Ferdinand

@CADjockey Thanks for posting so early in your design process - early enough when we can make suggestions in time for a fundamental rethink should you need it, but late enough that we have enough to react to specifically so avoid shooting at too much random. This has been probably one of the best threads I have seen on BH, which is probably linked to me not having posted yet :-). Other people have posted specifics, some of which I agree with. My first impression on the plans was that it was very compartmentalised, and how much space was swallowed by spaces where you will not actually live, an circulation. To me it has a feel of a house for a senior manager or independent professional from the 1930s or 1950s. For example a University Vice Chancellor or Area Manager who needs to be able to impress and entertain for the job, or an accountant, doctor, solicitor, school headmaster, or minister of religion who would need to have some business or 'public' functions at home while also housing a family. The layout is startlingly similar to a vicarage from that period - family rooms plus an office and a visitors' lounge or parish room. In 2018 I can see that that would be suitable for a similar setup such as a home-based artist, counsellor, designer, or homeworker, or for a family in a communty where 'public' and 'private' are still expected to be substantially separate (eg in some conservative religious communities). I feel that in one sense you have bypassed the ideas developed in the 1960s to 1990s, and gone for the earlier period's style - eg in the kitchen - dining room, and shutting the playroom away. But also now, the Vicarage or the home-practising Doctor would have the potential public functions more separate in an annexe with a separate entrance, a loo, a waiting room, an office, and a seal-offable link to protect the family space. That is not to say you need to do that, but what you may want to consider as potential future uses for you house (if you care). Two metrics that may be useful are % of area which is mainly used for circulation space, which imo for a house this size should be 12-15% (have not tried to calculate this); and % of area which is used for rooms where you spend time (ie exclude storage, circulation, ancillary and service spaces) - for your design I make it that you spend all your time in less than half of the house. IMO that should be more like 65-70%. That suggests to me that you could get the same amount of effective living space for less house (and money), or more house for the same. I also wonder slightly whether you are doing all that is possible with the plot. What would I do? Downstairs, I would reconsider the layout. I think that lots have commented on that. I might consider putting the study/studio or gym into the garage block rather than the basement, specifically designed to also be a potential Grannexe or pleasant work space. If I was being really long-termist I might make it such that the plot could be divided later, and the garage block be a potential retirement bungalow that could be split permanently. Upstairs, I would think about making it 4 doubles pus a studio-study-craft room with North Light, set next to the family bathroom. ie Potential 5 ensuite doubles; I think you have space for that. The 5th family bedroom adds value - beyond that not so much. I agree on Jack and Jill bathrooms; there is nearly always space for a pair of ensuites. It is such a significant plot that I wonder whether you could do something dramatic such as having (or space for) 3 or even 4 garages. If you have a vague feeling of not-yet-happy-enough, then you need to let it steep, and get some more input. There are lots of good comments here, but I would also recommend visiting lots of similar-scale houses to get a feel for different possibilitiies. One way is to stay in various houses owned by the Landmark Trust, or view houses for sale, or read the BH blogs and ask to visit. Many of us do that sometimes. I think it would be useful for us to see the one page spec of requirements about 'how you want to live' (not 'we want these rooms') you gave your designed/architect. That should have generated a dialogue between you and their experience, to help refine your thoughts. Post it here, or if you did not have one, then write one now resourced by comments here, and perhaps post *that* here. But it all comes back to what you want, and what you want to leave potential for. Best of luck. Ferdinand

Come on, Jack. Get real. I think the answer to that is that Mrs Jack quite properly envisioned herself waking up gradually and slowly on a Sunday morning, while you put your clothes, trolled downstairs, bought a paper, and made the coffee - and brought it back up to be presented on a silver tray with an exquisitely prepared breakfast of Eggs Benedict and Melba Toast, while she relaxed on a on a steamer chair on the balcony. Perhaps with the traditional Bloody Mary. Ferdinand

Welcome.

Apropos of not very much, that is very nearly the ground pressure exerted by a medium sized elephant. http://www.physicscentral.com/experiment/askaphysicist/physics-answer.cfm?uid=20090910093223

@MikeSharp01 Have you an idea how much you will use on the garden and car etc? Rainwater for that will reduce your input volume.

He does seem to be very "Murray Walker". Exact contemporaries to within 2 years, except one is dead.

Does anyone have any good Yogi Berra quotes?

>t.i.h.s.g.o = d There is another term. Or d = 0.9 * P(F) where P(F) is the probablility of a post by someone who's forum name starts with F. F

Never sure about Oxford Uni. Seems to produce a lot of very highly intelligent intellectually-penetrative fools, based on people I know who went there, politics and the meeja. 10 of our 13 Prime Ministers since the war went there for a University. The others were Edinburgh, none and none (Brown, Callaghan and Major). Perhaps not a good sample ? . The international HE rankings would disagree with me. F

Would not a kitchen squeegee or sponge mop do the walls and behind-the-bath? Another one of those where 'middle way' does not work (like 6" gaps between houses or extensions) - close the gap off completely or make it easily accessible?

I think it is because Scandy houses tend to be designed to have bathrooms with wetfloors and have a drainage grill in the floor, without paying much attention to eg floor profile to direct the water. To me it makes sense to have a freestanding bath draining into the grill. A good buggeration-free way to alternate bath/shower should you need without needing to dig up the floor. Over here the practise is perhaps more to make bathrooms into bathing bedrooms, bathing-lounges or bathing-snugs. But you have to admit it makes the problem just go away completely . My other suggestion would be to make a feature of it, as one does with chrome hot and cold water pipes in a shower rather than destroying a tiled wall to hide them. In this case it could be something metal, or something off-the-wall like a reclaimed or newly made barrel or stainless steel item to provide a bath-tidy and hide the gubbins. F

There is another delightfully simple option which occurs in Scandinavia but would not impress Hyacinth B - have a grill in the floor and do not necessarily connect it at all. Here are a few variations on the theme, including a couple of horrors with drainage pipes. I love the simplicity and would have one in my own house, but it might not work for other people.

Not the sharpest knife in the draw to boast about that to a customer :-).

Supplementary question. Are there any of these schemes that are useful for finding tradesmen. Clearly they help with basic checks, such as CRB or trained in trade certifications, but are there any more general schemes that are useful from both sides. Is TrustMark any use, for example, as the ‘only government approved scheme for trusts traders’, whatever that means. I have two angles on this.One is that I want to know as a customer; the other is that I am working on some marketing with my handyman to broaden his customer base since I do not have enough for a full time requirement. Hope I am allowed to say that much. Cheers F

Interesting little development. My local County Council - Notts - seem to have outsourced their entire scheme to CheckaTrade. http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/business-community/trading-standards/approved-trader-scheme That may not help. The first year of CheckaTrade membership costs getting on for £1000 for the trader. The only stat I have is that within 15 miles approx of me, searches on the CheckaTrade website are about 100 per week under categories related to Home Improvement, Handyman etc. Ferdinand

if your staircase is a separate module, floor fixings for that?

Y for Mistress?

Depends what you make them do, I suppose. Wonder how their fingers compare?

Sorry, no.

In England serious challenges to policy or decisions will be High Court or Judicial Review.

@recoveringacademic Create a pseudonym that sounds like a real name, and use http://whatdotheyknow.com. They (run by http://MySociety.org of theyworkforyou.com fame) will also have an example amongst the 470k FOI requests they have administered that could help with your wording. Here is the page for the 229 previous FOI requests to Wyre Borough Council. https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/body/wyre_borough_council I love the one about the Risk and Method Statement for Paint Spraying Dog Poo.

i am getting quotes for several roofing jobs at present, across about 4 houses - mainly small pre-winter type ones but one larger. Roofer this morning will be recommending a rendererererer, as he doesn't do it. F

Good one, @Crofter. @JSHarris a pleasure to read you again, sir. Just had a roofer tell me this morning that a repacmenet valley would be better with a new roof. The joys of landlording.

If it is just the one, can you just phone up the HoP and ask him which one he meant ? :-). Or not possible for a good reason? That answer sounds a bit like code for "we tried to enforce and got an expensive spanking by a bloke in a wig with a butt-hammer." One way, which is free, would be a carefully framed FOI request. Perhaps you need to decide whether you mean precedent setting or not. If the former, you may also need to consider Planning Appeal decisions too. I would probably suggest an informal phone chat with your Council's Legal Dept first - framed that you want to find out xyz, and asking them how to frame your request to make it focused and as painless as possible for them. You can also ask the Freedom of Information Officer, as there is an expectation that they should help. You could also try searching the BAILLI database https://ials.sas.ac.uk/digital/bailii or Court News, who cover lots of stuff. F

That in the @PeterW comment the quoterbot ignored, without the gravel, is the absolute traditional way to do field hedges. Dig a ditch, make a bank, plant hedge on bank. If you wanted to you could make the ditch into a French Drain by putting a perforated pipe down there (maybe soil pipe in 5m lengths with lots of holes drilled in it), and line with weed barrier folded over the top and weighed down with gravel or cheap pavers. Needs somewhere to drain to, mind.