Ferdinand

No experience but it looks interesting. My questiion having looked at the website is "how is it fixed to the ground?"

OK. My general comments are that it looks good to me - plumbing all close together in the plan for cost control etc, and 1 - Make sure that the hairdressing room is suitable to have a chair for a chaperone (safeguarding) should children be served. 2 - Alternative use for that room would probably be a utility, so just think about how you would do it with a washing machine, drying machine and drying area / pulley etc. 3 - You will want an accessible services closet in the middle somewhere. Ferdinand

I'll try and comment a bit after the bike ride. But I love the idea of "avoid moving kitchen". It has cheered me up. I can come down in the morning all bleary eyed and fall into the garden. "Bugger - it's moved to the other side this morning." Very Wallace and Gromit ?. Wasn't there a Mad Professor on Grand Designs who had a roundhouse on a turntable to follow the sun?

How is acoustic flexible sealant diifferent from non-acoustic flexible sealant? My thought would be that it shrinks less to prevent gaps opening up. Looking at it, I would say that the strips are designed to block noise transmitted through any air gaps.

I think the situation here is essentially a ransom strip - unless there is an alternative you need to buy access in a supplier market of one. You are really in that position due to whoever did the initial evaluation making a mistake by not knowing where it was. Law on a ransom strip is that the cost can be up to 1/3 of the uplift in value which results. In practice that would be capped to the value of your Plan B alternative whatever that is, Here Plan B will perhaps be a treatment plant, or persuading the undertaker to use their powers to enforce access. Perhaps you have considered both options? So £1000 for access is perhaps quite reasonable. I think they have picked a reasonable sounding number, rather than take advice. Presumably any outside fees, works and restoration of their driveway are on top, and yyou are taking on future liability? I think I would understand your neighbour forcing you down plan B rather than take any potential future aggro, and I think perhaps they are being notably kind. Personally I might want you to get the water company to do it, as that would to some extent guaranttee a level of workanship. Ferdinand

Good point.

I would caution against a zig-zag in a tight space like that for 2 reasons 1 - It will be a reet sod to carry stuff through especially decent sized anything. eg a box of wine or a 600 unit or a big toolbox or a set of steps. 2 - You lose a lot of wall storage. Add up both options and see. I have a layout like that in my utility. It is a sod. F

Plan looks good. Perhaps the obvious and least disturbing thing is to replace the bottom door with a pocket door slider. That will give you an extra 600mm to 1m without having to play games with other features.

That's what you look like doing the 5th house.

Not that you weren't told 27 months ago: ?

Here you go. He also did a good series called "Playing at Spraying".

It did but there is a consultation process attached, with an "amenity evaluation" process triggered if anyone objects. Came in 2013. Made permanent 2019.

I'm sure there's a video in the 10 Minute Workshop series where he was experimenting with paint sprayers and came out looking like Frosty the Snowman ... SWMBO can make a model of "Painting Pocster" for the Christmas Cake.

Is that really the mean size of a new-build in the UK? Does that include flats That is from a 2011 RIBA report. More here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14916580#:~:text=The average UK home - including,15.8 sq m per room. Report here: https://web.archive.org/web/20140606025449/https://www.architecture.com/Files/RIBAHoldings/PolicyAndInternationalRelations/HomeWise/CaseforSpace.pdf I think the figure is everything. The sample was big developers on big sites. For a 3 bed it was 88sqm average. TBH we need up to date numbers, as space standards are in place in many places now. F

I think there's a little bit of comment at cross-purposes on this thread, as some commenters seem to have assumed that Planning Permission has been refused, whilst according to the OP the refusal has been to a Prior Approval Notification process under the Neighbour Consultation Scheme (that is the one relating to larger than normal single storey rear extensions built under PD). Sorry to flag that, but a lot is in the detail. Under NCS the Council are required to assess the impact on neighbour amenity for all neighbours if one neighbour objects; if no objection is received then the Council is required not to do the assessment of amenity. Does this affect the @timsk comment 1? I hope it perhaps does not. I do not know the exact process for evaluation Prior Approval Applications in practice, and how different that is to assessment of Planning Applications. You should imo be able to get hold of the reasons for refusal of your Prior Approval Notification and related correspondence (probably redacted for names etc). I am not aware that objections to PAN applications are in confidence under law. Ferdinand

Welcome. *Waves to Dave*

There's nothing to stop you proposing wording agreed between you and neighbour. If you were to get that done by a Planning Lawyer, then it is more likely to mean what you want than Council boilerplate. The Council need to adopt it, but I think this is quite regularly done. Ferdinand

Tan line for houses ...

It's your judgement as to what point you declare "too much aggro" over "please the neighbour". I think if you do it anyway then your neighbour's feathers will become unruffled surprisingly quickly, but the future relationship may be civil but wary on that topic. Your call if it matters. Personally I like the pitched roof, which gives you both what you want without paperwork. The main issue I can see with that 2nd approach is that the Council might not respect the wording you jointly propose, which is unpredictable. Your neighbour's position would be weaker but maybe resentful. It is your call whether that matters. That's not quite it. Planning and Civil law sit alongside each other, and you are subject to both. If you come to a private agreement, that will be regulated as an agreement under 'non-Planning Law' eg contract law, and any obligations under that agreement where planning law applies to the obligations will still be required to meet Planning Law. You could not, for example, come to a private agreement to put your drive in a place which violates visibility splay requirements. F

We have all sorts on BH - and at least a couple with the downstairs loo in the utility. Or you could just treat the utility as a sort of lobby with 600 cupboards one side and say floor to ceiling shelves the other, and a door at the end into the loo. So you get to the loo from the hall through the utility. A loo linked onto the end of the utility is more logical than access via the playroom - visitors can get to it without going "wey hey hey" on an errant skateboard. F

I think you are also better with the utility and WC being combined, and the entrance to the utility off the hall, with the WC at the end, ideally with a shower in it as well ... dogs and guests who cannot climb stairs. F

Depending on how the detail works, your "view through" could be a tall, thin window instead next to the patio door instead of the door yourself; it is working out what is best by sweating the detail as your design develops. Below I will add a piccie of the one I have in my 'fat at the back' extension. It just has a tall flower arrangement there. This is the concept I am talking about, with the hob in black. Having drawn it, the space is compact so you need to take care and get it exactly right. To have the hob there ideally the peninsula would be somewhat larger. Even without a hob a BB is a good thing there, as you get the kitchen-diner through sweating the space.

My first thought to improve that plan and make it a little more flexible would be: 1 - Move your patio doors slightly to the right - enough such that there is room at the LHS to put a sofa or a desk along the side wall should you wish to do so without blocking the window - say to give you 800-900 mm of wall between the window and the corner. 2 - The same move should give people coming into your front door a peep-view of the back garden, which is always a good thing architecturally, and a straight path through when needed - also good. 3 - I would turn the bottom arm of the G into a worktop perhaps 300 longer and 850 to 900 wide, so that the end and the back can be a breakfast bar with approx 2.2m run of seating which would be enough for 4-5 people if you need and 6 at a squeeze with one on the other size. That should still leave a comfortable access gap. Barstools will add almost nothing when under a 250-300mm overhang. If wanted you could extend the "G" to the LHS to align with the stair wall; that would be neater but would need a detailed workthrough. 4 - Then the LHS can become more than a formal dining space, and you could treat it as more a multifunctional with eg a table against the wall. I have a desk that folds in half lengthways and becomes a shelf against the wall, for example. 5 - Many people put their hob in such a location for socialising whilst cooking. Ferdinand

Or you could still be talking about it on BH ?.