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.

Good to hear the story. Best of luck.

IMO that is a bargepole option - it *must* help gutters to block up more. I would counsel to be a bit strategic and consider what other wiring type services you may need in the future eg remote lights or sockets etc, and perhaps consider doing the trenching and ducting for these now, including spare ducts with draw strings and so on. We installed satellite TV from a remote mast (made from scaffolding) into a smallish listed 16C Manor House building, and we installed an extra drainpipe up one corner for wires then ran all our cables up insider that. On this occasion that was four sets of satellite wires which included a spare. Always include a spare. Here we are built into the roof. The way I handle cables here is to route up one particular place on the wall for most, and then via the "toblerone spaces" created by rooms in the roof as far as possible. But it is tricky. Perhaps a few new built-in cupbards will create routable routes? At my last reno I left channels under all the floating floors round the inside walls, which worked a treat for plumbing and electrics. The other thing to put in when you can is underfloor ducts for future media areas, so that you do not have Virgin going right through everything with their BFO drills. Yes - to the scaffold tower. But never take silly risks. I have a Zarges Reachmaster bought secondhand via BH. I have 5.7m working height, but it will go to 8.1m with extra bits I think. Useful for building up a stock of future favours from neighbours. Ferdinand

How did you get 55 sqm under PD? On the heating, why not some sort of reversible "single room" split heat-pump type thing? You may need cooling as well as heating - heat soak etc. Also, how well is it actually insulated - whether Regs standard or say much better will be pertinent imo? Ferdinand

I’ve fitted a secondhand kitchen, with no problems, But not from a broker site. I have also done a secondhand conservatory from eBay which probably saved 10k+. it was 6m x 4m for £600, delivered 120 miles. Ditto upvc patio doors. Twice. The keys are to know what your needs are whilst having the nimbleness to be flexible, and how closely it meets them, and condition plus it all being there. Ie Go and check first, piece by piece. Be prepared to wait, then swoop. It is the same as getting a good house for a good price. You can probably save half the price on a new kitchen anyway. Secondhand just brings that saving to 70-90%. F

Discussed here and here And in several other places. F

I do hope you haven’t dragged it out now that it is grown in, and disturbed all those nesting chiff-chaffs and song thrushes ? ?

From @Onoff on another thread Can anyone give a rundown on the various types of alcohol, what the are, and where one obtains them? I have seen ‘rubbing alcohol’, but at the moment for cleaning / degreasing surfaces I use fruit preserving alcohol since I have had a bottle of it in the cupboard since dad bought it on a whim in Luxembourg some years ago ie 199x . Seems to work. I also normally have pure natural artist’s turps in, and acetone.

And do not flush the wipes down the loo !

I would perhaps think in terms of waterproof foundations which can be made higher later. Could be something as simple as piles of breeze blocks that can be added to later. if I were being flooded in 10-20 years.I would just make it a bit taller on my own Initiative. The one consideration may be a shed structure strong enough to take being jacked up? If you are after something posh does this imply a site office or static caravan type thing?

Also need: "Which bugs of your house featured you when they were being designed?" Ferdinand (who is safe 'cos I didn't design my house)

My conservatory roof, the despressing amount of leaves resting thereupon, the blockage of leaves in the drainpipe (I think) which is keeping the conservatory gutter (hidden rather comprehensively under the house gutter) full of water, and the crawler boards I am going to need to crawl along to clear it all out in what looks like a 3-4 yearly exercise.