Being a mere dreamer of building our own property I had previously been a regular visitor to the eBuild forum and was disappointed by it's closure, so whilst doing a recent t'interweb search for Larsen trusses, I was really pleased to find this forum and offer my sincere thanks to all involved in achieving the resurrection.
My previous eBuild name was Eyefor and I had asked many questions and gathered very welcome advice on planning procedures, Architects, build methods etc - all of which were asked on the basis of "soon, we would find a plot" but having looked for over 10 years in our area we were near to giving up and buying a ready built.
Our son and his partner then showed an interest in a fairly local farmhouse that had adjacent (but definitely separate) barns having both agricultural and industrial (B1) uses classification that gave us concerns for the long term future of his property, should he buy it.
Long story short...
They bought the farmhouse in September 2017 and in October 2017 we completed on the 5 barns (total 11,000+ Sq ft) plus 2.9 acres of paddocks without planning permissions but to us, it was a no-lose basis because, although they might make us a nice dwelling, our primary reason for buying them was to protect our son and his partners interest.
Earlier this year, using (superb) planning specialists we submitted applications under permitted development Class Q for change of use to a dwelling on a 2000 sq ft agricultural barn and prior approval for a dwelling under class PA for the 4800 sq ft main barn. Both were approved in July.
Lots to think about and lots to do in the forthcoming months (and years) but I will be regularly visiting the forum in search of ideas (and help!).