Bozza

ok so if you provide a list of issues at your meeting (effectively a community impact assessment) that you’ve already identified to the attendees, like the sewage pipe & school drop, plus your mitigating measures planned, then that will send a positive message to those attending in terms of your considerate approach. Have blank spaces on your assessment so you can note specific concerns and indicate you are looking to address them Effectively what you’re doing is flushing out any concerns and potentially resolving them prior to your PP. This reduces the chances of objections and increase chances of support. if your plot perhaps borders any public communal areas or open space you may with to consider perhaps donating some planting or a bench that kind of thing. Or a donation to the community council to put some thing in to the community. Nominal gesture, but as a thank you for your support and apology for the disruption. hearts and minds and all that.

I’ve never bought the argument of “it’s my land, my house and sod the neighbours”. I think you’re doing the right thing. Architecture is an art form and as such everyone has a subjective view. The best way to get the neighbours on side in that respect is to try to make the design as sympathetic as possible eg nod to local architecture, materials, roof lines etc - like you say sensitive to the area. It doesn’t surprise me when someone has problems trying to build a German box amongst village cottages. try to avoid the question “do you like it”. Maybes “do you think we’re trying to be sympathetic in terms of size, material etc” or “do you like the fact we’re using local stone” etc. The second issue to flush out and potential technical issues eg road access, drainage etc. things that could scupper your plans. Locals may highlight legitimate things you weren’t aware of that could scupper planning approval. Building up a relationship with your neighbours in a new small community is vital. When speaking to individuals ask them “how does this build impact on you personally”. That gives them an opportunity to speak up any hidden concerns and allows you effectively assess that risk and implement mitigation measures. eg next door neighbour tells you they are a night shift worker and worried about noise disturbance. Though that wouldn’t impact on PP that person could object on more substantive factors as a means to an end. Lastly having a good relationship can have advantages. My new neighbours helped me out with diggers, and disposal of many tonnage of spoil. One neighbour was happy to chop down an unwanted tree and take the firewood. You are right about the perceptions of certain communities being suspicious about incomers. It’s not about accent so much or where you’re coming from it’s more about they just don’t want loud obnoxious arrogant d#cks coming into their community and spoiling it. There are substantial differences between living in big cities and the rural communities, in terms of relationship with neighbours.

I’m in Scotland too and in some parts of rural Scotland smart meter communicate via radio signals. In England via mobile network signals. In Scotland they are currently trialling extender systems to allow more smart meters to communicate as they should be. I know this because my smart meter doesn’t communicate and I had an Engineer around explaining this a couple of weeks ago and I’m now on a waiting list for roll out once the trial ends. Allegedly.

Because your neighbours are nutters I’d definitely run it past your local planners. And ideally incorporate barbed wire & a machine gun post in your design. But surely as you are elevated above them would you need to go as high as 2m?

…and if your struggling to find a plot have you considered buying something to demo…that’s how we did it as couldn’t find a suitable plot in the right location.

Ok….so if this is more about learning how to design a house yourself, for your needs…..and doing so as an interim source of pleasure until you get your plot (which is exactly what I did),… what I’d advise you to do is design houses based upon actual real plots that you see in your area, or even further afield. As such you’ll learn about how to incorporate your needs into specific plots. I think that would be more helpful as a learning opportunity. Inevitably you’ll get the best advice here based upon actual plot as it’s so incredibly relevant to the house design. but a word of caution….if your house design is your “baby”, as it can sometime be for most of us, be prepared for folk to tell you they think you’ve got an ugly baby Nobody want to do that of course but creative criticism can drive your forward to a better design.

Honestly, don’t waste anymore time on this. Wait until you get a plot. That design & layout may be totally unsuitable for the plot you buy. You have some nice ideas, the rear overhang is nice and having the main living / kitchen area are strong. But your interior layout has some obvious problems including basic things like interior hallways with zero natural light, insufficient entrance hallway space, and walking through a room to get to another room. I had my ideas and designs prior to finding a plot. This impacted negatively on my final design as I had a mindset of what I thought we wanted and tried to force that into our design. With hindsight I should have approached my plot with a far more open mind. Keep a portfolio of images, rooms, like the one in your post by all means. When you get the plot either get an architect, get some inspiration from other house designs online, or seek advice here in particular from the likes of those with expertise like @ETC That would be my best and honest advice, but would caveat this by saying it’s your house / your money etc….

A picture would explain thing better :)

Really struggling to see how you’d get any light into the front of the living room, which appears to be the length of the house. Only thing might be to section off that dark section and perhaps have a utility, or downstairs loo there, which doesn’t need light, and push the living area back to the rear of the house where there would be light, perhaps with a glazed addition there if you need more room. But a lot would depend on the layout downstairs. I assume staircase is to left and doorway leads to livingroom which acts as a thoroughfare to rear of house? Or do you have a hallway downstairs. I doubt you could successfully add a garage to the front and not reconfigure the house downstairs. I think you’d struggle to get a pitched roof on the garage due to the upstairs bedroom so you’d likely be looking at a flat roof. with a big budget and a good architect (if allowed by planners) I think it could be done well, but the time you do all that you might be better off simply moving to a suitable house with a garage.

We went for Rationel, and have been happy with them in terms of price -v- quality etc. didn’t shop around that much TBH. Pretty sure other members will have experience of the other brands.

Congratulations guys you’ve done an amazing job. So sorry about your Mum Zara. A trauma in our family also motivated us to self build, so I get it. She’d be very proud of what you’ve achieved.

Oh and BTW you’ll be asked a lot about your GD experience so suggest you write an essay about it

Was there something unusual about your build? Why were they interested in you guys, other than the Hollywood smiles? GD usually don’t feature run of the mill builds.

Ooenreach are appalling.

I trust you inserted the words “Buildhub” into every recorded interview. If not, expect abuse from members.