Ferdinand

These projects keep rearing their heads. I need to make this entrance accessible. To me that means wheelchairable - ideally self-wheelchairable. The minimum width of path by the bays is about 700mm - I can probably widen by 200-250 if necessary. The porch is about 1100 wide by 800 deep, and I do not need to make the gravel accessible at this time.The obvious big problem is the door threshold. I have ideas, but comment would be most welcome. I am aware of the stolen "s" from accessible - will need to catch the thief later.

Good to see lots of opinions, even if they disagree with each other. Me - I dunno. It would depend I think on my opportunity to make sure it is on track and adjust as needed, plus the attitude of the contractor to deal with any problems afterwards. Dealing with any situations or problems in-process may require far more concentrated effort for you for a couple of days with Widget Ltd, whilst for Bill and Ben you may be able to have one day to think. Perhaps decide on your own personal flexibility in-crisis? Sooooooooooooo tempted to post the Bucks Fizz vid. But better not. Too traumatic, and just too pre-Ben Elton.

Also the very first Passive House on GD .. the aerial barn one in the Cotswolds.. used a compost loo.

@daiking Pulling on this thread, does not @Tennentslager have a compost-loo in his hut at Carbeth? I am sure I recall lids going on of buckets of poo and leaving them for 18 months. Just have to keep them in date order whilst evolving . There is a piccie here, and the detail must be around somewhere. PS Section in this piece towards the end

Interesting. So I have now invested a further £7.95 in one of their non-locking knives to see how different the mechanism is :-). I think it has a frog-style locking ring (with an added rivet) to stop it locking. The pruning knife is now here btw, and is capable of ‘pruning’ chives and mint very effectively. It is like a miniature sickle, of the type loved by Germaine Greer. F

So I have gone for the billhook pruning knife, thinking that it will be useful for harvesting eg courgettes and runner beans etc. And one of these, which is a stainless steel blade normal Opinel (No 6) with a nice bubinga wooden handle, which will cease to be a lock-knife when I remove the locking ring, but comes with a slip-case .which will keep it shut and safe. Probably need one of the s ones hat can be abused This has set off a memory of the first time I saw one of these, which was on an exchange in Southern France when the host family used folding knives at meals; one was one of these.

Agreed. Taking enough time to soak in your ideas is the most important step, especially when you have such tight constraints. That is partly why I am throwing out a lot of opinions. There may be ... perhaps ... something useful amongst the dross. You can do a lot even with a small space, such as constrain it with a window so that you only see the interesting bit and your mind fills in the rest, or eg put in a window that hides the top of your fence from view from say .3 to 1.5m and put a raised bed outside at .3m height so it is like having a huge windowsill full of plants, with the fence 1m or 2m away painted green. ATB

No. More like one of these, but an earlier design. https://www.wickes.co.uk/Werner-2-55m-5-in-1-Aluminium-Combination-Ladder/p/193900 (Similar from TS with pic I can link)

Your alternative is presumably a 2 or 3 sectional ladder that will fit in your vehicle. I am happy with the Wickes own brands as they seem to be rebranded Youngmans - eg for the 3 section ladder and work platform I have had for a few years. Ferdinand

This was the one I used. 1-2 years of tenants and going strong. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172603618735 Whole thing

Looking at a slightly broader picture of the house on its corner, I can see a planner being unhappy about it not being quite clear which side is the "front". I think it mainly reads as if the frontage is on the right, whilst the porch and main door face the other way. You may win by leaning on them, but OTOH a clearer appearance of facades may help you too. Suspect this is an aspect of the "looK" that got through by default on the developer plan, and the "lot fell on you" (unfortunately). Looking through StreetView the other houses have an appearance where the entrance reads in the same orientation as the house. I think it is an artefact of being too close to the RH road originally to have the porch the other way round. As to what to do, I would suggest a further conversation to explore their reasons. What were the alternatives offered? I think that changing the roof plane by 90 degrees to face the other way could do it, as could some treatment to soften it - that could be something like a window, or even a climber up the existing. I think you get a free go having been refused, and I suggest asking how you can adjust it, and perhaps putting an artists impression in this time. That is some good garden sideways expansion someone has done there. ? Ferdinand

Welcome.

@K78 Let's play giraffes, and I'll stick my neck out. Been musing on this over breakfast. Am intending to provoke, though not assail. It is really helpful that you posted the 3d view. I think there are a few things with the underlying approach. 1 - You are mourning the 20% of your floorspace which has been stolen, and trying to fit what was there into a smaller space. You are, so to speak, trying to put a 1000 piece jigsaw onto a table designed to hold a 750 piece one. So it ends up feeling cramped. You need to be creative with what you have now. 2 - The design (whoever did it) is taking a conventional bedroom floor and putting it below. Even - by the look of it - to the extent of retaining windows that are designed to stop people falling out. At ground level that is irrelevant, other than for the need for toughened glass at low level. 3 - The ground floor is not integrated with the outside. Even in the original version, the only exit to the garden is through bedrooms. WTF? 4 - Crucially, this turns the upstairs into an isolated viewing gallery on stilts. There needs to be a flow from upstairs -> downstairs -> outside, and back again. That is a key aspect of your bedroom floor design. The flow needs to belong to the whole house not just the people with those bedrooms, unless you have an alternative. 5 - As it is on the Ground Floor, Mother Nature has gifted every room a free balcony. Use them rather than shutting them out. 6 - There is a huge problem with light downstairs - eg the hall has no external windows in either version except those on the stairs. This risks the bedroom floor feeling like a dungeon or a space you got to once a day to hibernate. Avoid, unless this is your intention. Someone could come back saying they met the Minotaur. IMO you need to be thinking about light and space and how you will live here, rather than about how to fit things into the walls you have been given. So 1 - The walls keep the weather out, and should not keep your family life inside. Since you have the glorious position of a garden outside your bedrooms, think of the garden fence not the house wall as the far side of the bedrooms. Useful when your floorspace has just been shrunk. 2 - Do something with those windows - you had patio doors in the original version in bedrooms. Get them back, and also use some lower level windows. If you put them low enough for seats, then the rooms feel bigger. 3 - Do something about circulation to outside without forcing people through the most private rooms. 4 - Work out what you really need. The original plan had 7 spaces in about 80 sqm. Now you have 6 spaces in 65 sqm, plus you lose a further 10sqm+ to space for opening and walking around doors. Not efficient. 5 - Address the light and circulation to stop it feeling like a dark, dead end. 6 - There are many ways to address this. I would make it more open plan, and open up the middle space (where LH space is master suite, and RH space is 2 further beds which are possible small doubles - 11 ft 6 x 9ft.) with patio doors at one side, and big stair windows at the other. I think a void near the stairs somehow would help. I think my best suggestion would be an open well, round staircase - which would be a talking feature. Ideally I would like a full height stair window, even if translucent, but budget may dictate a dog leg stair. But get light down there, somehow. 7 - I would also remove that middle wall upstairs, but that is not the core of this debate. 8 - Such a space as 6 would sort out your top -> ground -> garden flow. That would be a suitable indoors / outdoors 3 storey social space. 9 - I would treat the space as the office / study area, and perhaps use it (or somewhere else) for an informal sleeping area, either via a sleeping alcove or sleeping platform (even above the desk). That gives you back all your facilities by stacking the space. Such a platform could also be up under the roof somewhere. 10 - Your family bathroom would also slot in there. If beds were upstairs I would say go 3 ensuites and no bath, but this may form the loo for people in from the garden. 11 - Assuming you have worked it through, trust your feeling that a proposal is right when you think it is. Two plans below. First is the space you lose to doors. Second is one possible idea. Consider carefully how big things actually need to be. Ferdinand

Yes, but once you have flipped (rather than just moved bathrooms etc) you need to revisit the relationship of all yuor spaces to the outside wrt sun and views and what you do where at each time of the day.

Good first post. You need to put some serious insulation in that roof, as and when you do bits. I know people who lived in one and it was very cold upstairs / warm downstairs. Do you have space for an L-bath? They can be only 800-850 wide.

@Red Kite I like it, and I think the only useful comments I can make are about practicalities and real detail rather than layout. It is fascinating how much difference the lift makes in considering where things are placed. My comments, which you may have covered: - The two look to be rather close together - if you are selling the smaller then is there a need to consider what legal rights they need wrt to future maintenance eg right to put up scaffolding in between, or perhaps other bits and pieces to manage the relationship. - Something I have never considered before, but is there a minimum size for a domestic lift to be to be usable practically for moving furniture around the house without hiring some help? I currently function as my mum's "lift" for all sorts of items. - Detailed design of roof access skylight for ease of use to access the roof? (Ditto for the smaller one - how will the lower roof level of that be maintained with all those trees and leaves?) - Do you want access to that basement loo without walking through the changing - gardeners, workmen etc? - And my normal hobbyhorse about stairs being *much* nicer if they are less than 40 degrees in angle say 37-38 if poss.. Love rotary cars. I had to get rid of two RO80s when moving out, of my last that dad had accumulated. No one wanted them, even though one was restorable. ATB with the build.

We discussed ladders here - though not really telesteps. If I were concerned I think I would look for a UK or European branded one, and treat it carefully. Or find one that was a brand rebranded for the store - as Wickes do for sectional ladders (Youngmans?) and cement mixers (Belle?). Mine came from Aldi, and I am happy as I only use it for light duty mainly around home. Sources to ask: Pro-Tradesmen doing their business, perhaps "Trade Rated" on SF. I do not know how to check the mechanism, however I think one joint feeling weak would be a flag to replace. Ferdinand

I am sure there was an incident in James Herriot where Tristan chucked some ether into the cooking range to get it started.

Yep. It’s all about the humidity and removing it. My cousin swears by one of these, even though it is a relatively low spec house.

In a couple of week I will be doing battle with an over-enthusiastic wisteria. It may be useful to have a knife in addition to the secateurs. I am thinking of treating myself to an Opinel Pruning Knife - does anyone have any experience of these? This or this Whilst I am at it I may get one of their non locking folding knives for my carry-bag. Cheers Ferdinand

My application this time was to clean a patch of window such that I could stick @lizzie's fly murdering sunflower sticker on it. Alcohol and sunflower seem to work. I would not use White Spirit for that as it would leave what feels like a slightly greasy surface.

This is presumably to stop dodgy retired scientists from making TNT (Tri-Nitro-Toluene), and blowing up their garden sheds like Roobarb from the Roobarb and Custard cartoon ? (Can't find the blow-up one, but this is the shed)

At some stage it would be interesting to hear details of your renovation standards eg by comparison with the Building Regs requirements, and the rest of the story. I live in a converted 1940s bungalow - converted about 2007-8 with an extra storey by the previous owner, and our bills for 200 sqm run at about £1000 a year for 2 of us - for all energy heat light and water, before the money coming back from the solar. Solar we generate about 5-6 MWh per year. My day job is partly as a landlord, and I still find people offering me tarted up properties with minimal work to the underlying fabric. I also see newbuilds at Building Regs Minimum standard described as ‘meet the latest eco’ standards (which is a lie in such a case). Ferdinand

To ask an eco-awkward question, why are you using a tumble dryer on warm sunny summer days? Washing line? Or a number of Buildhub bears use traditional Pulley Maid things, which have made a big comeback. I cannot go for one of those as my parent says it reminds her of eating tea in a damp steam filled kitchen when she was 8 or 9. Rather jealous of of the amount of electricity you get. I get less than that and my array is 10kWp, albeit mainly East facing. Ferdinand

I would hire the farmer’s, depending on any conditions not mentioned here.