of the tiles, I dont think anyone will even notice. Particulaly as they will be under the stove. We will need to edge the whole hearth evenually but thats a problem for another day. Our intention is to have bamboo flooring thoughout the ground floor and we may try to edge it with something similar. So the chaps came on wednesday and after providing tea/coffee and biscuits (and toast for elevenses) in large amounts, they seemed happy enought answering all my questions. And to be fair, I think we made the right decision to get the professionals in. Following instructions from Online sites and YouTubes would not have been enough and we would not have been able to install it as well. so we now have a working stove! Unfortunatly due to circumstances, we were not able to light it till today so I was quite excited to finally get it going. And with the drop in temperatures outside, the house is really starting to feel cold. And later we enjoyed our first lunch sitting in front of the fire. The OH had been busy making a log store using a load of featheredged boards that I had found in a skip. Theyre around 3 ft long and they filled the car boot. so for the price of four lengths of treated timber for the frame we now have a great store outside for when we get more logs. Picture to follow of the finished article - I was too busy gazing into the fire! Things learnt - slef leveling compound does not go very far. It took two bags for that small area. And when doing the budgeting, I did not include costs for things like the compound and the adhesive for the tiles - all of which will add up to quite a lot by the time we finish the house. They are more expensive than I thought.

Things are maybe changing. We were looking round the house today and wondered about taking the bathroom out and swopping it with the kitchen. It would be a little unconventional as it would mean a door from the bathroom into a small utility room and back door. But would mean a nice kitchen diner in the centre of the house. And we could fit in a bath, if we move the window or make it smaller. As it was a recent extension, it would not be that difficult (compared to the thick rubble walls of the old part). It would mean we wouldnt need to remove the supporting wall between the current kitchen and middle room which we have been told would cost £2k so that woud go a long way to pay for the move and bathroom. Pro's - Will leave two large bedrroms upstairs. Nice kitchen diner in middle of the house. Would not need to remove the pillar, saving £2k. All pipework would be easier to instal and near boiler. Cons - slightly unconventional layout but alot of these old cottages have the bathroom at the back of the house downstairs. Not ideal for everyone. Acces to back door, via the bathroom and utility room. But it only leads to a small alley which leads to the neighbours house so not used much, if at all. Its certainly looking like a good option. I shall try to add a diagram showing the layout.

Thanks for all those comments. The bathroom downstairs can only just fit in a 1500 bath and even that means moving the wall out by 10cm. When we went to take out the bath, we discovered it had been recessed into the outside wall by couple of inches. We do not plan on doing that again. I shall let you know what we decide to do.

While renovating our Victorian house, we need to decide whether to move the bathroom upstairs, making a larger kitchen diner downstairs. But fitting in a bath and toilet/sink upstairs is causing difficulties. To include a bath will mean moving a bedroom window and its a 600mm thick rubble wall, which sounds expensive and disruptive. One option which does work would be to just have a shower room upstairs, with no bath. (One estate agent suggested that) So we need opinions. How would you and other halves feel buying a house without a bath? Just a shower. Would it put you off? Would you want a bath? And how do you feel about the bathroom being downstairs? Is that okay? Bear in mind this is a small two bed, end terrace house so space is limited. And the likely buyers will most be a young couple buying their first home or more elderly downsizers wanting to live near the town centre. The houses are not suitable for families as it is some way off the road and everyone who has had children has moved. All opinions will be gratefully received as we cannot agree at all!

We all will want to see photo's too!

I certainly was wondering if I tried to make something similar, if I'd be able to get away without the planning and building Regs. Luckily I am too old and tired to even consider it! I loved the idea of it all and the house was going to be gorgeous when finished. I loved the windows and the sewerage system - can we try that one too without running into lots of problems with the Water companies. I doubt it. But good on them for having a go, even if they did compromise some of their principles with the polystyrene.

I am sure that I read somewhere that its very hard to make blown cellulose burn as it is so tightly packed in there is no oxygen to burn. And in the recent Build It awards, I saw a product which looks really good and may be worth considering; its Automist Smartscan which is like a sprinkler system but it is triggered by heat, rather than smoke, and the spray head swivels to where ever the heat is and targets the area with a powerful jet of water. The idea being that it only targets the danger area and the rest of the house is protected. It is ideal for open plan living and helps compliance with Building Regs.

Here is Oxfordshire we get charged to take plasterboard to the tip. It seems to be £5 for a bootful and I pack it into rubble bags and save it up till I have a bootful. So far it has cost me £10 and the rest I break up and drop into the rubbish wheelie bin every other week. And once all the bins are out along the street I sometimes deposit a few bits in other bins that are not very full - naughty I know! we seem okay taking lots of cardboard to the tip so far and I always make a point of saying hello to the chaps there and being nice. Makes it harder for them to be nasty and charge me, I hope.

I do love learning from others mistakes! Thanks 8Ball.

Just to give an update; we have had a quote from another firm, which a friend used and recommended. They are a third cheaper than the first and were hapy for me to source the stove, have it delivered to them and then they will bring it to instal. which is a huge benefit as our access is awful and would have been difficult. We have given up on the idea of doing it ourselves as the regulations require it all to be certificed and finding someone to certify it after we did the work was proving difficult. And as it would have been the first time we'd have done it, we are happy to watch and learn this time. We have gone for a multifuel in the middle room and just leave the front room as an open fire. It already had an old Jetmaster Open fire which seemed in reasonable condition. but the fire chap advised us against it as it needed insulating which was not cheap(unless we used the Rockwool that we took out but I am not sure that was the correct insulating stuff for a fire surround. He siad to just take out the old Jetmaster and instal a basket. After I clarified that he did mean a FIRE basket and not a floral arrngement (I wasnt sure!! so had to ask), I was straight onto Ebay and got a nice one for £40 and we hope to sell the Jetmaster for about the same. However, the next problem was the state of the walls within the fire itself, once the Jetmaster had been removed. There were holes galore in the brickwork and looked like stones had just been shoved in, higglety pigglety. I had some cement left over so today started filling in some of the larger holes with the intention of finishing off soon. But just thought I'd check; does PeterW's comment still stand? Should I be using lime and sand, rather than my normal cement mix? I intend to make it sound and smooth the walls and sit the fire basket inside. A friend has given me sone wood logs so i cant wait to try it. Luckily the weather hasnt been too cold but it will soon be getting very cold in the house and a fire would be wonderful. This is after I had filled in some of the worst holes. The dark grey stuff is my work. My bargain purchase.

Thanks for all that - makes a little more sense - hadnt realised the metal things were called straps. Waiting for the builder to return to do the chimney pointing now. then its all inside work.

Not sure I understand all that but will take your suggestion re the noggins. thanks.