Ferdinand

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Thanks @Anitha that is useful. OK. Briefly - nice bungalow on a nice spacious plot. I would not call it huge - if you build a 4m or 6m deep extension on the back, you will notice that the garden is smaller. Caveat - obvs you live there so you have the info to discount things I get wrong. I am deliberately provoking you, here - though I hope with good ideas. The biggest feature of this plot imo is that the sunny side is the road side, and your suggested back extension / Orangery will get very little sushine, unless you put a big priority on something with rooflight. The morning and evening sun are blocked by neighbours on that position. My kitchen extension on my bungalow is like that - North facing. Unless you did some careful and fairly major work with steel beams on that back wall, you may end up with a long thin extension in the shade ?. Though it could be made to work. Mine - which was here already - works, though I would just like the house to be the other side of the road and the other way round. For a different suggestion, I would think about an extension on the front following the profile of the gable, then knock through Living to Bed 3, and make the ex-bed 3 into the kitchen. Then you have kitchen -> dining -> whatever in one space (eg sunny lounge study). I would use the existing walls knocked open (how open depends on budget to put steelwork in) to define the space. And it would be spectacular to have exposed trusses for part of it. I think you have on that side 4-5m to next door's building line, so it should be doable. I *think* that the trusses are in the right directions to be relatively easy for wall removal. You get a more coherent space, with far better sun, and importantly the ability to change the face of your bungalow to be different in the road. I would think about having the front extension full height internally, and a storm porch on the corner with a corner post. Vertical cladding on he facade might work wornders. You have the advantage that bathrooms are already both front and back, so you can put ensuites and family bathroom nearly where you want. So I would arrange the rest as necessary, and you get a nice living side + sleeping side plan. I might do it in phases and open up the 2 rooms but not extend initially to eke out budget. Ferdinand

Yep that is the sort of thing that is possibly if they husband a big contingency.

We really need to see the house in its plot, and orientation ie where north is - which will get you far better advice. The easy way is for you to do a screenshot from Google Maps or bing.com, and snip off the details such as Lat and Long to keep it anonymous, and ideally draw a line round the plot. We also need to know roughly where you are (say eg "South Dorset" or "Stockport".) F

I have ended up doing that - a 75x25x1800 mm piece of oak was only £9.00 at the local Merchant, and I will just move the existing hooks onto this about 300mm down.

Here are a few photos of the refurbished bathroom when done, including the 'ease of use' items such a shower seat, except for a few finishing touches. (There are a couple of 'before aids added' photos which I have left in.) There is one more post to follow in this series, which will talk about a couple of final touches, and detail the costs of the project. [Edit: Added bonus video from the "Recommendations for Bathrooms for Elderly / Disabled" forum thread created for this project]

Question whether that would be economic in terms of the extra strengthening needed in the initial roof structure.

For this project, that is about it, though the thread may have an afterlife and be hoicked out of the Underworld occasionally if others use and expand on it. However, full details, pats and costs will appear on the blog thread:

The upcycled end screen, which used to be on the bath is now fitted and secured using a 3d printed (by a kind buildhubber) custom block plus a bead of silicone. ------------------- So - this is the white ABS version in situ, and the prototypes have been hoicked. It is slightly out from end to end, but the glue - in addition to being industrial strength and then some - has enough body to pad it out. The edge needs slight tidying with a smear of silicone. I may not even put the screws in. And I have put a bead of silicone along the bottom. That wall mount is a hinge as it is the bath screen reused, but it should stay firm now. Alighnment seems OK. But the silicone bead - despite one of those gummi-bear profiler things and looking OK - is not quite as smooth as a Levy worthy of a visit from a Chevy. And the gap is larger than I would like so I may be tempted into adding a little extra whilst it is still mint. Plus a bit of untidiness to take off once set firmly. So, big thanks to @Temp and a donation coming for BH. ----------------------- And a shower caddy has been fitted. This was from Amazon for about £22, and the key feature is 1) that it is long enough for a <5 footer to reach, and 2) that there is a rubber sheathing where the caddy contacts the screen.

So - this is the white ABS version in situ, and the prototypes have been hoicked. It is slightly out from end to end, but the glue - in addition to being industrial strength and then some - has enough body to pad it out. The edge needs slight tidying with a smear of silicone. I may not even put the screws in. And I have put a bead of silicone along the bottom. That wall mount is a hinge as it is the bath screen reused, but it should stay firm now. Alighnment seems OK. But the silicone bead - despite one of those gummi-bear profiler things and looking OK - is not quite as smooth as a Levy worthy of a visit from a Chevy. And the gap is larger than I would like so I may be tempted into adding a little extra whilst it is still mint. Plus a bit of untidiness to take off once set firmly. So, big thanks to @Temp and a donation coming for BH.

That looks potentially tricky. Get all you can about the legal status first, especially the owner of the road. It is only the owner who can give you permission or stop you ... if any more permission than you already have is needed. Council planning will not be interested in this aspect. "Civil Matter". OTOH you could be fine, but pay it some attention to manage that risk.

FOI the entire planning file for that address, or the earlier time period, specify that PDF by email is acceptable, and you may get the whole lot surprisingly quickly. Though they may try and charge you as it is old, or argue that since there is a scheme to access is at reasonable cost then they are entitled to divert you into that scheme. Or just make an appointment to inspect the file at the office, which is your basic right. Take an iPaD to make notes and use the opportunity to take piccies of the docs if it comes. Angled piccies followed by an image stretch program works quite well Ferdinand

In the GB, I would expect removal of PD rights by condition to be the default. At least in England and Wales. F

Touche. Since I am my own landlord, that would require contortions or a something-scope. F

Not mentioned yet - but think about where you are starting and finishing to make sure your shower gubbins is in the right place. What I mean is that Multipanels work superbly for a long time, but what if eg there is a waterleak in a pipe behind the panel? They work well because they are sealed in so thoroughly. If you have the Aqualok joints they also undo tidily iirc from one end only. How will you maintain the shower gubbins? As a landlord role I obsess about maintenance, because it is damned expensive to have empty properties. What I have done in my last 2 bathrooms (Little Brown Bungalow - Panels) and the one I have just written about (Home - tiles), is to put a 100-150mm stud section where the gubbins goes (rather than a shelf at the other end) and also make sure it is behind the last panel in the run. Piccie below of the thing in the Accessible Bathroom which is also about the need for shower cut-offs which the self-builder who did the house deemed unnecessary. It is not ideal, but it will at least be easier. An alternative is accessibility from behind. What do others do? Just another thing to think about ?. It may be that there never is a leak, but you increase (says Murphy) the probability if you do not cater for the possibility ?. Ferdinand

The 8m rear development will require a Local Consultation Scheme with your neighbours or whatever it is called now, of course, to implement. Unless the system has been changed again :-).

Welcome. (Strangles cricket comment at birth, 'cos if England are winning it will only be for 10 of the next 50 years). Presumably building from cob (ie mud) may be appropriate in some of the warmer parts. Just like .. er .. Uzbekistan or Mexico. Ferdinand

Here is the link. https://www.bidspotter.co.uk/en-gb/search-results?searchTerm=Glamping I would say yes liquidated, but dreamy entrepreneurs rather than manufacturers. Though they could be dreamers setting up a manufacturing business. ?

But we do mainly have parents, changeable requirements, sometimes blended families and boomerang kids. And homeworking. We also move house half as often as 20 years ago, and social care services will be a mess for the next generation .. in all probability. Any ne,w arrangements that come in will take 25 years to bed in. Personally, though single I have a parent living with me in a 50:50 house but future arrangements I have in mind include a possible girlfriend, possibly with her own kids, or potentially up to 2 .. possibly disabled as we are town centre .. lodgers to keep the 5 bed house used and funded as I eventually retire. And some of these could happen in nearly any order. Or I could move ... or even move and be half here and half somewhere else. Or as a diabetic I hav3 to be resilient to going blind. Most of this was in mind when we bought it 7 years ago. Within that we have to navigate compromises ==> As much flexibility as is reasonably practicable. But just what we do is for each of us to reflect. I find Number of Rooms a more flexible concept than Number of Bedrooms. Mine is huge kitchen plus 2 bathrooms plus a conservatory and integral garage and 6 others which can be anything from lounge to office to bedroom. Ferdinand

In your situation I have the electric ufh in the bathroom on a timer, programmed to come on for a couple of hours first thing. For electric only and ease of use, I would put the towel rail on a programmable timer switch such as this concept (not a good precise model .. someone like TLC may have something less expensive). https://heatmyspace.co.uk/product/push-button-timer-switch/ You can then program a fixed period of towel rail for heat at other times on the safe push button, and it switches itself off again. Ours has not needed a stat at all, and seems fine. This is a 2010 regs house roughly. Ferdinand

If it is a requirement, that would be a little moot perhaps? Also, I am told that for a trad house a decent chunk of energy loss is via air leaks. So for a very well insulated house that should be a more significant factor. There may even be a decent payback in lower bills. Ferdinand

My favourite comment on glass sinks. "Save these for bathrooms where people are unlikely to drop things."

The Naymen Chorus of derision is convincing. So the use for the matching taps would be: a - A fixed mixer in a utility, high enough to get a bucket under. b - In a flip not a rental for people who decide on appearance not practicality. c - Possibly with a better type of ink in the bathroom if it works as a design and no splashes. d - For a bidet for footwashes. Cheers all. Ferdinand

Why not name here if you recommend?

The genuinely most interesting offer I have seen on there this AM is 4 x 3mx7m glamping pods that look to actually be portable garden buildings that have an initial bid price of £100 each. Look like 3k or more to actually buy. Because they will cost at least £500 each to transport, could be a right bargain as home offices or site offices, as a lot of bidders will be scared. Would be a Plan B for @iSelfBuild but they are in Herfordshire. There do seem to be a lot of Shepherd Huts and Weirdy Shaped burger vans out there for cheap sale. I blame Small Spaces and Shed of the Year; Burgers at a Festival from an ex-Airstream is the 2010s version of the 1910s "escaping to Paris and drinking coffee with surrealists whilst living like an impressionist until broke". Ferdinand