patp

Don't let those posh garden designers see it! It will be off to Chelsea in no time!

Good idea! Been married 50 years next year and my husband is nearly trained

I love the idea of a snug!

Love it! The only thing I would not love is the painting job every so many years To avoid this we have gone for solid wood windows and doors that will need minimal maintenance and what there is will be very easy!

On the subject of cats. They sh*t to leave a very clear message over territorial rights. If their rights are not challenged i.e. they have plenty of territory, they will just wee. If there are too many cats per sq m then they will resort to the pooping as a territorial marker. To stop it happening you will need to thin out the number of cats to an acceptable level. Trouble is that some cats require several suburban gardens worth of territory to relax enough to just wee as a marker Funny the things you learn going through life........

When I say I love carpets - I have Flotex kitchen carpet and bleachable carpet in the bathrooms! No hard floors at all in the current house. Mind you, this house is 19th Century with no foundations so the carpets help insulate it. I have just researched Flotex and it is suitable for laying over ufh so I am happy that I can lay that again. I just have to find suitable carpets to replace the lovely thick ones that we chose for the current house. I may look at having Flotex throughout. It has some amazing floorboard patterns now, which I used in my current kitchen, that people always think, when they come in, are real wood floors.

We have been told that we should not have fitted carpets laid over our floors if we have underfloor heating. Has anyone any experience? I love my carpets.

There is a joinery company near me called "Easton Joinery" they also deal in timber so can source most things. They could not be a more helpful bunch of guys. Worth having a chat with them. https://eastonjoinery.com/machined-products/

Can you swap to a "labour only" arrangement with the builder? You order, and pay for, any materials from the builders merchant and then your builder comes on site to do the work. If he does not arrive then you could find someone else to lay those bricks/install those windows etc. We are working like that and I do feel more in control. I can do all the research on materials and then get them on order in readiness for the availability of the trade that we need. Of course, you will have to sort out where the materials are that you have already paid for. You could treat that as another problem to solve while the build is going ahead, assuming your finances will stand it.

In our village there is a super design for two semi detached houses. They have been designed to look like a large detached house with two gables but are, fact, two semis' with concealed doors. It is only because we know the two (related) families that live there that we know it is not one house. I always admire it as I walk along the street.

We are at the stage of selecting our heating and hot water system. We have heard that carpets are a no-no with UFH. I am a lover of carpets! Is there any way around the problem (I even have kitchen carpet). I am fairly prepared to consider giving up the kitchen carpet (Flotex which is quite thin) and bathroom (yes I have it in there too!) and even the hall but am very reluctant to dispense with it in the lounge and dining room and bedrooms. Any suggestions ? We do not have mains gas, so it will be oil or calor gas if we do not find a solution to the carpet dilemma. It is a bungalow.

Yes it is pricey! You could try ebay or similar sites?

The RHS have a massive volume that details all sorts of plants in the order of size, shape, flowering season etc etc. https://shop.rhs.org.uk/books/plants-shrubs-trees/plant-groups/rhs-encyclopedia-of-plants-flowers

An answer to the moth problem here. https://www.heritage-house.org/stuff-about-old-buildings/insulation/sheepwool-insulation-and-moth-infestation.html As it appears to be good for noise insulation too I might wrap my new bedroom in it

I had of this but have forgotten if there is a way around it?

We went on a self build course and were told that solid walls should be wet plastered if you want good insulation. You have just confirmed this

Thanks @PeterStarck @andyscotland Have just heard that farmers are dumping fleeces because they is no market for them! Crazy or what? Don't suppose you know of a good supplier Andy?

Yes we do have a chimney and the foundations are the same as/deep as the rest of the foundations. Well, all the sand has blown away now!!! Still can't find any groundworkers that are free to help lay the slab We will hold off on laying the sand again until we are sure they are coming. Had a couple of visits but only one quote of £250 but he is not free for a month Mind you the brickie is busy on another, luckily small, job. Having days where those thoughts of "wish we had never started" creep into my mind......

Our internal walls will be solid block. Will they offer sufficient sound insulation or should I consider more?

I think that there may be two (or more) reasons behind the desire, or not, to have an en suite. In a large, family, house I would imagine I would want an en suite to protect my bathing space from other members of the family. We are building, in essence, a retirement bungalow. Our only daughter, and her family, are the only ones likely to stay over. She is well trained to leave a bathroom as she finds it as is her husband. They do have an infant daughter but who knows if she will ever stay before we depart this world and we will deal with that nearer the time. Our design has two bathrooms and a further cloakroom/dog shower/utility room in a 3 bedroom bungalow with a separate dining room (possible fourth bedroom in estate agent speak). More important is our reason NOT to have an en suite. It is the disturbance to the occupants of the bedroom. If it is a double bedroom then one person using the bathroom (which could, as one ages, be more than once each night ) might well cause a lot of disturbance to the other. Perhaps, if we design in an en suite, it should be given to the guest room? If I am a guest anywhere I would love an en suite to avoid travelling the corridors in states of undress. I do think that they are regarded as status symbols in some quarters with no thought given to the, possible, down side of having such a noisy room in what should be the most restful area of the house. Funnily it was a conversation with an architect that first made me even question whether or not to have an en suite. He designs high end ultra modern houses with en suites to all bedrooms but says he doesn't like them. He lives in a very old house so I assume he does not have one. In our old cottage (c 1830) we only had one, ground floor, bathroom . It was installed in one of the down stairs living rooms and so was, in bathroom terms, very large 11m x 11m. When we did a re design we managed to get a shower room off the upstairs hallway for occupants of all three bedrooms to access. We could have fitted an en suite in the master bedroom but felt that visitors would appreciate it being upstairs and available to them. All we have to do is leave our bedroom and take a few steps to it. No hardship at all. Someone above has designed in a very large bathroom and I would comment that our experience of an over large bathroom was that it made us feel restless when using it. We carpeted it in the end to make it feel more cosy.

We like the solidity of the block walls and the sound proofing etc.

Our architect designed them. Everyone that has seen them has been puzzled by them. The Brickie is not worried just incredulous that they are on the plans. We showed them to the BCO and he had never seen them. It is just a bungalow so the the internal, non load bearing, walls should not, really, need this extra support? I wonder if it is worth asking the architect for his reasons?

Bump

We would if it was not for these Bl**dy internal trenches! They are just depressions in the type 1 that coincide with internal walls, 115 mm deep (I think) designed, we assume, to give the internal walls a bit more support. Our, experienced, brickie thinks they are a joke. They would cave in if we went near them with a whacker. As I said earlier the BCO did not know what they were so we could have done away with them as he, obviously, had not consulted the plans before he came out.

Thanks all. BCO just seemed to think we should tamp it all down more. To be honest he did not seem too bothered but just commented that where he was walking was a bit loose and deep. I have seen his report and it is not mentioned in it. Our plans have asked for internal trenches (115mm deep) across the bed of concrete that are deeper than the main slab. They coincide with the internal walls. So each internal wall has a deeper foundation than the main slab. This is making it a nightmare to tamp down! We had to level the whole area of crushed concrete and put a whacker plate over it and then dig out the these 115mm wall trenches and tamp them down separately. The BCO did not know what they were for! We explained that we were following the plans So if we use the whacker plate on the sand we will not be able to use it on these internal trenches. I suppose that we will be able to do those by hand? All being held anyway as our expert groundworker is a farmer now too and is harvesting