Ferdinand

@Nickfromwales Could you elucidate on that, please, Nick? To you mean have the panels arranged horizontally and arrange the bath height such that an extra can be infilled at the bottom? Or have I got the other end of a different stick? The shower and bath would be identical footprints. AB Multipanels are available in a 2ft version and since it used a tongue and groove "Hydro-Lock" joint then provided the orientation is correct a horizontal joint should be effective. But I can see that being less effective than vertical joints. Ferdinand

Note these are Grant Westfield multipanels not AB Multipanels - AB Building Products are a large distributor in the South West. See this post. I am planning to use the AB Multipanels to line my bath alcove in the Little Brown Bungalow. So far, so good. However, I may want to adapt it to be a shower in say 10 years, and that the price of the panels is quite high at £145 or so for an 8x4 in the standard finishes before you even start getting into trims and fixings. I only need 3 but that will be perhaps 1/3 of the cost of the (reasonably posh) bathroom. Is there any reason why I cannot fit full height uncut panels such that later on the bath can simply be hoicked out and a suitably sized shower installed - eg if a tenant can no longer climb into the bath? Considerations are: Sealing the bath to the panels in a way which is suitable, and can be removed later. Given that both are rigid this should be possible. Installing the shower over the bath now in a way that will not require changes later. Detailing the bottom edge of the panels - probably involving having them a suitable distance off the floor now to allow for a shower tray later. Comments are welcome. Ferdinand

I do not think you have enough circulation space round the island in the kitchen. The walkways appear to be about 750-800mm wide - imo you really want enough for 2 people to go past each other carrying things, otherwise you end up playing roundabouts. Wider circulation also means that you have room to stand things without substantially blocking the route should you need eg kitchen bin or trolley. While considering flipping the stairs to the RHS, see what can be done by making the kitchen about 1m wider in the space created. For the island consider orienting it more square or "landscape" in those plans, with a breakfast bar or similar on the lounge side. Align the side of the island with the edge of the hall doorway, such that the stools are out of sight under an overhang while not in use and using the 'corridor' when pulled out. Use the space gained to get more circulation around the island - imo it needs an absolute min of 1m width, 1.2m is better and 1.5m is ideal. F

This is not a shed. It is an ONOFF shed, whatever that means. @Onoff Plan half-B may be to stand the ends in a bucket of 5star for an hour to protect the end grain, as that is where rot could start, and paint or spray the boards themselves. Ferdinand

If looking at uPVC one thing I would examine is the Frame Factor, and whether that will have an impact on the amount of light that comes in. Frame Factor = area of opening taken up by window frame and bars, which I have seen expressed as eg 0.75. If one is say 0.7 and the other 0.8 based on your size of windows, that is quite a difference. Mine at home are around 0.8, but I will post a piccie later of a house that I think has probably suffered from replacement windows with thick frames and window bars. It is dead easy to calculate. I think comparative prices may also be signficant. How much more will you spend on one over the other if they are comparable in performance? If you enviroment is noisy, then that *might* argue for Option 1. Ferdinand

Don't know. Checked with my Agricultural Merchant when I bought some fenceposts last w/e and he does stock creosote, so it is out there. F

Thanks. In the end I went for a bath from Cheeky Bathrooms, off Ebay, and the Positano range of loo / sink / cistern from Wickes, which are on discount.

Wickes currently have 3 for 2 deals on roll insulation. http://www.wickes.co.uk/Products/Building-Materials/Insulation/Loft-Insulation/c/1000270

it will swallow a *lot* of fivestar. I treated some CLS used as part of a shed in a bath made from a square of fenceposts and roll polythene, and the amount it sucked in in was amazing. Multiple 5 litre cans can vanish very quickly, and then you have spent perhaps £80-100 on preservative. F

Can he soak-treat them? That would use a lot of treatment, mind.

Good price. Last time I was thinking about poweflushing a very small house it would be 400-600, and it was less than 1k to replace all the pipes and rads so I did that instead.

I think that is probably weasel words to get out of some legal duty or other. My Wickes cashcard says for personal use only, but they have never stopped me stacking it with a Trade Discount.

Cheers. I tend to run a mile where my purchases have to pay for lots of TV adverts :-). Although Victoria Plum seem to specialise in baths of either 1500mm or 1700mm size.

So are Victoria Plum OK?

Does anyone know any reason to avoid this company? https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk Just a check. Cheers. Ferdinand

Are secondhand granite worktops useful for those shelves rather than marble? Probably a touch cheaper.

Just to add our experience ... we had a request for an alarm to be fitted in a student house a couple of years ago. Comfort, our agent who manage a lot of properties, recommended wireless sensors as that was their normal usage and had been problem-free. It has been fine and was relatively inexpensive - low hundreds. This was fitted just to the downstairs - mainly as a deterrent and because it was all female that year, and because there are a couple of windows into the kitchen-diner from the front forecourt. At home we are hard-wired, but that was fitted before we arrived. Ferdinand

I think I stand it on rubber horse matting, or perhaps those interlocking hard foam exercise mats, which are in turn on something that makes it easy to slide. Or behind a door. Anything to keep the judder-judder-judder subdued.

Thought you meant feet , and it was a standing area.

The answer ti that one is to have a 1.5 sink where the big one *is* a decent size :-). My 1.5 sink hobbyhorse is that the little sink must be on the opposite side to the drainer, then you can still do messy things without messing the drying potsnpans.

Yes. They were roughly comparable with other trade prices, and for me are the closest o.t.c. Hager stockist. AICO mains smoke alarms with 10yr Li backup batteries were coming in at £27.30+VAT = £32.75 - which is OK but may be beatable by a few %. About 6-7% over Gil-lec - will use if I have some lead time. Do not have the double socket prices to hand. Ferdinand

So that s like a traditional central hallway / reception hall with doors to every room.

Thanks for the further comments. @jack I think a viable scheme for that remaining site would be either a single detached house/bungalow with integral garage or side drive on my side, or a semi-detached pair of small retirement bungalows with a hipped roof probably restricted to over-55s. F

Hager seem to be stocked by Buildbase. That is where my latest selection came from.

So much for wrapping this up quickly. Curiouser and curiouser. It turns out that this proposal (Ashfield V/2017/0562) incorporates into its proposed garden/amenity/parking space two areas of land which were dedicated to parking and amenity for a different dwelling under a previous Planning Application (Ashfield V/2016/0140) by the same Applicant. If the later proposal is approved and built it will remove *all* the amenity space and the only parking space dedicated to one house created under the earlier proposal. The earlier proposal is now around 65% through. No 46 is now occupied, and no 50A is nearly finished. The earlier proposal is excellent. My judgement is that the amenity and parking space for No 50B under 2016/0140 comprise 15-20% of the area included in the later Planning Application 2017/0562. See my notes below and comments at the bottom. Compare. This is Google Streetview of the location: This is the proposed block plan from 2017/0562 - excerpted from the PDF I posted: While this is the Approved Block and Location Plan from 2016/0140, with annotations: The two areas of this Approved Plan highlighted with red circles - garden and parking space - are part of the new garden plot in 2017/0562. The green lines indicate what has been or may be done - a couple of doors and the fence between 48 and 50b now existing in a different place. This latter was caused by the existing door to 48 going into the other house's garden under the approved plan. That all suggests that the Approved scheme was not thought through in enough detail, and perhaps they should have waited and done a single Planning App. But money and time etc. The rub is that reallocating the garden of 50b like that is unacceptable, but overlapping of Planning Applications is allowed and normal as thee can be different development proposals in the same space. If the later PP is granted this issue will not crystallise until it is being built and either 50b has no garden and parking space, or the new semis will have compromised plots and even less parking. By that time it will be built, so it will not be expedient for the Council to enforce, so we will get overdevelopment and a best-in-the-circs solution, which will be a tactical bodge. And the Council will walk away hoping no one notices, because they will genuinely not be able to do anything at that point. How to object? I think this aspect of the objection has to be based on the latter scheme not being achievable as proposed, because the previous scheme will be completed. Although even that may be questionable since there is no requirement on an Applicant to complete a scheme. Really quite naughty, but this type of thing happens all the time if no one notices. He would build both, put the fence half way along, leave 50b with no parking space, sell them all, and zippety-doodah ... Ferdinand