Bozza

£8-10k ? And here’s me being royally flamed back in May when I tried to help by suggesting ………. £10k

Yes I think you’re 100% right that would be an issue AliG. In theory if the staircase lands further south than on existing drawing, or is made to be with tweaking, that may give just enough head height/floor space as you enter the craft room. Perhaps utilising that low comb height for low level storage. Our Comb height is 1.4m and you don’t really notice it unless you’re mental and stand against the wall for some odd reason, but in fairness that’s on a 45deg roof pitch so would be more noticeable on Glen’s house with the shallower pitch.

Just throwing this sketch at you @Glen as an alternative layout idea, with giving you the same rooms. *I am not an architect*. noting the need for a bigger pantry than my sketch, extra space could be taken from the now bigger office. My main idea for you to make the craft room bigger and overlooking the kitchen like a mezzine type thing. This would make the seating area in the kitchen diner more intimate underneath with normal height ceiling there, leaving the kitchen / diner vaulted. Back to downstairs the lounge is slightly smaller but more convertible to a downstairs bedroom and the new vestibule gives some privacy to acess downstairs shower room, which is located near to the garage for cleaning up. Likewise the laundry room/utility there and at bottom of stairs. The change of boiler room in garage would give up you a sink at back of garage. This design, or something similar, leaves you with a massive kitchen diner overlooking your garden which I think is key to your needs and would address the odd shaped rooms you currently have.

Thanks @joth have attached the label for the pump how do I interpret these numbers in relation to what you’re advising, it’s all gobledegook to my brain.

Currently my wee Draper / toolstation back up generator runs some essential basics during power cuts at my house. I’m looking at upgrading with a proper changeover switch and a bigger generator. There are plenty of guidance lists online with regards to the consumption of the usual domestic appliances, to allow me to estimate the correct capacity generator I require. The bit I need help with is - How is the best way to figure out the consumption of my ASHP, to see if it’s viable to have it running off a back up genny. Appreciate its consumption will relate to variable outdoor temperatures etc. I’m a bit of a biff when it comes to watts, kWh, and such calculations and can’t seem to get an answer anywhere else online. cheers Bozza

Havsta is stained pinewood, most Ikea units and shelves are smooth particleboard and unlikely to match (apart from Hemnes, but they don’t do shelves etc). It’s totally possible to buy additional units and chop down the top portions to create add on units but that would clearly be very expensive and would require decent cabinetry skills in your part, or hiring a joiner. If it were me I’d just get some bookends to keep the books on top lined up with those below.

So we lived in a house with no mortgage and money in bank. Bought a plot with a house to be demolished Funded that purchase by lending on current house. Knocked down house on plot did all the planning etc and once handed plot over to builder we sold our own house and moved into a rental property. Plot not suitable for caravan. So we took a hit on renting a tiny flat during build but meant we had minimum self build loan amount. Though numbers are different, your circs are similar to ours. The best thing we did was to sell our house and move into a rental. Because it was a clean and straightforward stages/ steps. we didn’t end up in situation where we owned one house and trying to fund building a second house. You never know what’s round the corner (in our case pandemic & lockdown). If we had stayed in original house until new one was built we’d have been in a dire situation. as far as I can see if you sold your house and paid off mortgage you’d have £210k plus your £50k savings. I cannot see how you could demolish a property and build a house for £260k quickly TBH. unless you physically do a lot if it yourself and it’s a very small basic spec house. Or lend more. if I was in your position right now I’d make sure I’d secured planning permission. Then establish the full demo and build cost. If it’s affordable, demo the old property and clear the site. (we did that ourself at zero cost). then sell your own house. You will then have financial clarity and money in the bank. You can then decide whether you can afford to rent or live on site. Your proposed strategy is to sell house only once new build is compete (exactly what we would have wished to do). That fine if your savings, or access to funds, would be in well in excess of your build cost. As it’s not, if something goes wrong whether job loss, illness, further economic issues, war, inflation, housing crash, labour shortage, builder problems, pandemic (all these things are not unrealistic) you’d be left potentially in your current house with a half built new house that you can’t finish. And facing financial ruin. The other option if you insist on keeping your own house would be to build in stages from your savings and release equity from your house. But even your £50k savings will be exhausted far quicker than you can imagine it a take £20k upwards just to get out of the ground. don’t give up, but think carefully. I see a lot of plots being sold with the foundations only having been completed. you’d be able to lend off the owned plot of course - speak to Ecology - but it’s possible the value of the plot would initially reduce because your removing a house from it. And you’d be hit with high interest rates.

The single biggest mistake we made with our design was to have the plant room with ASHP internal gubbins pumps etc beneath our master bedroom. It is very noisy.not the ASHP, just the internal pumps when it is on. No issue in the summer but a nightmare in the winter. your design has that stuff basically in your bedroom. which will be even worse. ***Strongly*** suggest you move it over towards or even inside the garage. Also consider what is above it. put acoustic insulation in the plant cupboard including ceiling. Learn from my mistake.

Easy. 4g router £90 on Amazon. Plus external antenna if needed. Unlimited data SIM card circa £16 per month. All assuming your site gets a mobile signal. to save me repeating my previous detailed replies please use search facility for this forum. Search 4g router or whatever.

My last house I had a DIY kitchen for 10 years. It was great. When I self built I didn’t even consider anyone else, went straight to DIY again. My best mate did a DIY kitchen on my recommendation. He was very happy too. On my most recent one one of the painted doors had a slight blemish on it. They sent a new one out promptly. Excellent customer service. I installed units myself but got them to supply & fit the quartz worktops. No issues with splitting the invoice for vat self claim / no vat supply & fit. Just remember as the carcasses are rigid not flat pack, they take up a huge amount of space on delivery. can’t comment on howdens but can confirm DIY kitchens are excellent. When planning my self build kitchen I visited a local independent posh, impressive annd expensive kitchen showroom for inspiration . I recognised they were using /selling DIY kitchens at a huge mark up.

Ours was stick built on site no problem. Mitigates risk associated with TF companies for obvious reasons. Additional benefit any last minutes changes easier. Stick built meant they effectively constructed walls on site and erected them on site. Our house was paid for in arrears after every stage was completed & signed off. Bear in mind kits will require transportation, cranes, sometimes road closures. Our stick frame went up PDQ, slower than kit of course but went up in a week or so. pros & cons for every system. +1 re credit card protection for anything really.

When I built my barn/garage/store, on a budget, I just mixed concrete in cement mixer and did a roughish pour. Then finished the floor with no nonsense leveller from screwfix. Came out ok actually pretty smooth and robust so far.

Have you considered gabion baskets. You can use decorative rocks on face and rubble behind. It does have a distinctive look which may or may not be to your taste/style. the baskets aren’t cheap but you could pick up rubble for free from Facebook, and buy your stone direct from quarries to face the baskets. I’ve seen gabion baskets with sleepers on top as a cap which can look really good. might be an option for you.

Ok so your conservatory is warm in summer and freezing cold in winter, just like my parents one. Their solution, to only use it in the summer, doesn’t work for you. As an alternative to upgrading the conservatory insulation do you have another room in the house that can give you a decent view, even if it involved putting in a larger (efficient) glazing that you could use in the winter. Or windows in what is currently a wall. A cheaper option than putting in ASHP which definitely won’t help and might even be useless in trying to heat up a poorly insulated conservatory.

Jim, unless I’ve misunderstood you’re paying £750 per month in gas only, to heat a ground floor of a house only? If that’s correct, even with high energy prices you will probably have a very poorly insulated house whereby an ASHP won’t solve your problems. I would suggest you take advice from Energy Savings Trust or equivalent agencies. Conor is right, you are better spending money on things that will improve insulation.

Be careful on relying on what their website says. It says I can get fibre etc which is total nonsense. I think the system works on postcodes as opposed to actual lines that run through the postcodes. Speaking to the neighbours that are on the line that you’d be connected to is your best bet, to see what speeds they get.

+1 for 4g router unlimited SIM card and external antenna in an area with rubbish landline broadband/no fibre area. £16 pm with EE. Get between 10-50 mbps but normally circa 18-20. Enough for us including WFH, streaming TV etc, and 13 year old (say no more). Have never missed having a landline. as other post have suggested do what I did tried various payg networks find one that has best download speeds at your plot then put SIM card into sim free 4g router and connect to external antenna, if needed. Super simple.

It sounds that way yes that they don’t want upper extensions closer than 1m, understandably. But of course every application is different. If that is the case an upper extension 1.54m sounds far less viable. Perhaps suggest you speak to planning dept if possible or even knock on door of that other house they might give you a steer if it was them who submitted it. Sounds like extending at back is more viable for you.

Welcome. Have you done your research with building control, insurers, mortgage lenders etc with regard to the flooding risk. I’d imagine that could be a big issue. i seem to recall a Grand Designs house a few years ago whereby when flooded the house would float upwards. And the Dutch live in houses, so there will definitely be plenty of technical solutions. is it concealable to build a house on some sort of legs or frame that could double as a car port? passive-house standard is important to some some self builders but not essential to get a very well insulated and efficient house. your project sounds very challenging and interesting. Good luck !

I’d be surprised if your project “adds up” financially - £120k plus - not to increase room numbers. is an option to retain / refurb conservatory and open up kitchen / dining room wall. Put a utility room at end of old kitchen make remaining area of kitchen a dining area, and using existing dining as new kitchen or something similar. The proposal for building over garage sounds excessive expensive -v- return. Would an option (certainly cheaper) be to split 2nd floor bedroom into two rooms, and making small first floor bedroom a study or even another en-suite to the big bedroom. all depends of course what you are looking for and how much you wish to spend. new kitchen cost? Circa 30k budget should give you a very decent kitchen fitted but you can go much cheaper than that depend on need and budget. I put in a £20-25k kitchen for about £7k because I did it myself. if you allow 30k for kitchen just don’t expect hand built oak or whatever, but likewise not an ikea kitchen or similar. Worktops can cost hundreds to thousands depending on what you want.

I’m assuming the kitchen base units carcasses are not on the floor and are sitting on some sort of low platform or plinth for the doors to open. Also assuming the carpet runs wall to wall and underneath the units. If there is a a low removeable plinth that gives sufficient access underneath the units to remove the carpet and allow you to floor under then your remaining problem is the end panels which if only screwed on could be removed or the bottoms cut down using a multi tool in same was as you would do a door jamb. That has risks though and it would probably be easier just to remove the units as suggested. Only other solution would be to cut the carpet around the base to remove visible carpet. Then floor up to units with minimum expansion gap and use a sealant around. To be honest the time and effort to do any of these issues probably wouldn’t be worth it and there would be high risk it would look sh&te as a few things could go wrong. other option perhaps is wood effect tiles that your can tile right up to the units. If the units are sitting on the underlay and carpet you’ll have to put in new flooring at last that height, obviously. I don’t think there’s an easy way to replace that carpet with a wood floor. There are not that many units to remove TBH.

Maybes consider popping your proposal in the forum prior to submission. Obviously we are not your local planners etc but the membership here are (a) experienced (b) honest (c) on your side (d) free. You’re probably well informed and knowledgeable but the collective genius of many here may save yourself a lot of time and money with suggestions and ideas to enhance your chances of an easy win with the planners. I speak as someone who wished they’d found this forum earlier and done just that. Would have ended up with a better house.

Having self-built in a rural area myself (replacement old house, when planning policy preference was to retain and upgrade existing buildings) what I learned was this: the local authority will have a series of planning policy requirements. Obviously if your proposal ticks all the boxes your application will go through easily, if you don’t it won’t. Some of these policies are aimed more at major developments as opposed to single homes (exactly as @Jilly says). That said perhaps the council won’t be keen for anyone to build something that would be too big & expensive for many to afford (eg if you sell it). I would just advise the more boxes you tick the increased chances of success. In my experience the fact that I was going against the council policy preference to rebuild existing buildings, by replacing it with something 2x as big, was the fact that I was replacing it with a sustainable property, high quality natural materials, fitted in referenced the former building angles footprint etc etc, had community support etc etc. so I was trying to tick most of the other planning boxes. The planners asked me to use natural slate on the roof for example - they were right to so and I was happy to comply. If your proposed build is clearly much larger than what it surrounds suggest a design that references local vernacular or maybes two smaller linked buildings to get your sqm you need. I know much of what I’ve said doesn’t really answer your specific query, but just offering this in case you’d hadn’t considered this. your issue may be if 250sqm is significantly bigger than what it surrounds. Floorspace can be hidden in design eg 1.5 storey houses clearly look smaller than 2 storey.

3 metres ish