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We live not far from Norwich. If @joe90 gets a sensible reply then we could go look at them.

Sorry to hear this @gc100. One minute the trees are a problem if you leave them standing the next minute they are a problem if you take them out! @joe90 we did not use a structural engineer. Would it be cost effective, do you think, to do so if they start requiring deep foundations etc.

Thanks, we would never use plastic normally. We are just getting old and trying to minimise the work involved. We are not in a conservation area. The existing fascias were on when we bought the house, nearly 40 years ago, and were showing signs of needing replacement then! Just goes to show the benefits of using timber folks

We have to replace the existing fascia boards on our existing house before we sell it. We think we will go with plastic but it needs to look like wood as it is an old cottage and the windows are all hardwood in a dark brown with a hint of red in it. Have found one company, C&A Building Products, but wondered if anyone had any recommendations. All the usual suspects seem to only stock white!

Must be about 15 to 20 years ago that we borrowed a smart meter from the local library. We plugged it into each socket around the house and it told us how much energy that appliance was using. We have never felt the need to repeat that exercise! I am sure there must be a market for an updated version of the above? All the expense and labour involved in rolling out the current system could be better spent on doing it.

Exactly @Nickfromwales, It almost seemed as if he wanted out of the conversation and chose that to do it. The reason I am puzzled is that they phoned and emailed me several times to "set up" the video link type appointment, which was scheduled to take an hour, and then failed to follow through. It almost seemed as if there was some sort of realisation, during our chat about our project, that what they were trying to do was not going to work in this case. I did keep telling him that we were checking our facts and researching our options so perhaps he was looking for a different type of customer?

No, it is a new build, they know this, and they have a stand at the Self Build Centre in Swindon @Nickfromwales

https://www.solarplants.org.uk/ We saw these people at the National Self Build Exhibition Centre. Clicked on the link at their stand to get more information and they duly got in touch - and in touch - and in touch. Phone (three or four calls) first, followed by emails. They offered either a visit or a timetabled "appointment" with one of their advisors where we would be having some sort of video link chat. The day and time duly arrived and we started the chat but did not get much further than that. They had our plans in front of them but seemed unable to go into much detail. This, they said, was because we had not yet chosen our ASHP. All seemed a bit strange and smelled of dodgy sales tactics???

Very interesting @JSHarris!

The senior BCO seems to think that a slab will be fine if that is the way we want to go. What is an insulated slab please?

Take a look back at the wartime prefabs (pre fabricated houses). They came in kit form, were all identical, and people loved them! There are some, I believe, still around. It is communities that make people happy On the planning side of things there are sites around here that have been held up for years while developers and planners wrangle over "section 106" agreements. Planners say they want x number of affordables, a green space, a contribution to the village hall etc. The developers just say the site is not viable and it goes on and on. As our Local Authority has not met its housing targets they are having to back down and allow developers to get away with building with no planning gain. The community loses out as we are being saddled with soulless estates of identikit houses with no green space or other amenities.

Thanks for the tip! The last kitchen refurb we did, in our old cottage, we went for a wooden worktop. A year down the line, in spite of every care, it has water marks around the sink area and various other marks here and there. The only saving grace is that the grain of the wood hides a lot of these. Being an old cottage also helps because nothing should look "perfect".

This was the way we were heading before I decided to pose the question on here Dehydration can actually cause insomnia so I am not trying that one

We must truly be an architects dream clients After renovating several old houses, and being interested in all things to do with building, we were given the opportunity to apply for planning permission on our land. An architect was recommended, by a friend who deals in large scale planning approvals and developments, who would "go to planning" for us. We engaged said architect to get planning permission for "a bungalow" beside our old cottage. We were not really expecting to be living in it (too cramped a plot) but when asked our thoughts on design I just said "not open plan living". HWMBO said nothing! That plan was submitted but planners went against all precedent, and rules about "back fill", by suggesting we move it to the much larger plot behind our cottage! Gobsmacked was an understatement. Our dream plot had just been given to us on a plate! There was only a small window of opportunity as the plot is outside the planning boundary but our LA was short of housing stock. Architect sent a new design to us while we were on a long holiday in Spain. This was for an L-shaped bungalow with integral garage. We just asked him to replace the garage with a large utility/mud/wet room and to swivel the orientation to take advantage of South and West views! Job done. Mind you this site is causing us all sorts of head scratching We will make some changes (dressing room between bedroom and en suite being one ) but nothing major. Yet.

I have just been researching them @jack. They do look a bit fake on first glance. Has anyone seen them installed inside a woodburning stove? We have such an item in the garage which could be refurbished for the new build if the bio ethanol flame would look realistic inside one. I imagine the heat output would be reduced but if the effect was good enough then it could be a consideration.

Quote - "They're right about fires and passive house levels of insulation and airtightness. You repeatedly hear stories of people spending a lot of money installing a wood burning stove, and using it once. However, even if you go for less than passivehouse levels of insulation, I'd encourage you to reconsider the fire. Health-wise, they're one of the most damaging things you can do, both for yourself and your neighbours. More practically, you're still likely to generate far more heat than is practical, even in a house with U-values of 0.13-0.14. That's especially the case given where you live." Do the health implications also apply to a simple open fire @jack? We are having a fireplace designed in for aesthetic reasons. Not sure what we will do with it. We have had a woodburner and gave it up because of the mess it created and worries over our lung health. Like the poster above, though, we just love the idea of a fire.

Our bungalow is an L shape. Apart from liking the design it is also practical as we can add on space at three points if necessary. Having lived in a square bungalow, in the past, it seemed a very limited design for any future extensions as the middle becomes very dark. Main bedroom is at top of L so that a wet room could be added if failing health decided it. If we put the dressing room and en suite in, as suggested on here, then this would also convert. The shower room next to the main bedroom was always going to be a walk in shower so may never need converting as long as the dressing room is wheelchair friendly?

Good point @PeterStarck about not using it. There will be another one just down the hall. Funnily enough, the en suite hating architect designed a small estate of high-end houses nearby. I went to look at them and he had put a dressing room between the bedroom and the en suite. He must be an insomniac like me

Oooh yes - and a quiet light switch. We have been fumbling in the dark, making do with a tiny glimmer from a bedroom night light to stop us falling down the stairs. HWMBO is forced to a sitting position for his nocturnal pee in order to not miss his aim in the dark

I am always awake first (as well as in the middle of the night). It would be me showering early. Because of my insomnia, I am very conscious of making a noise that will disturb himself knowing how much I would really, really hate to be woken from any precious sleep I might be indulging in. I should be more selfish really because he once slept through a car crashing into a telegraph pole outside our house, and me leaning out of the window and shouting to find out if our neighbour was able to deal with the incident, and the police, on their own. Yes, heavy doors + dressing room + double thickness walls + thick carpet + no flushing allowed before 6am might just persuade me.

Hmmm. Dressing room? We had not planned one in. It is designed to be a modest sized, easily maintained, bungalow but architects being architects he did give us a larger bedroom than we are used to so we could find space, I would think, to put one in.

Extractor fan?! I missed that out in the list of noises that I did not want to disturb my sleep! At the moment we do not close doors between bedroom and bathroom to keep noise to a minimum.

During a refurb of our existing house an architect commented that he was "not a fan" of en suite bathrooms. We followed his thinking (though did not engage his, very expensive, services) and put the new upstairs shower room between the main bedroom and another bedroom. It works very well. Before the refurb we had to negotiate steep stairs for night time bathroom visits. This set me thinking about our new build. I am a very, very light sleeper and "bathroom noises" not to mention steam and smells (!) are not very welcome in my bedroom. The trouble is that they seem de rigeur nowadays. Will I regret it if I decide to leave out the en suite? At the moment the design, at our request, has a bathroom between the master bedroom and the second bedroom. This means just leaving the master bedroom to, immediately, turn into the bathroom. People we have shown the plans to are aghast that we are not planning in an en suite. Will this design affect any re sale value?

Not sure what area you are in but these guys https://eastonjoinery.com/ specialise in all things Oak and custom make to your requirements. We are using them for our windows and they were competitive in their quotes.

Our, private, BCO is on holiday and so his colleague is coming out on Monday. Would it be worth while just running our problems by this BCO to see what his opinion is? I have to say that, re reading, our BCO's email, he did say that he would look at the ground near where the trees were, to see if it was desiccated, before making any recommendations on beam and block or slab. He had not seen anything other than the scraped off soil on his first visit. Our, very experienced, digger driver says the soil (chalky clay) is excellent in the, tree free, part he was digging before the water main discovery caused him to pause. The 1.6m depth is only for one side of the build (where the tree line was). We know nothing about insulated slabs @PeterW . Are they the ones used in a passiv system?