Jilly

Wowsers. Puts mine in perspective ?

'. So if it pivots you basically have two "halls" that you can choose to go left or right side? Just trying to picture it' Yes, that's right. Just found the magazine: a Quadra pivot door system by Massimo Luca. Could be expensive...

I've seen a very posh tall glass door set to pivot in the centre. Cant find a picture. It might be ok for a larger area.

I got worried about this too. When you have full plans Building Control application, it is all worked out by the architect's technician, double checked by BC themselves and then further number crunched by someone who does the SAP calculations, so you don't need to worry too much, other than having an idea.

What about an old hearth? I got two lovely pieces of marble for £5

Have you thought about putting big mirror on one wall?

Hello and welcome.

At a glance it looks like you could live in the downstairs like a bungalow. The recession may force labour costs down and material costs up. Or not. If you can live for free on site, slow is cheaper. There was a 'what I've learned/would have done differently' thread a while back. Getting SAP calculations done early was advised and I've done just that and a serious cold bridge was spotted, so very useful.

I'm at the same stage as you and had to scale back. I've spent about £25K on professional fees Can you scale back, and get the shell up and half ready to live in and then DIY the rest as best you Can? PS having PD rights removes doesn't mean you cant do stuff, but it means you need to apply for planning permission (when the building is habitable, I think) rather than it being an automatic right.

I've been asked to chose the whole bathroom on the basis of water consumption...

Sorry to hijack, but I've just been asked to chose taps for the BC drawings. Can adding £5 aerator ensure compliance?

It's generally only easy to collaborate with owner occupiers. The landlord has no incentive to pay you to upgrade something which is, in his/her eyes, a perfectly functional existing arrangement.

I would agree with the others, I'm only at the stage of conscious incompetence after about 5 years of wrangling. You need substantial cash on the table (not borrowed equity) to be a professional developer, and the current situation is creating a whole lot of uncertainty. The most constructive (excuse the pun) low risk, thing I can think of for your situation is to pair up with another self builder to buy the plot and pool your resources to share costs/labour and pain, live on site in statics, then live in the houses to avoid CGT (I thought it was 2 years), and then consider if you want to do it again on a bigger scale.

Sounds great

You need a cat !

No roof lights, but can apply after its habitable. The walls are 140mm block with featherboard cladding.

We could lower the floors, but if we do that we have to underpin...

I haven't joined it but I know someone who is going to, in case it helps when he wants to get planning permission on a site he is keen on. It looks like a govt box ticking exercise when you read the guff.

I think you are looking at a stable wall that's being demolished. Yes, I was going to compromise by vaulted over the kitchen diner, as shown. Re the loss of internal space, the architect did the calc, but i'd specific sweeps wool, so maybe that's why it seems a big loss of floor space? Better check...

Yes, sorry!

Maybe...

No, I've tried, they are very clear, the house has to be habitable and then I can apply for an extension as a householder. It's a conservation area and all my PD rights have been removed, cant even have a chimney!

Hi, there is a risk I won't sleep after getting all your opinions, but I've had a full plans BC application done and a second structural engineer has said that we don't need to underpin as the loadings on the existing slab are the same, so I want assurance that it complies and to let me chose a builder. The project is a headache because it is small (60m x 10m) and putting internal wall insulation would reduce the floorspace to about 48m2, so I've opted for exterior, under the featherboard, but there is very little space and my wall u values look rubbish. The existing roof trusses preclude any way to create a vaulted ceiling and so the roof would have to come off (heartbreaking, its perfectly good!) to do this. This might give an opportunity to create an extra bit of overhang to get more insulation in. Lack of headroom is the reason for the poor floor insulation. I was thinking of boarding the ceiling because it is quick, cheap and would allow a lot of insulation, but my architect technician says it might be like a hobbit house... (2.1m height) Would a vaulted ceiling be considerable more beautiful/saleable/luxurious?? In view of reading Jeremy's post on u values, I've maybe just talked myself into removing the entire roof to solve a few problems... Prelim BC.pdf

Grand Designs have built some fancy houses in woodlands using tree sparing foundations. I don't recall the detail, but the are more options available than just killing the tree.

I'm sure they put ours up.