Ferdinand

I might be on for that. Who else?

Do you happen to like polished things? They are not going "over budget"; they are building to the necessary specification but the materials were too overpriced. For self-builders, until the point of destitution suely money is a dependent variable?

I think service connections early plus a semi-permanent loo, and a creative way of accessing water, are indicated, since we need no water connection later to confound the Council Tax Inspector later . F

@Visti On the workshop etc, my concept could be to turn the gate by the back of the house through 90 degrees, and provision for a "garage" sized room beyond that (at least 3x6m if you can manage - ideally longer) corresponding to the full width of the driveway so the roof can continue. Could be a garage or studio or whatever, even starting out as just a roof on posts. You could treat the area in front as a "kitchen garden" or play area. On the Overcrowding, it is very unlikely to be applied to Owner-Occupied soon, but it is a useful tool for a quick assessment. OTOH look at how regulated children in cars are now, and before long the 'poorest' housing will be concentrated somewhat more in the OO sector (Rental is being vigorously addressed now), and someone may try something. I can see somewhere like Denmark or Sweden imposing requirements, and then it could end up here on a more bumph-y EPC. On "Details" here, I mean what you put in at Design Stage to help useability later especially stuff that is cannot be retrofitted. eg Roof angle will affect the valley. Or if you decide to maintain the outer roofs via the valley, then making something strong enough to be a base point for a harness might be good, or if the other side making sure that your car port roof can be walked on and perhaps having something that will make sure that ladders up there are stable etc. Offsetting the roof light on the landing would be a classic, or a shallow ladder cupboard behind a panel to prevent you having to troll a ladder upstairs every time etc. One of the nicest ones I saw recently was where someone had used a sash window mechanism to create a pull-downable ladder to their mezzanine that stored vertically so used less space. Logic says you need the workshop first, to build things in for the build. F

Cum vita brevis sit, nolite tempus perdere. (Think that is self-translating).

I think one discussion about cash *should* be tolerated. "Cash job?" "Not on your nelly!". I do sometimes pay in cash, but run a system of signed time sheets and I explain explicitly at the outset that it will go through the books.

Reflecting further, I think I would give some careful thought as to how to maintain the veranda / car port roofs, the walls above them, and the outside roof slopes. I feel that the easy way to maintain the outside roofs *may* be from the central valley via a pair of roof ladders, and that you definitely need all or parts of the lower flattish roofs that can be worked on and from. What details are necessary? F

Set of 11 (eleven) Oak Veneer 5 horizontal panel Howden's doors on ebay. Current bid £41. 3 days to go. Chester. Perhaps a steal for the right person. Standard size, so if I had a lockup I'd have these. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/11-Howdens-Oak-veneer-Doors/272897675260?hash=item3f89f80ffc:g:oXYAAOSwNkJZ7Nth

The Harold Lloyd approach - A Pair of Glasses and a Smile. Whisky in the pair of glasses if necessary. (tempted to whip that over to off topic for a caption competition) F

Yes - October is Howden's sale month. My 2.2k Howdens kitchen will be finished tomorrow (I think), and I will post piccies. The worktop is going to cost @PeterW £10, 'cos it's beautifully square. Ferdinand

You could of course pay the BM directly.

Others will comment on the 20% upfront. You need to keep it sufficiently in step that the money reflects the work that has been done, and the builder does not have large amounts of your money in excess at any time ==> problems if he goes bust. But equally, you should not rely on large amounts of his money to be funding your working capital. You also need some sort of retention for leverage if mistakes get made. It also depends if eg you are buying materials. If so, then the Builder's risk is reduced. Settling bills promptly carries huge kudos. You may want to read the "Saving Money" thread. Significant savings are possible - I reckon I have essentially paid for the labour on the current approx 25k project by the money saved by buying materials well. And I also have the air miles for a Business Class return to Japan :-). Ferdinand

Quick question. I need to put a vent tile into the roof at the Little Brown Bungalow. Is there much difference in eg performance or wind noise between the "raised cover" type, and the flush type. They are Double Roman tiles. I want to put it there, link in the extraction duct, and leave it alone for 20 years eg Between this and this and this. A B C Cheers. Ferdinand

OT, but this interests me. How did that happen? Thermal performance is not a Planning matter, AIUI.

Welcome and interesting plan. You are at a general stage, but my comments. Looks like a good practical general design. 1 - Need to access bins without going into the rain? 2 - Where is your workshop? 3 - It looks seriously short of shed-space / outside storage. I doubt whether 2 bike spaces is enough (policy minimum?) - if you intend to have the option of being a cyclo-family then you will need space for things like enough bikes for everyone, tag-alongs and trailers, and maintenance space. And potentially velo-mobiles if the country comes to its senses on infrastructure. What about the lawnmower and the garden tools? What it comes down to is that you may want 150-200 sqft of shed-type space. What about extending the 'car port' block back behind the line of the house? I might be inclined to build that such that it could be a study or studio in future. 4 - Get that valley right. Enough width to walk along it for roof maintenance without wobbling, and for 2 people to squeeze past ("you have a look at this end"). My preference is to separate walking surface from drainage surface by building up the walking surface but making it dismountable, to protect the former. That landing rooflight is your valley access, I assume? Move it so that it is not over the stairs (so can just lean a ladder through it), and make sure that it is suitably hinged (top or side hung opening outwards, I think, or mid hinge and large - need space for egress for future materials) and big enough for comfortable use when you get to be a fat man aged 76. Make sure the bottom structural edge is above the maximum depth of water / snow you can ever get in the valley, to save your seals, but low enough to climb back in easily with one step onto the ladder. There is something to be said for a notch or bar just below the rooflight edge to lean / hook your ladder on to if you prefer not to have it sticking out above the roof when using. And have storage space on the landing for an ideally sized ladder / telescopic ladder and your window pole. Had an old house with 5-6 different bits of valley / platform that had no access whatsoever before we installed it. You may be up there 3-5 times a year; make it easy. 5 - Do you think you will have enough bedrooms (and convertible bedrooms), eg if you have 5 kids? Try an exercise vs the bedroom gender mixing regs (under Overcrowding iirc) if they are eg M11, F12, M15, F15 and M16. 6 - There look to be interesting games to be played with cathedral ceilings upstairs. Provision for storage / sleeping mezzanine above the bunkroom and /or bedrooms? 7 - Intriguing that 2 parking spaces may be enough, and that reversing out is OK. Best of luck. Ferdinand

I spent some time chatting to the Valspar people at B&Q yesterday; that can be sprayed. Slight care needed as they have different 'contract' paint for new plaster, and another one for going over existing paint. F

My mum watches that. I think they sometimes equate character with "features" - almost as if the aspiration is to live in a Beatrix Potter or other half-remembered book or imaginary situation. But the "mystery house" is always an interesting part of the format - the opportunity for the client to experience things they did not know they would like aka the Unknown Unknowns. Whether a building "works" may or may not be part of the character. @ragg987 I think Estate Agents are trying to summarise difficult ideas with a debased language. I think it is the same problem as paint companies needing to give meaningfully different emotionally-weighted names to 14 or 68 colours that are practically identical; it must be soul destroying. I think I have 2 brief points on "character". 1 - It is a personal thing. There are buildings with a cosy, old fashioned, grandiose (even grandiloquent), friendly, cold, intimate, intricate, or intimidating character. There is no guarantee that I will like the "character" that you do. And it is quite hard to describe what we like - I have tried to add a word to that list describing the character of Coventry Cathedral or East Anglian wool churches full of space and sunlight, but I can't find the right word. That is what imo architects are for; I want them to help me put a character into the building that fits my needs and will make my life richer. And to provide me with a language to describe my thoughts. I don't need someone to tell me how many bedrooms I need - that is easy. Me hating your house, and you not liking mine, are fine. It makes life interesting. Imagine life if we all liked the same things or there was no emotional reaction. This is Mr Data and his new emotion chip trying to describe new concepts (skip the ad) . 2 - I think "personality" is perhaps a good complementary word to "character". I can perceive something of the values and opinions of the original designer and builder by seeing and using a building. For examples of modern buildings with characters I like or not, I would point to eg The British Library seems to be grand but welcoming. If I was not a member I may have perceived it as pompous, but i have worked in the various spaces. The small parks on bomb-sites in the City of London are intimate and illuminating, to me The National Shrine (Scottish National War Memorial) in Edinburgh I found grand but cold, and the Burrell Museum in Glasgow I found involving in its original form. Ferdinand

It's My Precious and I'm keeping it. Stay away, Baggins - we don't care how much gold you have in your pocketses ! Just watched LOTR again. Yes. It starts spinning in circles the other way if you have it on your kitchen table . F

Can we add here recommendations for paints which do and do not spray OK. * Interiors For walls, I have tried Leyland Trade Contract White, which is fine. In contrast, the Basic Dulux Matt topcoat was a failure, despite a recommendation from staff at both Wickes and the Dulux Centre that it would be OK. Ended up using a roller. Has anyone sprayed Vapspar White? Valspar mixed? And can anything be recommended for interior woodwork?

A perennial problem with walls is water or other staining. Yesterday I was walking past a fairly new wall, built perhaps 15 years ago. There are an interesting number of white stains now running down the wall. What is the cause? My candidate is probably the weep holes, and also the 'shadow' from the road sign (which should be a few inches further out). I wonder if it also cheap bricks, or an insufficiently considered design. In any case, if stains show up this prominently so soon, then something on the detailing is not right. What do you think, and what would you do differently? ( I have uploaded these at full size so you can zoom in.) Photo 1. Photo 2. Photo 3. Photo 4 . Photo 5 . .

He probably bought it for kitchens. He bought a remanindered warehouse of kitchen unit stock from a company called Kalmar in about 1982, which filled about 7500 sqft 3m high and then some. A significant chunk of income until after 2000 came from using that stock. Ferdinand

Evolutionary change indeed. 25 year old version. If it ain't broke...

Do you mean the walls it is going against, or the worktop when finished :-). ? This is going to cost you £10. The wall is already right-angled, 'cos one side is boarded out make it so. If you meant that, fork out now my friend.

Yep. It is very easy to be idiosyncratic in the wrong direction, which is fine. But... I think the pricing of interesting houses argues that they are more volatile and tend to be 'not average' both to live in and sell. It can go either way. I think it may help ... if we care ... that it can also be normal if desired.

is 5.1kg heavy?