Bozza

We have a contemporary kitchen and went for AEG appliances that can be seen. Went with cheaper integrated appliances. We were keen to keep the budget down and couldn’t justify more expensive brands. We did keep an eye on the energy efficiency ratings and features we needed which was somewhat prophetic. Heard a few stories about expensive built in coffee machines that are never used. No problems with any of them, the zanussi dishwasher has been particularity good. As as the hotpoint washer in the utility room. in our last house we had Bosch which were certainly more expensive but didn’t cook our food any better than the AEG etc. nor wash our dishes cleaner. Etc. I also watch a Hisense telly which is better than any other bigger brand I’ve purchased. Being a long term Skoda driver, - Value, quality & features is what attracts me. No doubt the Mieles & Siemens et can look amazing if you have the budget for it. If you have a top end house and intend to sell it I do see attraction of having high end appliances as some people find that kind of thing important to them. Top tip, if you hadn’t planed on doing so put in a boiling tap. Best appliance in our kitchen by far.

Wood / timber strips would be fine. Assuming you don’t have a freestanding washer or dishwasher The problem will be your plinths, you may need to get long decor panels & rip them down.

Your proposed downstairs is spookily similar to mine. Only we enter from the south so staircase area is reversed. So we have lived in it for over 18 months & comments are based upon our experience & what we’d change in our house that is similar as your layout. 1. You need a vestibule area or at least an overhang. For inclement weather. You need entrance storage. 2. Too much south facing glazing especially lounge. When it’s sunny / hot your lounge will be unusable. Like ours. Less glazing. You will use your north facing snug more than you think. Think about making lounge slight smaller & snug slightly bigger & squarer. Have a think about having a built in recess / chimney breast type set up for your telly. We did this with great success. Means that when you come into lounge you don’t see down back of telly & brackets / cables etc. 3. upstairs try to make the bedroom less rectangular & more squarer. Something I wish I’d done.

Re budget. My house was turnkey, bigger and pre covid / inflation so there are only some things that I was aware of the costs that I can compare against. So much is so flipping expensive at the moment. Of those things I look at I think I do hope you could get them at that price, but just think are too low v my own experience. The roof slate looks too low as does UFH and groundworks costs. Yes you have a modest size house design but due to economies of scale the savings are often less than you think in real terms. and like other have comment a smaller site has its own challenges that could cost you. You have allowed 10% contingency. I would say allow perhaps 20-30% to cover everything. Now I may be wrong and be delighted if I am, for your sake. What I would say is if you have the means to loan 30% more than your estimate without having to sell a kidney, then great. If you don’t end up spending that, then even better. You are quite correct that sometimes self building isn’t as “profitable” v renovating etc. both have pros & cons. If I had spent the money I did on my self build, on existing stock, I would have ended up living in a generic development somewhere with a generic house with generic features. Stepford wives etc. There is always something unique & special about self building. Nothing more rewarding than someone commenting positively on something about your self build and knowing “I designed that”. But there are other benefits. Whilst most self builders install renewable and energy efficient technology for environmental benefits, often in excess of min building standards, the unforeseen benefit has been our energy bills recently which we are more protected against. Also moving forward houses with high insulation standards, WFH space etc etc will become more valuable than standard housing stock that don’t have that stuff.

Agree with comments that budget too low. Agree with going through kitchen to get into house bad idea. If you can mirror the external house design you could have something like this. Maybe you cannot for some reason. Might even get three bedroom in upstairs but if space more important than bedroom numbers, two big bedrooms. Thrown together this just to give you ideas. If you only need 2 beds upstairs so be it. Is 2 bathrooms upstairs a necessity in a wee house. rotating house to put kitchen at back gives easier access to like of bin store etc near shed etc. with a more modest size house incorporate as much integrated storage as possible. Looks sleeker, and means you need to buy less furniture. You don’t get VAT back on a built wardrobe, but you do on an built in cupboard. Having separate snug downstairs, convertible into bedroom, in addition to open plan living space v good idea. I think you’ve got a cracking wee project there.

Applications need to be compliant with building regs and local policy so that may be visibility splays, pathways or whatever they require, so part of the process is the roads dept pass comment on your application to make sure where your development meets the public road, it’s safe. that’s the case in Scotland anyway. Also includes things like not having driveway gravel at that boundary, bin store etc etc. things like that. Look at previously submitted successful applications in your area.

You have been honest enough to admit your original motivation to self build was to make money. But now moving towards the excitement of self building a house better than you’d get from a developer. I was exactly the same as you. I thought I could build a great home and end up with money in bank. I realised I couldn’t and built a home that has made money , but perhaps 10%-15%, of cost to build all in. Certainly not 33%. If you want to make big money in this game you need to build small crap houses squeezed into a plot. Like what the big companies do. I am of firm belief that you shouldn’t self build to make money, but you shouldn’t self build to lose money. if you build to lose money your doing something stupid, if you build to make money you’re probably comprising somewhere. Bottom line is with self building you are normally enjoying your wealth by living in it, as opposed to looking at it on a bank balance. don’t forget with 10% ish inflation every £100k in the bank is worth 10% less than a year ago though. Self building, if you do it well, will make you richer, just in terms of lifestyle as opposed to monetary richness. Don't self build to try to make a lot of money / profit Do self build to build yourself a home that better than you get buy elsewhere would be my take on it.

As you are now committed to the ground floor layout I would just advise you are very, very careful about furniture and internal decor choices. The dining room/lounge and hallway are long narrow spaces, and from the plans I’m struggling to visualise the placement of furniture etc.without making rooms feel cramped. I’m no interior designer but I think a less is more approach to furniture, and the careful placement of mirrors in the narrower tighter spaces may help. I think you need to decoratively separate / define the dining room and loung areas. Leaving the sliding doors open from this room into the hallways will make that room feel wider. in your study swap the bookcases (built in?) and desk around. you don’t want your main desk space with windows behind. you end up closing blinds to see your screen , and working in a space with minimum natural light. Moving upstairs, bedroom 3 will be a problem for wardrobes. Having the edges of wardrobes across windows can look terrible and badly designed, and if you have wardrobes on the wall opposite the windows that room will feel very long and narrow. If it were me, I’d put a built in corner WIW in that room. Have attached a sketch. I’ve seen these in American homes and they work really well. On the second floor I think you’ve got real problems. Lots of odd shaped box rooms. If you were able to just have one shower room that would help. Also would have though having natural light to art room to be important. Have attached an alternative idea. without providing a background to your needs and circumstances - family etc, it’s always difficult to give the best advice. Eg kids, dogs, WFH etc. understanding your needs will help us give you some good ideas or suggestions. at the moment I do agree you’re trying to squeeze too much in, especially top floor. I suspect you have concerns yourself. A bit of rethinking, and you’ll end up with an amazing house lots of the things in the design could work out really well. Just try not to think like a major developer who doesn’t care less about how you live after they’ve sold you their overpriced houses with loads of tiny rooms.

I also used Ecology and decided against a structural warranty. I then swapped to a standard mortgage after completion (lucky enough to get a 2.04% fixed rate for 5 years earlier this year). My residential mortgage is with Santander. My build was inspected by an architect whom issued architects certificates PCCs which are accepted by the main lenders. Everything worked out perfectly for us, the Santander surveyor took 10 mins to inspect as we had all paperwork ready to go. This is perhaps your solution, assuming you have an architect supervising your build.

No problem : router: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07ZFSX8LB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Antenna: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00C1DGFPS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Very much a diy install. What I did was I got a selection of free payg SIM cards and tried them all alongside holding antenna outside every window to establish best combo of antenna location / provider. In my case the antenna & router went at one end of house so a simple plug in WiFi booster takes the signal around the house. Certain there will be more geeky ways to establish signal etc but I’m a simple person. if you do go for this kit via Amazon & try with various existing SIM cards / free pay ones obviously if it just doesn’t work for you can return everything easily at no cost/risk. That how I looked at it.

(pro) Dave, you said ruled out 4g due to weak EE signal & cost. Have you considered / tested an external antenna for a 4g router, it took me from 1/2 bars signal to 4 bars. And you can get an unlimited EE sim for £37 pm, but £75 cashback via TCB. Like you we have crappy antique BT line here and no fibre etc, so we didn’t get any landline into the new build. Just use the 4g which does everything we need really well. All the Sat broadband options I found were rubbish & expensive. £37 pm a lot but had no other options.

I’m not in NI so don’t know but if it helps: I had an old cottage that we had pp for demo and rebuild. It was uninhabitable but still liable for council tax, in fact because it had been vacant we were about to be hit with a 200% rate. Previous empty house discounts had been exhausted. The building warrant for the new house was going to take a while so I applied for a separate warrant for the demo of the cottage. The demo warrant came through quickly. Our building control dept advised us to do it this way. I stripped the internals and as soon as the demo warrant came through, I took the roof was off & I was able to send photos in to get the property removed from the council tax list, so not liable for tax moving forward. However as you are about to imminently knock down your house anyway I do wonder whether there are any actual £ benefits -v- costs/time of removing the roof earlier, even if this would meet the criteria in NI. I’m wondering why you didn’t demo the house earlier to exempt it from rates/council tax as assuming you’ve had the pp in place for a while.

I think you have a few issues combined have caused your predicament. 1. EPC C rating in a modern house is not that great TBH. A rating takes effort for sure, but high B is fairly easy to achieve. No fault if the ASHP. 2. Your usage is high. Partly due to the insulation level, partly due to personal usage choices (oven etc) & possibly also setting could be an issue? No fault of the ASHP. 3. You seem to be on a variable rate tariff and haven’t fixed when you could have. The high increases are certainly not your fault, but also no fault if the ASHP. My car gets a a great MPG. Unless I drive it like a maniac, then the MPG is rubbish. That’s not the cars fault.

I live in NE Scotland. It is a cold place and we had a cold winter. My house is 214 sqm. I have ASHP exclusively. no solar etc. My actual annual kw useage is 9200kw. I work from home and stuff is on day and night and I’ve a wife and kid who never seem to know how to turn lights off. In past month I’ve used 350kw as heating hasn’t been on just water. Luckily I fixed last summer so in past month I’ve been paying £80 something like that. That’s not allowing for the funding payments I get fir installing ASHP. Putting tariffs aside your useage is significantly higher than mine that in itself is an issue for you. Likely to be you’ve got a poorly insulated house, surprising if built in 2014, and/or you’ve got issues with your ASHP settings? There are a lot of plumbers out there who say they would never fit ASHP. Probably because they are not qualified to do so and it’s good for their business to diss ASHP. I would say don’t fit ASHP to a poorly insulated house though in fairness.

If you do end up deciding to fit the dish to the gable have you allowed for the roofline overhang and dish direction. I hadn’t and my gable & overhang is very similar to yours. This meant the dish had to go quite low on the gable to prevent line of sight obstruction from the roofline. If I wanted it high it would have needed additional step out cranked poles which would have looked even worse, hence we went lower. obviously if your gable points in same direction of the sky satellite no issues for you

The one disadvantage of self building / major extension, is that you have to make decisions. You can mitigate against bad ones by thinking multifunctionality, should you choose to change room or area to another use. when I designed my house I made my 4th bedroom downstairs into a TV room/snug but it can easily change to a bedroom. Our lounge is south facing and gets hot at times, the TV room doesn’t. Both have TVs. So we have a warm room and a cooler room. Or summer and winter lounge. We can swap room easily. so multifunctional can also include seasonal use. I’m assuming your garden room has nice view and it has lots of glazing and light. If you have other rooms with TVs that don’t I’d have that area with just seating to the garden. Just pop in tv points etc in case things change. That extension is a social space so I’d think about having seating centred around social activity and guests/family etc. in other words facing each other rather than yet another TV.

I think you’re looking for advice whether to commit to building internal walls, or leaving open plan. I think it depends on how you live. My personal view is if you live immaculately anyway and always put the dishes away after dinner and always keep all your rooms tidy then you can live that open plan dream like the photos in the magazines, impress friends etc etc. I remember seeing a tv show where the family had an open plan kitchen diner livingroom that looked immaculate for guests etc. behind a sliding door they had a second modest kitchen which was untidy/normal. Effectively had a kitchen for show and one for use. if you live a bit less tidy especially the kitchen you can’t shut the door behind you. Big open plan is always impressive but I do wonder about some practicalities for some people. Maybes think about having your central heating, lighting circuits and sockets laid out in a way that if you do need to ever put up internal walls you don’t have the expense or hassle of relocating them. I’m a fan of dividing furniture eg bookcases etc to define zones, especially the seating areas.

If safe to live there that’s a good idea pending planning etc. if you do decide to demo and rebuild depending on which self build route you take it may allow you to save money eg site clearance which you can perhaps do some of yourself and gives you time to stockpile great deal/purchases. I demod and rebuilt and had over a year to do the demo myself. Saved £tens of thousands doing so.

You won’t need to spend anywhere near £300k on the other stuff against a £350k turnkey house and plot cost zero. Or shouldn’t be if I can’t put it that way. Obviously if the founds costs (20-30k maybes) are not included in my £50k other stuff estimate then that will increase, but £50k ought to cover anything else, driveway, fees, upgrades, services, surveys, insurance, bats, trees, fencing, more fees, landscaping etc etc. certainly closer to 50k than 300k. I was deffo under £50k for all that stuff. you’ll have a lot of change from your £300k which is good news unless your doing silly stuff

Welcome, The financial risks of renovating an old property are much higher than demo & rebuild. But a new build can rarely replace traditional features, obviously. if the property has stunning traditional features, & you require limited layout changes or major refurb eg electrics plumbing roof etc your balance of risk swings towards refurb. If you are looking at major refurb of a pig of a house, I think the balance of risk swings towards demo & rebuild. Agree 100% with @saveasteadingposting pictures will be helpful in this scenario. Many renovators here often say with hindsight they’d wish they’d demoed and rebuilt.

That looks like an end panel made of worktop material. The flooring should run underneath it and the end panel should “float” ideally above uncut flooring. At least that’s how I fit mine. however you are where you are. There are plenty of sealant options whether to match the floor or the panel. Looks like a white oak laminate there are loads of shades of sealant available that won’t look too bad.

I see you have a full height window to the left. Have you thought about making the doggy door look like a matching window, perhaps bringing it closer to main door. From exterior it could be made to just look like a spacious glazed hallway. integrated blinds or opaque glass whatever would likely be needed. Making it look like a front door with a glass panel next to it? Obviously you’d need covert or discreet external hardware. if though you wish to have the doggy door hidden by cladding it might be more effective to hide by having a more defined entranceway rather than the whole elevation clad and trying to hide the door. I’ve attached pics to try to explain what I’m whittering on about. The second pic shows the slabs leading to the door and you could have gravel to the hidden door. Again adding to the illusion. I have 6 window doors around my house that look like full height windows but hinge to side so you can walk outside. In fairness though they don’t have exterior handles or locks i so no use for what you need. Having a well designed hidden door would be very cool/James Bond. My next door neighbours bungalow has two normal front doors for exactly for same reasons as you but certainly not hidden. It looks a bit crap TBH, more Austin Powers. Especially when bemused Amazon driver arrive trying to deliver parcels. I think a good joiner would relish the prospect of doing a door hidden in cladding,and you could turn a prospective pig into a princess. I respect your decision to build something that you need & want not what convention dictates.

Duncan, your circumstances are very similar to us / our needs. I definitely think you only need three bedrooms upstairs. En-suite for yourselves then family bathroom for the child. One dedicated spare room. 4th bedroom downstairs with access to loo which can be for anyone elderly, including your future selves, but in meantime use that as spacious office for wife. You could always use the spare bedroom upstairs as dedicated office if downstairs is used. A couple of thoughts. A child’s room will become their future living space so make that one bigger than the spare one upstairs which really needs to be big enough to sleep in. you could even future proof your design by allowing the open plan seating area to be sectioned off as a separate room. Eg by socket locations, and UFH circuits. Just need to ensure you have a spare internal door kicking about. We have a downstairs TV / family room, separate to livingroom, which we use regularly. Next to cloakroom/future shower. Easily converted to downstairs bedroom. I’ll pm you our plans. bozza

Duncan, If you are able to share: A.your household circumstances, kids, dogs etc, basically how you live & work now & how you may live in future. For example you mentioned shift work & need for future granny flat. Is it a house for life or not. B. Details of your plot eg good views / bad views etc, rural urban or whatever C. your wish list in Terms of room/functionality. You mentioned 200sqm. then there are lots of us who spent hundreds of hours designing our own self builds (and making mistakes doing so) x lots of members = shed loads of experience ideas & solutions. Collectively we can probably assist you designing the perfect house for you in terms of function. Or get a good architect. But we’re cheaper in terms of aesthetics and house style, you should build what you like ultimately. We all have different preferences on house style and hopefully other members will respect that. But we can probably help in advice for tweaks to improve. Once you’ve got your layout sorted there’s lots of folk with specialist knowledge on the technology side of things. Bozza

Hi Welcome. In my opinion, 1. Having a separate lounge / snug / tv room is a v.good idea with having an open plan living dining kitchen. 2. Vaulted hallway good idea for feeling of light & space. If you can add an additional external vestibule you can remove door from hallway to living area. Giving an even more open plan light feel. 3. Having an upstairs store good idea as restricted attic space. 4. I would remove separate loo cupboard upstairs to provide spacious en-suite. The master layout needs re thinking you’ve got some dead space there I think there will be better layouts. The en-suite area is bigger than the actual bedroom and the link corridor will be dark & unnecessary. 5. The little bedroom upstairs I would remove unless you absolutely need that many bedrooms, or unless your trying to create a prison cell feeling. Trying to squeeze too many bedroom in upstairs, unless your building for £££££ reasons. If you need that many bedroom upstairs then you need to make the others smaller and re jig the layout. 6. Your plant room is in a corridor with a bedroom and livingroom off.? You need to address that. Where’s your washing machine going. Don’t put it in an open plan kitchen living area. I think you need a separate plant room/utility room as far away as possible from any bedrooms as the gubbins can be quite noisy. 8 . Dan-wood have a few houses similar dimensions rooflines etc have a look at their plans for ideas. I have attached a very rough sketch of alternative for 4 bed upstairs but if you don’t need 4 then 3 spacious one perhaps? Trying to get open plan living, separate lounge & 5 beds into 200sqm is a big ask. You are doing exactly what I was doing initially with my house design, until someone told me straight I had to build bigger or reduce rooms. good luck