Beechgate

100% agree on the recessed doors. We do want large patio doors to the garden, that open up for BBQs and summer etc., and it's something we're happy to compromise on purist passive house principles for. BUT I fully intend to have a non-recessed option, perhaps lift and slide ones Also a good point on solar gain in the snug. I see that mostly as a place to watch films etc. so not bothered about it being connected to the garden. SWMBO likes the doors but I could imagine replacing with a window. Yep MBC won't be cheap (haven't got my own quote yet as still want to evolve the design) but saw a comment on a thread recently that put their cost at ~550m2 for frame and ~730m2 inc. foundation. More detailed costings are still on my to do list.

Thank you Taking a proper look once back from walking the above mentioned spaniel!

There is a lounge, so don't follow this bit. I certainly hope not! One of the things I'm sure BH will point out is what / where it's needlessly complex and expensive

Thanks Bozza, helpful thoughts. I suspect we will have to reduce the size, but we're comfortable with that. I think the GIA works out at ~215m2 and we we went into this expecting sub 200 (which would still be twice the size of our current home!). Point taken on the flat roof, though I think it could look great if done well. Fully agreed on pocket doors. Architect has included lots of them and I'm not convinced, but haven't dwelt on that yet. Mostly focused on the layout/flow because most rooms look big enough to accomodate a normal door anyway. Another great point on the dressing room. I like being as separate from the rest of the house as possible, plus it meant the bedroom got views to the rear garden, BUT it will inevitably be messy. Will have to give more thought.. We're keen on the wraparound, gives us a quiet corner of the house and makes a 'courtyard' in the back garden for patio etc.

Our architects have come back to us with their initial ideas for our plot. We still need some time to gather our own thoughts, but keen to get the insight from those on here. I've attached some key pages (site plan, floorplans, elevations etc.) and outlined the context and some of our initial thoughts below. Context We're a couple (+cocker spaniel) who hope to have children once we're moved into the new home. We want something that can be our family home for the next 20+ years (we feel too young to call it our forever home). Keen for a close to passive house, but we're not worried certifrication and are happy to make some compromises for things we want. Plan / hope is to use the MBC passive system, which should help nail the insulation and airtightness requirements up front. A big potential hurdle is the fact that we have a bungalow on either side of us, and we are on a slope that exacerbates the potential to loom over our neighbour to the left. Almost every other house on the road is a detached or semi-detached 2-storey, but we need to be realistic about the bungalow issue. Our architect is of the opinion that a reasonable case for a 2-storey property can be made, but with some compromise likely as we go through planning. They've started with a full 2-storey design and have gone big (as you'll see) because they want to go to pre-app with the council with the ability to offer concessions on overall width / height etc. The massing diagrams included make it look HUGE compared to immedaite neighbours (though in line with rest of the street) - though I'm not sure they are truly representative. They have stuck to a shape / material pallette which should sit well in the street, to hopefully aid a planning app and not compound the size issue. Some key things we wanted: 4 bedrooms Home office space (we work from home multiple times per week) Large utility / boot room (dog will sleep here + we would like a place to rinse him off) Lots of solar PV Open plan kitchen / dining / living Separate tv / snug space Secure storage space for bicycles / tools / motorbike (if SWMBO ever lets me buy another one!) First thoughts (pros) Generally like the flow of the house & it has all of the rooms we want Lots of views into the garden Love the idea of a wildflower roof outside the bedroom window Great potential for indoor / outdoor living from the kitchen diner area and the patio outside Wide entrance hallway with void above will feel spacious Lots of south facing roof available for PV First thoughts (cons) Looks very big - implications for planning success & build cost Quite a lot of glazing (need to sort PHPP modelling) given we're south facing at the front Lots of expensive touches (corner glazing, fully recessed sliding patio doors etc.) but we're quite to happy to 'value engineer' that out if required 2 middle bedrooms might be a little small Office space looks on the small side ASHP being situated so far from plant room seems odd / wrong Front porch doesnt do it for us Is upstairs hallway a bit narrow Have seen the excellent feedback on other posts and would appreciate all thoughts! Floor plans & elevations OPTION 1.pdf

You're meant to join at the beginning of the project so we can follow along! On a serious note it looks great, so well done and congratulations! I'd also be keen to see pictures of the power floated floor

Yeah it is a lot isn't it.. and it's money that we could spend on the house itself. I can see it having value though and I suspect as the tech gets better (and cheaper) it could become an integral part of a design phase. We did a VR gaming experience for a friends birthday and being jumped on by a low-quality VR zombie was surprisingly scary! Now this is an excellent idea.

Our architect is developing 2 sketch options based on our project brief, a site visit, and an upcoming design meeting. As an optional extra they can offer a virtual reality walkthrough to help us visualise their two proposed designs. It would be presented alongside the main feasibility study using an Oculus Quest 2 headset. The cost is £1,500 + VAT. We’re currently on the fence so interested to hear if anyone here has done similar and if they think it is a worthwhile extra?

Keep reading good things about Quooker - both the product and their customer service / warranty - on this forum... I'd discounted the idea at first because I don't drink tea or coffee (family thinks I'm an alien) and SWMBO has only occasional coffee, so we don't boil the kettle often. But I love the idea... we'll see if heart or head wins in the end.

Despite watching lots of Grand Designs, building a house wasn’t something I’d ever considered until about 18 months ago. Fast forward to today and we’ve bought a plot, instructed an architect, and I’ve traded my evening telly time for browsing the Buildhub forum. So how did we get here? My partner and I want to start a family but agreed that we wanted to move into something larger first. We drew up a list of what we wanted and started our search. After months of searching / viewing we began to realise that we were going to be spending a huge amount of money just to buy something that was ‘kind of’ what we wanted. Still, what else could we do? Then I stumbled across Danwood – the polish prefab house firm – and had my eyes opened to the world of self-building. I paused the depressing Rightmove search and started reading in earnest. We went to some self-build shows, read huge amounts online, and eventually decided to swap Rightmove for Plotfinder. Our hope was to build near where we live currently (to be near family / friends and have easy access to London for work) but had no luck finding anything suitable or affordable. Funnily enough, it was Rightmove that came to the rescue. One night my partner sent me a link to a bungalow. It was small, in a sorry state, and well over our plot budget… But it sat on a good-sized plot and was in a great location for us. We called the estate agent to arrange a viewing and were politely told to eff-off as they’d accepted an offer from a developer. Back to square one. 2 weeks later I got a phone call from the estate agent asking if we were still interested in a viewing. The developer’s financing fell through in the wake of the Kamikwasi ‘mini’ budget and the bungalow was back on the market. We went for a viewing that evening, put in an offer, and a few months later the bungalow was ours! We completed at the end of 2022 and have since appointed an architect but I’ll cover that, and other bits, in a separate post. Thanks for reading - I look forward to sharing our inevitable ups and downs as we move along.

Kelvin is right. If you're looking to tap the knowledge on this forum perhaps chalk this up as a bad start and rethink your approach

Somewhere I have a nice fountain pen that was a present from my grandmother, but I'm not sure I've seen / used it in 10 years so it may end up being a BIC ballpoint I'm halfway through a blog post where I'm capturing some of that - but maybe a private version for the diary as well.

Diary has been ordered and is arriving today. Had a chat with the architect this morning so I’ll have my first entry ready to go!

Firm is called Rider Stirland, there are some examples on their website https://www.riderstirland.com/pippins. They also shared some examples of their current projects (approved & in build etc.) that aren't shown online but I don't want to share on here without the owners permission.

Thanks @Thorfun I'll soon be a blogger!

My partner (SWMBO now thanks to this forum) is a photo fiend, so we should be well covered here. Good advice though. Can't see how to start a blog on here... can you point me in the right direction? Good idea. Will do it digitally and add to my rapidly expanding project google drive!

Not as exciting as when we completed on our plot but it still feels good! He was one of the more expensive options we shortlisted but we got on very well, met current clients who were very happy with him, and we reviewed some of his previous Design & Access statements etc. which we thought were good quality. Will probably create a thread to share floorplans etc. in due course to benefit from the experience of other BH'ers. Haven't yet figured out how but I'm half tempted to start tracking the process through blog posts, even if it's just for us to look back on (hopefully fondly) in a years to come! Also a massive thanks to @ETC who has offered some great support and advice to help us get to this point.

We ended up buying a bungalow with a generous plot that will (hopefully) allow for a larger replacement home. For us, it was mostly the location, but I think there are a number of others pros to bungalow hunting: Can search for on Rightmove etc. Already have services Already a dwelling / in a settlement boundary - no worries about trying to get change of use etc. But as Bozza said, it isn't necessarily the cheapest option..

We're right at the beginning of our journey - own a plot but currently finding an architect to work with - and setting / keeping an accurate budget seems nightmareish! I'm good with numbers and spreadsheets but seeing the price rises of the last few years (without much light at the end of the tunnel) makes it seem a daunting task. Our build budget is smaller than planned (ending up spending more on the plot when something in a perfect location for us popped up) so it's a little unclear if we can even afford to do what we want yet. And if we are short, not sure how long it will take to catch up if things keep getting more expensive.

We're a similar age and have a similar view, though we're thinking more like 200m2. We don't want to compromise on the fabric of the building or things that you can realistically only do once. Everything else we can add or upgrade over time

Great to hear the positive reviews for MBC. My initial impressions were great, so it's nice to hear that backed up by people who've worked with them. @deancatherine09 we're definitely leaning towards passive, but will have to make a final call once we have designs to cost more accurately. Out of interest, is that £30k premium vs their 'high performance range' and if so which of the 3 u-values they offer. I notice their best uvalue in that range is actually lower than the passive wall, so i suspect it must fall down in airtightness or thermal bridging somehow. @Hilldes could you elaborate on the challenges you faced? @markharro great insight, and a good call out about not being wind/watertight. I don't think I have the time / skill / confidence to take on as much of the work as you are intending to, so will definitely have to consider that in planning

Thanks both - great insight. Definitely got a lot to think through and whether I can realistically commit to doing it - the idea/challenge is exciting but I need to be practical. I think that using an MC or single firm (like MBC) to get to wind and waterproof stage will definitelty be the way forward. The question will be whether I then pick up from there, as I'd hope that the riskiest stage was done and any mistakes I made would be less likely to compeltely derail the project.

Hi all, We're at the start of our self build journey and were pointed to this forum by MBC timberframe (who we are thinking of using). Looks like a treasure trove of useful info and helpful folks, so looking forward to many happy hours of reading ahead! Managed to purchase a plot last year (small bungalow on a fairly generous plot) so that hurdle is behind us. Still wrestling with a couple of questions, but we're hoping to make our minds up shortly. If you have any thoughts or guidance please let me know! 1) Do we build a Passivehouse or just get close (I'm leaning towards the former if costs don't push us out of budget) 2) Do we go design and build (e.g. Potton) or work with an architect for design and go to a firm like MBC / Beattie passive to build. I think I prefer the second route but conscious of the extra cost an architect brings (some quotes we've had so far are eye-watering and I think duplicate work that someone like MBC does anyway) 3) Can we self project manage? Given our full time jobs / lack of experience I doubt we can do it properly alone - thinking we will work with a project manager to avoid paying the premium of a main contractor Thanks!