Mr Punter

Why all the holes?

Hence the baby?

Where do you dry the laundry?

Fantastic. We did our wedding DIY on a shoestring with help from friends and family. I think it helps make it special.

I thought it was commonplace to fit a stainless liner when installing a stove and to fill around with vermiculite.

I know you have the light switches in place, but could you try rotating the bed and have it against the internal west wall?

Can't he collect the surface water in ACO type drainage and direct it to a soakaway or ditch? No need to rip up the yard, just a neat cut. It is pretty obvious why we need to keep rainwater and sewage separate where possible.

If you post a picture during wall removal and after the steel is in place it would be of interest to lots of members.

Where is the shower? If possible have a separate extract from the shower located in the ceiling above the shower tray and leave it to overrun for at least 20 mins.

I assume this is an extension. The rafter size depends on the span, the proposed loading and the timber grade and needs to be properly calculated. You may be able to reference a span table for this. I assume the steel ridge is at right angels to the main house wall and the roof pitches both sides. It may be better to have a flat ceiling and insulated a t ceiling joist level. You could even do the roof with lightweight trusses and lose the steel beam.

If it is only 3m2 of single skin brickwork it will be very cheap. You could just get someone to start a couple of courses to keep them quiet. I don't think they can easily compel you to complete it quickly.

Did you apply to the council to get the brick type approved? They can be quite particular regarding what is acceptable within the curtilage of a listed building. Is the remaining footing wide enough to take the brick facing?

When was the drain fitted? It looks like it is taking water from a fair area - not like a front door threshold.

Looks tiny. How much concrete? I haven't really been paying attention and imagined at least a couple of lorry loads and 900 deep trench fill foundations.

Should be but ask the people doing the doors. You need this to the entrance floor WC as well and that needs to open out. All the escape windows should be min clear opening of 450mm x 450mm and the bottom less than 1100mm from the floor.

Blimey! Like we said, shut up about the rain on the concrete already!

There are differing opinions on insulating old solid wall buildings. If the walls are damp it is worth trying to find out how the damp is getting in. Originally the solid wall would be ventilated to the inside and out. The inside air would be slightly warmer and have lots of ventilation / drafts from chimneys and ill fitting windows. This may have allowed the wall to remain fairly dry but the cold and drafts make it uncomfortable to live in. I would not want to use organic material against a damp wall and would choose Celotex / Kingspan type with a VCL on the warm side. I have used silane / siloxane cream on the outside of a solid brick wall and it is claimed that this prevents rainwater saturation while still allowing evaporation, helping the wall to dry.

If it is trench fill the rain won't hurt. The rain water will be displaced by the concrete. More harm will be done by leaving the trenches open. If it was a floor slab I may want to delay, especially if I was after a polished finish.

You mentioned Passivhaus. EnerPHit is aimed more at existing buildings. https://europhit.eu/ There was someone over a greenbuildingforum (shevek?) who did this on a terrace house. If you are insulating the walls internally you could have the insulation directly against the wall. If is rigid boards you could secure them with battens which would also form a service void. Do not introduce a cavity between the wall and the insulation. The inner face of the insulation should be as vapour impermeable as practicable, so tape the joins and use a decent VCL. The permeable materials are best introduced on the cold side of the insulation, so repointing externally should be lime etc. Join the wall insulation to the ground floor insulation. Regarding air permeability you could aim to achieve 5 m³ / (h.m²) and MVHR will be fine with this. Forget the log burner and the open fireplaces. Regarding build method for the extension, perhaps get a price for blockwork and ICF. See how they compare in cost, wall thickness, ease to finish etc. Most builders are familiar with blockwork. I would not suggest timber frame against an existing stone building.

Off topic but if it not too late, consider having a larger door to the airing cupboard as if the cylinder fails you would need to demolish a section of wall. I don't think the clear space at the head of stair matters as this is a cupboard. You could have a bifold type door. The plumber will thank you, or rather, the plumber will not curse you as much.

But you could find it with a metal detector!

I use an impact driver for these. Makes the job easy and does not strain your wrist with the torque.

That is quite an imbalance between land cost and build cost, which at less than £1000 per metre is very low. You should be able to borrow 4 times your income up to a max of 75% of the finished house value. If you borrow on your current house this will be factored in. With a self build mortgage this will be released in stages, often n arrears. If you can't comfortably make the mortgage payments from your employment income you will run into financial problems.

I can understand the timber at the bottom to take the weight but I would fix metal strap to the sides and the head and fix this to the brickwork. I am not sure what look you are going for but I would prefer to have, say, 30mm of frame in the brick reveal and the remainder in the insulation. This leaves you with a reasonable cill inside and out. A section detail for windows is really useful. How do you fix timber cladding to 120mm EPS? 200mm screws through battens? Can you post pics of your progress and let us know what to look out for?

Be aware if they price for the CAT 5 or 6 per point as it can get really expensive. The cable is v. cheap and you could always run it yourself. Run all to one point, same with TV. Don't bother with phone sockets - you can just use the CAT 5 / 6 and use an adaptor. Have a light near the barbecue, switched from indoors. For under counter kitchen appliances, have a socket under the plinth on flexible cable as most appliances have a plug fitted.