Omnibuswoman

I've just taken a look at this and my eyes are bleeding!!! £600 for bedside table ? As I'm responsible for sticking to our budget, I won't be visiting Houzz very often - only now and again to steal some design ideas that can be done on a shoestring.

? Wow!! That's an amazing space. I keep having to remind myself that the long dry and sunny spell Cornwall has had, more or less since lockdown, is highly unusual and alfresco living down there usually involves galoshes! It is, however, a glorious place and I feel incredibly lucky to have found a suitable plot down there.

That's a good idea! A balcony outside of the dining area? I would be more likely to sit and eat or drink on a balcony than in a garden - I don't know why!

@ultramods I've gone back into the room plans and added the wall lengths - sorry this looks about as amateurish as it's possible to!!

Interestingly we had a comment from a designed this morning along the same lines - that we should reconsider the reverse living and have a large kitchen diner opening onto the garden with bifold doors. The idea came from the plan of the house that has planning consent - we wouldn't otherwise have thought about it! The hesitation we now have is that the distant view is not seen from the garden (the neighbouring house obstructs it), and we are not big on eating outdoors. Whilst I might enjoy a bowl of sugar puffs on the garden stairs from time to time here in London, I don't really like eating outside, and we don't expect to do a lot of garden based entertaining (not least because despite the glorious blue skies in the photos, it actually rains an awful lot down there). The garden will be more like a small holding - poly tunnels and raised beds, with a small summerhouse somewhere towards the south eastern aspect as there is a gap between the road-level houses and that distant view can be glimpsed from there. Husband and I had a long chat this morning about whether to change the plan to standard bedrooms upstairs and living downstairs - lifestyle vs saleability ... the jury is still out!

The local authority also explained that we need to keep our amendment to an equal or lesser size than the current consent, as an increase in size would trigger the CIL - I can see this rule set out in the article you kindly attached.

Thanks Newhome. I have emailed the council and received a very speedy written reply clarifying that as the arsenic clearance is under the existing PP, it would not count against us if we were to make a full planning application at a later date. But yes, you're right, we are hoping to get through an application as a minor amendment so as not to trigger CIL at all, and to make the process as quick and painless as possible ?

On the video above, the site for the house is seen at between 12 and 13 seconds.

Not without paying an arm and a leg - Roomsketcher's fee system is really opaque and I ended up forking out more than I had planned for the 3D views. I'll have a look at Architouch 3D, thanks. I'm also trying to master LibreCAD so that I can make proper technical drawings.

Thanks Ultramods. I have been umming and ahhhing about the size of the hallway and whether it is wasted space - on the one hand I'd like it to feel spacious and generous, but on the other I can see that a hallway is not a useful space. I'm not sure about putting equipment in the loft - I think I prefer the idea of it being easily accessible so that when we are old and creaky we'll still be able to change filters and access it easily for maintenance. But you're right that both the utility room and the laundry/plant are rather luxurious spaces that were on our wishlist but not our 'essentials' list. One issue we're concerned about is the noise of appliances in the open plan living area. I use hearing aids and find background noise very intrusive when trying to have a conversation. We're concerned that open plan may not work for us noise-wise, and that's one reason for making a TV snug - so that I can be banished to watch TV whilst my husband cooks and crashes about in the kitchen! The house orientation is: Master Bedroom window faces east (towards that Dartmoor view), the dining area and office look south onto the garden, kitchen faces west and bathrooms are on the north wall. The photos below are the plot looking from SW to NE (P1..476), East from the SW corner (P1..470) and looking South East from the North West corner (P1..468). Also attached is a short film of the plot (from January) standing under the westerly of the two oak trees and looking from east to west via north. 3__Looking_E_to_W_from_middle_of_S_boundary.MOV

Thanks Bassanclan. I take your point about privacy. I think as we are a couple living alone we haven't really given the need for privacy a great deal of thought! Yes, there is a nice view from the master bedroom (see photo taken from across the road) which will also be somewhat visible from the upstairs living area over the roof of the house in front (the one on the right of the picture below with the fancy roof).

I would love to hear your thoughts on my initial sketch for our two story house of around 160m2. I'm working on learning a CAD program, but managed to put these together with the much simpler Roomsketcher app. The PP agreed plan is also attached, and we are planning to keep the same footprint of that, broadly speaking, but to lose the garden room (swapping this for a large porch) and not have a woodburning stove and feature chimney. In the end, we will also own the land immediately to the east of our garden. Thanks M

We have just completed on the purchase of our plot ? which has detailed PP dating back to early 2018. This was prior to the CIL, and in response to a written enquiry the council have told us that provided what we build is no larger than the building that has PP, and provided we are only making a minor amendment to the PP, the lack of CIL will continue to apply (it is not CIL exempt so much as CIL simply did not exist at the time of this PP). We need to clear the land of arsenic (one of the PP conditions) and would like to commence that work straight away, but we have not yet submitted a minor variation application. I'm concerned that clearing the arsenic might constitute commencement of work, although as it is relation to the existing PP this should not cause us to become liable for CIL. I use the word should advisedly! Any advice? Cheers M

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Thank you Ferdinand!! I love a good pedant. And I’m delighted to say that I have a sizeable collection of gins ? As it happens I previously worked for an ombuds(wo)man which is how I came to choose the moniker. A complainant once wrote to me using the title omnibusman in error, and I decided to adopt it!

Thanks Moonshine. I will have a look @BotusBuild’s contributions.

Thank you Mike ... lovely to be here. I was just explaining to my husband the salutary effect of reading about other people’s self build experiences. I think I may need to take up meditation! However, from the sound of things, most people feel it was worth it in the end which is heartening.

Thanks Roz, I will have a look! Whereabouts in Cornwall are you?

Hello all ... I am a total novice to the world of self-build, and am already feeling rather overwhelmed by the number of acronyms that I need to get my head around. My OH and I are planning to build a 150m2 timber frame (planning to use MBC timber frame company) low energy house on the Devon/Cornwall border. Plot purchase is underway. Planning consent already exists on the site but we will need to apply for a variation on that. My blind optimism has just started to give way to abject terror as I review the posts and read up on all of the stumbling blocks that may come my way.... I look forward to reading more about your projects, and gaining from the benefit of your collective experiences. Morgan, aka Omnibuswoman PS any recommendations for an architect or architectural technician who is well versed in designing environmentally friendly/green homes?