patp

Ooh thanks for that @daiking I have snapped one up

I wonder, if you took it to law, if they could stop you demolishing your own house? It would be a terrific risk but if in a residential area surely they would have a hard time refusing planning permission to build on the empty plot???

I would be interested to know if it is always a given that you can demolish a house in order to rebuild on the site? It has happened several times around here but when one of the developers tried to do it again the council said "no". It was a huge plot (old farmhouse with paddock) and they got planning to build on the paddock. The old farmhouse stands looking sad now and I just wonder what would happen if they chose to demolish it. It is not listed.

Welcome to the journey

Thanks @joe90 I will bear that in mind. When I worked with disabled children we had a sink unit that you could wind up and down to make it wheelchair accessible. We used to use the table for a work surface.

Very interesting! Do you think that it could be made to be a little closer to the front of the unit. I find sinks very difficult to access due to being five foot nothing

As recommended above we got an online estimator for our build. It was offered by our Builders Merchant (Ridgeons then and now part of Huws Gray) and they refunded the cost of it after we ordered a certain amount of stuff from them. It has been very useful especially as it comes in two formats. One is alphabetical and the other is in order of build. This version is so useful because we can see that once the materials start to be used for one part of the build you just look down the list and order the next lot of materials. For instance we are at the bricking up stage so the next materials on the list after bricks and blocks is Roof Trusses, then the felt and batten and fascias then the tiles. We have made a friend of a salesman at our local builders merchant. He warns us when certain materials need more notice than others due to shortages. He also knows the local tradesmen and will, when he can, recommend one. Another thing to do is, when a tradesman starts work, get chatting about the next stage and ask him/her for recommendations for the next trade needed. We have been so lucky with this as, probably the best bricklayer in the world, when working opposite us, asked if we were building a bungalow. When we answered in the affirmative he offered to quote. He does not want to work on houses anymore due to his age. He then recommended roofers and told us which ones to avoid. They have come to quote and have, in turn, recommended carpenters, scaffolders and solar panel installers/electricians that they trust to work with. Many of these people do not need to advertise and so are hard to find. We are not too far ahead of you due to finding a 4 inch water main slap bang underneath our proposed build when we were digging the foundations. It is illegal to build over them and so we had to pay to have it moved. There is a thread on here about the trials and tribulations.

Yes, every time any trade comes to quote they say "cor that's a big bungalow". Eeek! It was not intentional on our part. The plot is a large one and the architect asked what we wanted. I asked for a separate dining room and, when he showed us his plan, that he do away with the integral garage and make it into a "dog room" with wet room included. We keep reminding ourselves that there is not much difference in building a large as to build a small one. Re sale for our daughter will also be better. We will, also, have a separate garage and workshop! The tiles are called, I believe, pin tiles which are small but, we are told, very attractive. We toyed for a while with going for the large, cheaper, option but have succumbed to the "you only do this once" school of thought.

Thanks guys. All is well. The truss manufacturer was on the case. I think the "expert" in question was trying to sell us his book on roofing. He may well have worked on timber framed houses where the uneven weight on the roof may have buckled the frame. Ours is brick and block. We wavered a bit away from the lovely Imery Phalampin tiles towards some lighter, cheaper version as offered by the builders merchant, but have stayed with the Imery after the roofer told us how much better they were and reminded us we are only doing this once. Phew!

At the planning stage we rushed out and chose the bricks and roof tiles for our bungalow. The tiles we chose are Imerys Phalampine Burnt Red. We are now at the stage of ordering roof trusses to be made. We were already staggered at how many roof tiles the Take Off had stipulated we need (over 18,000) and a chance conversation with a roofing expert neighbour explained why. They are very small tiles and that is why you need so many. He also said that they would be very heavy, once laid, and that he hoped we had warned the makers of the roof trusses!!! He told us a few horror stories of them being laid on one side first and buckling the roof! Any advice gratefully received.

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We will be starting on the brickwork and blockwork exterior soon on our bungalow. Part of the bungalow will be rendered and we are going to use a colour fast render. The bricklayer has asked us to check which blocks are required by the architect. The architect says = quote We hope you are well and should be using a dense block like a Hemelite Standard block (3.5N/mm2) (noted on the sections) or similar approved by the render manufacturer? We always recommend a dense block aswell and so does most render manufacturers as they reduce the cracking in the render. unquote Colourfast Renders have been recommended to us and they state quote The one coat render systems from Weber, Parex and K-Rend are designed primarily for going straight onto 7n concrete block and a minimum depth of 15mm. However all of these products can be used over virtually any surface with the correct preparation. unquote Which would be best?

I believe he did because as Chris (husband) was measuring he was telling him to allow more room. Will check it though. He is very experiences. He told us to bear in mind that when sitting far away, and low down, you do not want to be seeing the chimney throat. All things to be bearing in mind.

Whew! Just had a word with our lovely Brickie and he has reassured us that all will be fine and the woodburner should sit inside it comfortably with room to spare.

We have just discovered that our fireplace, although it is external, is very shallow. This means that all those inglenooks I have drooled over will not fit. It also means the woodburner will sit in the room rather than inside the fireplace. The chimney is only a couple of courses of brick high at the moment so we could change it. Half of me goes "noooo!" because it holds things up again while the other half of me says that we should have what we want.