Bramco

The officers report was satisfied by the condition in the planning document. It caused the LPA to write the condition. The condition asks for a surface water strategy not a plan. So don't submit a plan. A strategy that would probably satisfy the planners is to state that given it is a replacement dwelling, surface water will be dealt with in the same manner as for the previous dwelling. If you do this, you need a) know how it was dealt with before and b) know, or can show that the replacement dwelling with any paved areas is similar in m2 to the old dwelling. So how has surface water been dealt with in the past? And what's the difference in surface area? Also, is there a water course nearby? We are in a flood zone with a dry (99% of the time) water course at the front of the plot. We were looking at a massive expense in excavation, crates etc. for a soakaway. We approached the County Council flood team to get their help with this. One thing we pointed out was that the site drained into the water course in the past before there was a dwelling, so while with the dwelling there would be a faster release into the water course, the amounts would be the same. we did some calculations on this. We also played the environmental card - it would be scandalous to bury so much plastic etc. etc. They agreed and all they wanted was a plan for the discharge point and then they came and inspected the work when it was completed. So the cost in the end was a concrete extension to the side of our culvert a bit of pipe and a special discharge valve. We also had a condition to submit a plan for emergency lighting (re disturbance of wildlife I think). We satisfied this by stating that we didn't intend to install any emergency lighting. 😄

In the bedrooms the supply valves are high on the walls. In the bathrooms, the extract valves are again high on the walls. In the main kitchen/dining/living, they are on the vaulted ceiling. So 2 supply at the living end on one face of the ceiling. 2 extract at the kitchen end, one on each face.

We have a very similar layout - but the island is only 950 wide by just under 3m which gives room at the back of the cupboards to put the bar stools under. There's also an overhang at one end for a couple of stools. So a row of 2x600 units with drawers, then an 800 unit with the downdraft induction hob and one 400 at the end. Personally I'd keep the dishwasher with the sink on the end wall. We have 2x600 full height units, one with two ovens, then 4 600 base units with top units and then a full height with the fridge freezer. Can't remember the full cost but I DIY'ed it and all the units and appliances came from IKEA except for the hot water tap. Don't think it cost us anywhere near £7k all in. +1 for that. Make to sure measure any sofas to make sure you can extend to a robot vacuum. I could send photos of ours if you are interested.

Pocket doors are a great solution for where you have them. We have them between our bedrooms and dressing rooms - they aren't that noisy. You soon learn to open them quietly.

So are you really going with a stainless grid next to black window frames and those dark pavers? It might be cheap but get yourself an acco with black drain and black cover panels....

You can do that on the app - it's on the main page just use the + or - buttons to increase it or decrease it.

Can't find one - they were sourced from a company in Sheffield by our builders. I'll try to find their name.

Or give the guys at ITS a ring -> https://www.itstechnologies.shop/ I've found them very helpful in the past.

We have pocket doors leading into en-suites and there's electric sockets on at least a couple of the walls which form the pocket. I'm not sure why this should be difficult, it's just a case of making sure there is enough room. They are great where for example you might get a clash of doors, or you wan to future proof an area for wheelchair use. Ours were Hormann, only really because we used their internal doors for all the other doors. Ours were supposed to retract completely, with one of those pop out handles to get it back out when it is flush. For some reason this didn't get in the spec but if we were to do it again, I'd make sure that this was how they operated. If you have this feature, then when the door is fully in the pocket, it looks as though there's just an opening and no door.

Cool energy do this. See their free heat pump page - https://coolenergyshop.com/pages/free-heat-pump There are a number of members on here that have their heat pumps and I think some used their current scheme for self installers. We had them install ours in the days of the £5000 grant. Cost us all of 200 quid after the grant.

I've added our inverter via MODBUS to a Nodered system that we use to automate turning of the PV diverter in the evening before dumping what's left in the batteries (15p export) before reloading them at the cheap rate (7p) and turning the PV diverter back on. Something easy to do in Nodered but not with the suppliers apps. It's about the only thing that isn't in Google Home - why Google Home - my other half can cope with GH it's very simple. Looked at HA several times over the last 10 years or so and have always been put off by the 'apparent' opaqueness of setting things up - and the awful user interface. Haven't looked recently though. Sadly relying on the apps from the various brands is simpler and probably a better way of doing things - we all have a limited time here and need to make sure that if we're not here, the house can still function without a sysadmin.

We have a big flat 1 acre plot with the house about a third of the way towards the front. There's a grass strip down one side of the house that the mower can get down to get from front to back. I think most mowers use GPS for positioning and the mobile signal enables apps on your phone, so not important for navigation. Ours also has wifi. We have a Husqvarna that 3 years ago was the apparently the best and probably still is - you see them in a lot of commercial situations. We have our plot split into 4 sections and have schedules for each section, you can also set different cutting heights for each section etc. In hindsight we could have bought 2 smaller mowers, one for the front and one for the back which might have been a bit cheaper but the big one we have does the job well. It's even got headlights that turn on at dusk!!!

We have a lot of these and they work well. We use them to turn on lights at sunset through the eWeLink to Google Home and then a voice command to turn all of them off as we go to bed 'OK Google night night'. On on a tree where our drive meets a lane, we leave on all night - this is turned off at sunrise. You can also turn on/off any light with one of these switches. There are other types around as well as Sonoff but we started with Sonoff, so have stayed with the brand. It's quite easy to also manage blinds etc. with their kit. And I'm just putting together a control box to turn on/off ASHP cooling. There'll be a switch on the unit but it also has a sonoff mini, so we can control it via Google Home. And yes I don't like relying on Google or Sonoff but the alternative isn't really there for the functionality we need/want. And they aren't the only infrastructures we're sadly plugged into, there's Tado, Zehnder, Cool Energy, MyEnergi, etc. All of these only provide the functionality if you're hooked up to the ecosystems. Back to sonoff and similar brands of switch, the great thing about them being in the back box, is that the switch still works - so if the interweb fails, you can still switch things on and off manually.

The spoil from our footings went in a long pile/bank along one side of the plot behind the house. This has now been sown with wild flowers and is spectacular when they are all in full bloom. Like @Kelvin ours was effectively a grazing field. The bits that were wrecked around the house we simply weed killed, rotivated a bit, raked out and seeded - looks great now.

Indeed, especially as I watch the neighbour trundling up and down on his ride on.. looking across at us with envy. I wait until he's nearly finished before I offer him a cold beer....