ultramods

I prefer this to this first idea you showed us. However I don't like how the roof on the main house gable is lower on the left side compared to the right. Can it not be symmetrical?

I don't like the sloped roof on the atrium, have you considered a flat roof, something like this?

Hi @DonGillies the house looks very pretty. Can you show us the floor plans?

I went to Wren and various other companies who were all quoting around 20k. I decided to order our kitchen from DIY kitchens who will supply worktop and cabinets (including doors) and I will source all appliances myself. This has saved us around 5-6k

Did you get a breakdown of the cost? They may be charging a lot for say digging up the road and the pavement. Do you know where your other services are located, gas, water, foul, BT? if they are all located in a similar position it might make more sense to try and get all the connections completed at the same time so you are only paying to dig up and resurface the road and pavement once. My ground worker is going to be doing most of the work.

@Alexphd1 where are you getting your glass from?

LOLZ the company is https://www.q-railing.com/en-nl/

I have asked the guy for company name, will let you know once he replies.

Maybe they are great at marketing and just OK at engineering.

Problem Solved!

Alex are you looking for a glass fixing system? If so the guy making my steel stair recommended some German company that he thinks are the best, but very expensive. I can find out the name if you like. However he said a more reasonably priced company is https://www.fhbrundle.co.uk/. I am going to be ordering from FH Brundle.

That doesn't surprise me given the level of attention our build has received so far from the council, not that i'm complaining.

I could turn the ground floor into an allotment for when the valuer comes over

You are correct. I have just looked on Zoopla at sold house prices for houses that are similar sized to mine and larger. There is a mix between band G and H. Fingers crossed we are G. In that case the garage will definitely stay a garage at least until the valuer has been and gone.

I would have thought so as the house next door is 33% smaller and a band G

Also thinking about it some more, doing this option would mean we wouldn't need an insulated sectional door. A roller door wold probably be a better option we want to have a partition 2 metres from the garage door - in terms of not having the roof tracks.

Thanks @ProDave I spoke to the BC officer this week whilst he was doing an inspection and he saw no issue with it, just told me to check that the planner would be OK with the change. In terms of council I would image the house will already be in the highest band, so we can't go higher (don't not whether to laugh or cry about that). I like your idea of a storage area which I hadn't thought of. this would mean we could have a 2 metre wide storage area and still have a 4m x 6m room. Think I will ask the plumber to put in two UFH loops to allow this option.

Our attached garage has the same closed panel insulated (u-value 0.16) walls and roof spec as the rest of the house. The floor is also going to be insulated and have UFH. The south west elevation also has a 3000mm x 2400mm sliding patio door. The plan was to fit a Hormann insulated sectional garage door, however because I doubt I will ever put the car in the garage I am now trying to decide if I should fit a garage door or simply block up the current hole with a another timber frame panel. The plan for the space is to be a home gym and maybe a games room. However another use could be a 5th bedroom for when we have a lot of family staying over. Our current plan is to live in the house for 10 years, which means I do need to consider what a future buyer would want. The garage will be clad with vertical timber, meaning if someone at a later date wanted to fit a garage door it should be simple to do. I can build a Shed to house gardening tools etc. Ignoring any planning, building control or cost issues, what would you do?

I think the Trend one would be quicker and less prone to errors. I had seen a used one on ebay for £90

@shaunf17 Is the garage really required? Using the garage space as living space and building on top of the garage to add more first floor space could make a big difference to the house. Can you note the dimensions of the various rooms please? Some of the bedrooms look a bit small. Looks like the ground floor hallway, dining room, utility room and GF WC might be dark as they wont have much/any natural light. I'm not keen on the pathway to access the kitchen through the dining room. As others have mentioned having the WC accessed from the kitchen isn't ideal. If budget permitted I would be looking to use the garage space as living space which would then allow you to have an extra hall way to access the kitchen and the WC. on the first floor building on top of the garage would allow a master ensuite a family bathroom and better sizes for bedrooms 1, 2 and 3.

Which jig did you use? I was going to buy a used Trend one on ebay.

The timber frame company were going to be providing pre hung doors (door attached to lining/frame) and our joiners would have hung them. However i'm looking to save some money here as the internal doors (22 basic flush white doors 2040 x 926) , skirting (50 mm MDF), architraves and loft hatch are going to be £7,500. I have started getting quotes for pre hung doors, however so far the quotes are £290 - 400 per door! I think on a DIY basis I can do it for £170 per door. I have been looking into the following jigs for the hinges and the door handle + catch. https://www.trend-uk.com/en/UK/product/H_JIG_A/3/176/hinge_jig_two_part_in_case_.html https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dale-Hardware-JTP6000-JIGTECH-Professional/dp/B06XDQRF2Y/ref=sr_1_7?s=diy&ie=UTF8&qid=1547836858&sr=1-7&keywords=pro+jig

I have a list of all the professional fees for my self build. Depending on your plot you may also need to pay for: - Ecological/Bat survey - Soil Survey - Test Pits I created the floor plans for our house and the external "vision", then an Architectural Technologist drew up the plans professionally and submitted the plans to the council. As you can see from the fees above, to get to approved planning permission wasn't too expensive, we had 3D renders completed for £1200, that may not be needed. Unless you are very confident that you could design a house that is visually appealing, works well for you functionally, makes best use of the plot and most importantly will gain planning approval (think about the design of neighboring houses, local planning strategy, neighbors possibly objecting, conservation area etc) I would recommend having some sort of professional helping you with the planning phase. If I was to do it again, I would: Do exactly the same as I have up to the planning approval, with the exception of not having the 3D renders completed by the Architect. If I needed 3D renders to support the planning application I would get a specialist such us https://www.facebook.com/touch3dvisualisation/ to provide the 3D renders. Once I had planning permission and I was going to build using timberframe I would then ask several timber frame companies to quote for completing the structural engineering drawings, building warrant and finally producing the timber frame. I would do it this way as you are then only dealing with one company rather than 2 - 3, which I think would make the timeline up until the kit arriving on site faster (based on my experience). The reason I wouldn't ask the timber frame company to also do the initial design of the house and the building warrant is because I wouldn't want to be tied to a particular company as they may possibly charge you more, for the building warrant and kit etc as they know you are tied to them. Your other option could be to see if any of the timber frame companies have existing designs that you like as then you could get pricing from them before committing to them. Scotframe for example have various house designs to choose from.

Can you post some photos of neighbouring houses?

Can you tell me the render and cladding colours please?