Clareandharry

Is that available online? Missed that.

I was reading the discussion about 'using' kitchen firms for design and then not buying from them (lots of good points). Good for her, grasping the nettle. I'd love to know if she finds satisfactory freeware. We haven't done the construction drawing for our house yet but - chicken and egg - I need to design the kitchen first as there's a long horizontal slit fixed window at the business end of the kitchen 60cm above worktop height and - woopsie - the place for a hob was going to be against that wall. I either have to make my window smaller or relocate the hob. My friends all agree that a window anywhere near a hob would be bad news. I've asked Howdens to have a go at design (my bro. is a regular kitchen customer and may well fit ours) so I'm hoping they'll get me started and I may get the kitchen there. On the other hand, a new Ikea is opening 5 mins from here in the autumn... Will @MrsRA be wanting an island? Wondering about the pros and cons of hob on island

Haha - lady in her 60s here - I find its far too easy to start a bit of small hours googling on the way back from the bathroom, and an hour later still there. I need the strength to turn the PC off completely (and at the wall) instead of just turning off the screen at night. And my blinking phone.

Ah - THERE you are! Thank you for making the connection!

That was all so familiar. Pretty much everything you mention applies in my case - causing a lot of personal stress because I was not allowed to speak for myself (and they wouldn't talk to anyone anyway). In retrospect the advantages of resigning as a councillor over the small gains I made in understanding local planning would have been far greater. Truly, any more hassle and I am ready to sell up and push off - last week they started emailing each other about my blog which they truly hate, and queried whether I had permission to have the mobile home here (ie suggesting that I had broken the law!) I send an email to the empathetic Parish Clerk saying I was now beginning to feel bullied, this was circulated. No-one - NO-ONE - not even the chairman, has responded.

@Ferdinand - yes the solar gain is worrying me. I agree we may have to consider shading (and have been wondering if we'd need to talk to planners about it). The layout is evolving a little, too, as we do the construction drawings. A pocket door off the hall instead of hinged. Sacrificing half the utiility room space to put in a second downstairs loo if granny moves in and is exclusive user of loo No 1 (the extra space it could initially be a walk in larder). The most unsettling issue is that our architect has revealed that in order to satisfy the roof insulation etc where the terrace over the family room is, there would have to be a step UP of about a foot between the master bedroom and the terrace. Never mentioned this before, and I'm pretty (very) unhappy about it. Looking for ways to make that go away at the moment (can be done but will cost lots). Too much going on and far too many decisions to make. We need to get on with the garage rebuild, but also need enough info to put in building regs for the entire site before we start anything. I'll start a thread about this building if that's OK, get it off the intro page. Hopefully it'll be interesting to a few people. Thankyou for that tip @Nickfromwales

Hi all - yes TheMitchells, we have full planning. Thank you for your positive comments about the layout. I've properly upset my parish council colleagues by my comments though! Very awkward. But East Devon has a reputation for looking positively on contemporary design thank goodness. Barney12 Clyst House has been empty about 3 years (currently being used for police training exercises) and the entire site was vacated at the end of Sept 2016. Its properly spooky and Winslade Manor is in real danger . They want to create 150-ish dwellings there by demolishing Brook and Clyst Houses. Unfortunately this will be right next to us but nothing we can do. Clyst House is such a splendid building and less than 30 years old. Tragic that nobody wants it for offices or a school or care home - its just the wrong shape and size for everything..

I'll get me coat....

Hello all - I'm Clare. This forum looks like a very interesting place, so I'm very glad to be here. I'm looking forward to working through all the helpful material and adding some of my own, as well as a long list of questions... I started a blog a while ago - its a new build, back garden plot, in a village just outside Exeter. Its taken some time to get to this point.... https://clareandharryshomebuild.wordpress.com/2016/01/04/the-waiting-game-25-years-for-outline-planning-consent/