Ferdinand

I would hope that if you have a package or a person that drew the 3d above it can give you some real numbers based on whatever assumptions it makes to give a projection of simulated daylight. I cannot identify particular packages. There are formulas which tell you light intensity wrt distance from windows, and there may even be stuff in the Building Regs. Anecdotally, my kitchen is approx 6m x 4.5m, with approx 4-4.5sqm of north facing glazing (having taken frames and obstructions off), in the Midlands, and I find that I need to use lights quite a lot of the time for eg making recipes. I think it unlikely that sufficient light will make it into your kitchen space to avoid needing lights nearly all the time. I would say it is an open question whether your living space would have enough light to eg read at the non-window side - unless you have skylights or they are full height windows. F

I think you want some numbers to help you judge. That is, get the light modeller to give you light intensity figures, then compare them to a real environment measured with a meter. I think you will struggle with that layout.

On the building itself. You have a reasonably plain and not very interesting building. You don' have to focus entirely on changing the structure itself, and personally i think I would look through the lens of using it (argued in last post) rather than "what does it look like". I think that changes will be appropriate, but that I would treat it as perhaps one package now and another one further down the track - perhaps think 7-10 years. And I think the roof (unless it is failing) is one I would leave for now as it could swallow so much of your budget. Consider Las Vegas ?. You go there for three reasons - gambling, floor shows and fun. But the cards and the go-go dancers do not just stand there to be looked at. Both are also about display, and concealment, and diversion of the senses, and implication about things unseen, and creating thoughts in the mind of the viewer which haven't actually been done. Play some games and make it a house fun. You can do that with your house - if you put a suitable pergola or part or perforated wall 3m in front of your house you may be able to leave it as is, or do something inexpensive. You can grow a climber (eg Virginia Creeper or a Wisteria) right up the end gable to hide it. Or a half width terrace to break up the monotonous facade. I am slightly drawn to a simple render of the walls, and leaving the roof and windows alone unless there is a real reason to do it, and then spend the weight of the budget on things that directly impact on your enjoyment of living there. If you want I think you could be quite bold - eg somehing posmodern could be interesting, such as an arcade build from royal blue bricks, but that might need careful handling. Just thoughts. Ferdinand

Thanks for coming back. A few further thoughts now that we have a little more context - eg it being a forever home. I think there is too much focus on the building itself as I have hinted. I think you need to reflect some more on how you will actually live in it, and how eg the hierarchy of space will work - public space, semi-public, semi-private, private. I think one question is that at the moment the entire front is public space - ie a passerby can see right up to the wall of our building. The hint at a pergola is about intermediate space - where are your children or grandchildren going to play, where will you eat your breakfast or supper outside, where will you sit with your mates and a beer, where will you have conversations with your neighbours, bonfire night parties, buffets and so on? The answers depend on he site, the orientation to the sun, what you actually own, the layout of the close (looks like an open plan cul-de-sac with fences under 1m but old enough that you can get away with bending a few rules). I can see an argument for learning from the house form of eg Central Europe (high fences at the boundary) or Africa / ME (treat it as a compound). In the UK at the least i might try to turn part of that paved area into semi-private space where you can sit out, and neighbours can observe if they deliberately look but not enter without perceived permission. One way would to put a wall and/or hedge round your boundary at the front, or a hedge (forever home = time to grow). Then if you have a pergola plus division within that new outside space you get a whole new half to your garden. I am planning an outside terrace at the front of mine for sitting, as that is where the sun is throughout the day. But I already have a wall round my front garden / drive. Can you do something with that dwarf wall - knock a few holes in it such that it becomes a row of seats with something replacing the first bit of paving? Render it pink? Parterre? Checkers, Nine Mens Morris, Hopscotch and a Labyrinth set into the paving design for the under-12s and everyone else? Perhaps take some inspiration from the Get out there and get some ideas. eg Inspiration from the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris or Village Squares with moderate sized fruit trees over paving? Use you imagination, but give it some food to chew on. Ferdinand

Good advice above. My only add would be to check now if there are any nuisances that need sorting now. eg I once had someone build an extension with a gas flu existing over my drive; that got moved round the corner as it did not meet regulations. And if you have a local expert you can have a conversation with who will be an informal sounding board, it is useful. Example would be a work colleague married to an architect etc, The legal insurance cover is a very useful stick, but if they take it over you may not agree with all the decisions. Ferdinand

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Very nicely written story.

Any attachments which are unused get listed at the end. So you may need to delete the other other video. (TBH I'd recommend using something like Vimeo or Youtube to embed).

One idea: go to your local agricultural merchant and have a look at their metal gateposts. It may not be an intuitive answer, but they should have posts designed for gates that are up to 12ft wide and up to 7 bar, and so will be very robust. When I have these they have usually been approx 8 ft 6 in long, and I have used them around 1/3 in the ground. They seem to come in 3"-5" diameters. You may wish to put some type of cosmetic larger post round it. Ferdinand

I am probably with Russell on this. A shipping container is designed to be a strong monocoque as a unit without holes in it, and projects I have seen seem to go across the grain of that principle ... unless they can leverage the precise dimensions and really minimise work. F

Put an enigmatic artwork over the top, to amuse you existentially whilst you are on the loo. More seriously, the only things I can see are either replace the tile or put something over the top to be a little shelf for bits and pieces - potentially loo rolls but also other bits and pieces. F

In this case the HMO is a red-herring, unless it is treated as part of the main house or an Annexe, or perhaps if it can be argued to be in the Sui Generis class. In many places there are requirements - certainly for floor area. My area has them, and they are usually quite backward. I used private amenity space and parking and size requirements for small flats to prevent someone turning his bungalow into 3 of them. In the case of the suggestions here, it would be in the local policy, and for a single garage - assuming it was *just* a single garage that was to continue in use as a garage, then it would an "entrance" type structure with regulation-meeting stairs and enough extra space to meet the local limit. It may be different if it could be considered an Annexe, incidental to the main use of the property. Though if you were to rent it out, there would be a tricky navigation through the rules. Ferdinand

Yes. Lots of good ways of thinking on there. It gives a really good idea of how much of this type of thing is just chipping away at the ideas for a long time. F

There was a previous long thread a couple of years ago where we all weighed in on one of these, but I can't find it. I think the way you will get some good ideas is to play aournd. Try this: 1 - Get a Google streetview or a photo. 2 - Put it through an edge detect filter, which will give you a thing that looks like a quick pencil sketch. 3 - Print out ten copies. 4 - Make like Picasso with your pens or crayons or felt tips for your different ideas. Only spend 2 minutes on each one. Works surprisingly well.

I think I would look at this under 3 aspects: 1 - Simplify. The current view has lots of mini-textures, but they are all basically the same shade. 2 - Give it a face. Needs to be something significant enough to change the way the eye is drawn into the view. 3 - Root it. Currently there is nothing visually attaching the bulding to the site. That budget will be an issue. As I see it doing anything to the roof could be 12-18k, so I might leave that alone. Be grateful that some people have bigger problems ? Ferdinand

I'm slightly stumped. Damo's idea looks to have potential, but even that looks expensive. Perhaps I'm just not feeling creative enough this morning. The underlying thing jumping out at me is the proportions, but I can't think of an overall form that I like that is practical. It's too horizontal, unified, and one colour. Even the paving is the same colour. The two that come to mind are long, low bungalow and ranchhouse. Perhaps there is value in breaking up the outline, which could also be done using planting as an element, or a climber such as a virginia creeper, or vertical elements or a substantial pergola or something projected forward for part of the length. My limited thoughts. (Update. Another long, low form which is found attractive I am reminded of is Orangery or Garden Pavilion - is there potential by also thinking about the immediate setting. Thought experiment: how would that appear if the block paving was a law or a parterre?)

There are two things here that should help. The first is to document the agreement in both sets of deeds, and mark the boundary with "boundary features" (which are used by surveyors in determinating the boundary on the ground).In this case I would put in concreted in metal posts, which will last half a century, and get the church person to say yes to the placement. Probably using "estate fencing" (which is the metal stuff they put alongside roads in country estates) or concrete post and mesh fencing (which is the stuff you find inside hedges that was installed in the 1950s) would be appropriate. Or fencing repair spurs and wooden posts. The important thing is to create a long term footprint on the ground to provide direction beyond the General Boundary Rule that will still be there in 2075. All these types of fencing are relatively cheap if bought carefully. The other is to invoke the 'Measured Boundary Rule' procedure, where the Registry accept a mutually agreed boundary documented with absolute locations (ie GPS) by a mutually appointed (probably RICS) surveyor. Since you like the outcome, I suggest that you take both party's costs on the chin, which will let you sell it as generously providing a once-and-for-all clear solution. And hopefully build an excellent cooperative relationship. If it is a CofE church, they are likely to have a local architect on retainer for Quinquiennial Reports, who may be a useful contact to know about, though Churchwardens are usually extraordinarily sensible if you don't brush their fur the wrong way (they have to manage Vicars... ). Ferdinand

Welcome. A sketch plan would also help.

Sanity check. Judging by your overall dimensions the sitting area on that sofa (ie between the arms) is only 1.7m = 5'8". Is that a 3 person sitting width that you are comfortable with? If not you may be misleading yourself as to how much furniture will go in and how spacious it feels. I have some more comments later. F

All it needs is a 6ft cuckoo, a timing mechanism and a spring. ?

He moved on some time ago - I don't know any ins and outs - and deleted his posts first I think. Regrettable as you say.

Covid Face Coverings I have just bought a pack of 6 of these Neck Tubes (Snoods) for £11.99 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01GFQEBC0 Light so OK for summer and fit me, and delivered next day. £2 each which is not that much different from a disposable mask. Patterned. Perhaps the only issue is that they seem to be designed for the sporty community, so one of them looks like a skull's jawbone. There is also tartan and various patterns etc. Also useful for robbing banks. Ferdinand

Does anyone have any experience of these? I am looking for something to go on the lower shelves of my ikea iVAR green wall. Potentially those shelves may move closer together. Ferdinand

Well - there'll be no canoeists down that burn, unless it is in spate.

I meant longer not wider. What is the offset from the top of the island to the top of the entranceway? Do you always eat together? How often are 4 or more seats used at a meal?