Ferdinand

Seconds and Co suppliers of insulation at lower prices have a newsletter, and supply 10% off voucher codes sometimes via that channel. Subscribe via popup on the website. There is one this weekend. They tell me new stock is going on the site this weekend, so hold on for a few days before ordering. Ferdinand

I think I don't see 300mm thick EPS with whatever is on top of that (if anything) being materially less supportive over a 50mm gap than it is over the rest of the floor. I think it would be difficult to find where the gap was situated in absence of an indicator. But interested to be shown mistaken. Ferdinand

What is the problem if you do *not* fill it? It will be under a lorra-lorra insulation, and I don't see much risk of eg rats moving in. If worried I would do a lean mix. F

I have degradation at about .5% per year according to research. I also think I have a guarantee, which may expire with the company and be futile. But I also have Solaredge which should help if a panel dies (though I could be misunderstanding and would not be surprised if I was). But just as I was about to place the final order I rang up and asked for a couple of spare panels and Solaredge modules, which they just gave me as a clinch the order freebie. I think the idea came from a Jeremy. If I was doing a normal install I think one spare panel might be realistic - my install has 35 panels. F

@Rossek9 You have taken the value of the tiles you have saved by your in roof system into account? Just checking. F

@Onoff This sounds like Hickory, Dickory, Dock. (Except it would be a squirrel.)

I guess you could use a sacrificial or washable insert cut to size. Horse matting or the trad rubber material for matts used in baths to prevent a-over-t slippage by grandma springs to mind, but I am sure people have better suggestions. I second the use of commercial but aesthetic wet-room or changing room lining materials. I have these in bathrooms in student houses refurbished in about 2012 for the entire bathroom floor so they cannot inundate the room below easily, and 4 years later they seem to be as solid as a rock. (Update: so I remember we used Polyflor Polysafe Hydro in Woodland Grey and it cost about £300 for the floor in a compact bathroom, fitted. They key was finding someone who was inexpensive to fit. And we did 4 bathrooms :-) ), http://www.polyflor.com/jh/products.nsf/products!open&family=saf&prodcode=fxsc151 A related point is perhaps to make sure that there is a grab rail or handle available. Once a year spriing clean with a pressuree washer? Ferdinand

At this point you do your solar calculation at the EST website and compare :-o .

There is now :-)

This is just a note of something I came across on Martin Goodall's Planning Law blog, related ot this piece: http://planninglawblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/extending-life-of-planning-permissions.html Planning Permissions usually have a condition to require development to start within 3 years (used to usually be 5, may soon be changed to be 2). In England, up until 2009, the usual way to extend the life of a PP was to apply to vary this condition. But when a temporary right was granted to extend the lives of PPs in order to allow projects to be extended during the UK recession, a provision was made in planning law expressly ruling out the extension of life of a PP by varying a condition. See the above blog for the reference. So when the temporary extension mechanism was withdrawn, neither that nor the "vary the condition" method were available in England. In this blog Martin Goodall noted that the provision banning the use of an application to vary the time condition had not been made live in Wales. Questions which would be of interest to BuildHubbers: 1 - Has this been brought into force in Wales yet? 2 - Can an application be made to vary the time condition in Scotland? 3 - Can an application be made to vary the time condition in Northern Ireland? Does anyone know? Ferdinand

^ This is not usually something to mention casually in a conversation with your planning officer , or ideally to discuss when you are talking about a specific identified address. And there may be regulatory dots and tittles to address when you sell it, if you do. Ferdinand

Hmm. My initial question was neutral. I asked it because I was musing on the use of the word and the self-definition of the profession. For TV, I would say: 1 - It is a lot about how you get to be on TV or advising, and that is very much about who you know and being in the right place at the right time. 2 - The skill set needed is different to that of a construction professional, in that being a TV presenter you need TV presenter, and also have to be photogenic or 'interesting', and have a "Face that Fits" That latter involves a whole set of prejudices and assumptions. 3 - I think it is also about "architects" being stereotyped. Part of that is us, audiences, and the TV companies not having a clear understanding, and part of that is lack of clarity on the professional side. For example how many here would be able to write a 100 word description of the professional competence / role of an architect. I think we could all try, but would all miss parts out with which we are not acquainted. For self-build I would say: 1 - We are overwhelmingly inexperienced clients, and there is no opportunity to gain experience in the typical self-build career of one or two builds. How long does it take for a new self-builder to gain the 'hinterland' to become a proficient client? 2 - We have difficulty sometimes interpreting how paper / cad relates to what we will get. That brings in the usefulness of models and other tools etc. 3 - The result is that it is easy to end up with a fairly standard build, which doesn't reflect our dream because we do not know how to articulate our dream and use our architect to deliver that. 4 - So we end up with our architect/designers interpretation of some aspects of our dream that we have been able to articulate, which is an intelligent estimate. There is also something in there about the role being so massively broad, that it is almost impossible for any one person to fulfil all aspects. So we need to see a lot of people who's profile does not fit what we need before we find the right one, and perhaps have a lot of extra expectations. Just me thinking aloud. What did Mark Brinkley say about this? Ferdinand

Just remembered my Wooster-named Restoration architect. Ptolemy Dean. I like him ... probably fantasic person to chinwag with over a bottle of Becherovka.

Has to be construction to be on topic. You can put a full length laminated one in the shower of you new bathroom. (In 2025 or whenever ). (Senses impending Sword of Damocles)

This - "the Nigella of DiY". "Julia has spent 30 years perfecting her power-tool techniques" Now behave . You can go on a one day course for £385 for which you get 1/12 of the attention. Credit: http://www.juliakendell.com

Ann Maurice? She got the IP in the web name somehow :-). https://www.ipo.gov.uk/tm/legal/decisions/2004/o03204.pdf They started up again last year with a different presenter. "House Doctor returned to Channel 5 for a new series on 3 October 2016 with American interior designer Tracy Metro replacing Ann Maurice. Channel 5 have ordered 45 new episodes." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Doctor Ferdinand

Kevin McCloud of Clan McLoud is an Interior Designer. (GD C4) Charlie Luxton is an Architectural Designer. (small spaces, Building the Dream etc on C4) Sarah Beany is a Property Developer. (Double the House for Half the Money and others). Building Dream Homes (BBC2) seem to have a panel of architects invited on. Kieran Long is an Eng Lit Graduate who writes about archecture and is a bod at the V&A. (House that 100k Built). George Clarke *is* an Architect. (Amazing Spaces, Restoration Man for C4). Getting desperate, The House Doctor is a property marketing something. Are there any others? I seem to recall an interesting one who could have been created by Wooster called Jolyon or Tarquin or Rupert or similar who was half of the boffin team for the Restoration programme about bids for National Lottery money. Ferdinand

Welcome. Consider carefully whether to make the purchase conditional on you finding a way ahead. However, a resale sounds feasible perhaps with a value increase, but you could get clumped by second home 3% Stamp Duty in the meantime for an expensive round trip. You will need to check where you are with Stamp Duty and what happens if you buy land and resell without building. You could of course reapply for what you want then Appeal the Refusal. Would need a good Planning Consultant to tell you whether that might work and do it. F

There was a brilliant Grand Design in Falmouth by Kathryn Tyler. Cornwall that put the double garage underground at the bottom that would have been a suitable idea here. Called "Lizard Peninsula, 2010". House itself pcs, here: http://www.linea-studio.co.uk/album/corkellis_house.html Slideshow Designer presentatiion: I love the boyf draped subversively and seductively over the staircase-with-no-banisters. Ferdinand

Ideally I would like to see a site plan explaining access, relation to the "existing house", where roads are, precise orientation (North arrow), and exactly which bit of land you will get to keep. My feeling is that you know lots of attractive items and rooms from different places that you like and have on your scrapbook, which is good, but that you are thinking from those and perhaps not enough from an integrated idea of how they will fit together to make your house that works for you. And it needs work from both ends. As it is, that core concept is being provided by the architect - and that is for you to create. I will mainly address the relationship to the site and garden. You have lots of good feedback on the designs. It looks a fantastic plot, with the only downside being (I think, digging) that you have a road all the way round your garden side. I am not sure about that huge shared access; to my eye separate drives (yours against the boundary) on the other side would be superior as they would keep cars away from the private side, and less complex legally, but you may be stuck with that. You need to pay a lot of care to your boundary treatment with the road ... perhaps an 8-10ft high, thick, evergreen hedge and shrubbery in front to soften it to shut them out. Do that right, and you get a private oasis around your "villa". I like the entrance sequence from the first design. You park your car and go into a door in a corner without being able to know about what is beyond. Then you go through the hall and into the living area to see the sweep of garden and turn your back on the world and the house close by in your private oasis. Good and unwinding. Then the habitable rooms in both designs are mainly on that private S and W side, with circulation and service on the North (ish), garage, car, and neighbour side. I can think of 2 guiding concepts that seem to fit the site: "private oasis" is one. The other is "clearing in the woods" with an informal woodland garden - so you plan the rooms where you will spend most time on the side where you see the private garden, rather than the side you approach from. I would suggest working a bit more at the core concept and how you will use the house, integrated with the garden. Jamie's "usage cases" suggestion is great, as would be building a few physical models. What about visiting some houses to get ideas - a good justification for some AirBNB trips or B&Bs in Grand Designs, to houses which may be similar or places where design will be at a premium (eg compact urban flats). Or shamelessly exploit some estate agents by making fake visits. Or there are "Open House" events everywhere. On the question you actually asked , I would try and setup the family area so that it gets 3 aspect sun, and have a covered patio outside for summer breakfast, BBQs etc. I wonder about making the room above the garage into a possible teenage den or office-studio as a second purpose, to keep the racket far away and give privacy. And I think your bathrooms are perhaps too large, but the showers themselves not generous enough. I like showers big enough to step back and have a good appreciative look at the person you are (hopefully) sharing the shower with, or to be well away while the water is heating up, or to have space for a garden chair or stool to sit on while cutting nails or shaving your legs. Ideally, I like the same footprint as a bath. On the second design I am not sure about the Master above the garage facing the neighbour, the driveway, and the North. And I think you perhaps have too much circulation space ... width of corridors etc. There are technical bits ... eg on your pair of ensuites between beds 3 and 4 the loos are positioned to wake up next door when you flush it at 3am, rather than against the bedroom where they are the ensuite. That will all come out when you reflect on it later. Compare your design 2 to his initial design on this score ... but those gotchas are what architects are partly for, One caution: you are near Aberdeen so (given current oil, Sindy etc) perhaps (?) pay some attention to future sales prospects - eg don't bust the ceiling price by too much.

Again ... really just adding grist to the mill. You know your situation and your various relationships best, and what is desirable / expedient. But I think that by definition something which is a Planning Condition cannot be considered under a Non-Material Amendment in Fife: There may be a complex interplay between the two different PPs - not clear whether changes to the first PP affect the second PP and how. What happens could be intricate, and it is possible to induce planning officers to say no by asking too much. In the end you will get what is best for you. I will be a little quieter for a few days now. No one is as familiar with the regs as they would like to be :-).

Non Material Amendments. Briefly, it might be worth looking at what elements of the original you wish to keep options to do, and it may be that by asking for an NMA before the original PP expires it would be more difficult in practice for them to refuse. That means in the next few days. You will be familiar with the Fife NMA Guidance of course, which seems to give quite a lot of leeway. http://publications.fifedirect.org.uk/c64_NonMaterialVariationFeb17.pdf The side window is moot as it is a PC, but I would suggest taking a look through just in case there are Planning Matters where you want to lock in an option. Two useful threads which explore the ambiguities: Some people on here have obtained big changes via NMA; others have been given the planning bastinado for cosmetics. Very much a lottery. @Sensus is the expert on those threads, but is temporarily not active it seems. I would suggest your strongest technique will be to demonstrate support from your neighbours if you can if you want anything that affects them, so that will spike the Council desire to send out consultations by supplying the answers first. The ideal way is perhaps for you to draft an appropriate letter from them, and they then sign it and send in with your request. Are you sure that you can extend a PP without a full reapplication? In England we could do that for a bit in the recession, but it went away in about 2012. Perhaps you still can in Scotland.

Addressing your Planning Condition comments from a previous post. >E/W elevations - we've houses either side (one existing, one in planning) and we have a Planning Condition relating to that >"No windows or openings shall be formed in the east or west elevations of the dwelling hereby approved" That would make me slightly annoyed partly because they already had a granted PP which violates it, and partly because I reckon it is unlawful. Talking about the pipeline side, you have a clearance of at least 7m at 90 degrees. The purpose of PCs is to make a dev acceptable in Planning Terms, and to safeguard the amenity of neighbours. Here there are multiple ways you could safeguard the amenity of neighbours without banning openings ... eg for ground floor a condition to install a 2m fence, or to make sure that windows can only look straight out via obscure glazing or deep narrow window bars (think fins on office buildings). No need at all for it to be so broad. Even Fife Council's own fugging blessed Guidance Document has tables and diagrams demonstrating acceptable window arrangements in exactly your situation without any need for a fence or obstruction. http://publications.fifedirect.org.uk/c64_Minimumdistancesbetweenwindowopenings.pdf And the PP is granted so you know exactly where you have to be in relation to the windows on the other house. And if they are obscured there is no in-looking so perhaps you don't need to worry anyway (maybe overlooking of garden excepted if they are able to use it). Perhaps we could have a thread about that condition in the light of the requirements. I think I am about right, but would value critique of my view. >We also had to change the the Dining Room window to a high height narrow window - it was either that or obscure glass. Similar considerations, but closer and with the other property built. That is now a sunk cost, however, and I think you can only shift it via a Full PP or an Appeal against the condition within 12 weeks of receiving PP. And perhaps you are willing to tolerate it.

i just proposed a variant on that to @AliMcLeod for access to his back garden. With pictures. Wheelbarrow and bike ramp. Or grooves in side walls of a flight of steps and a hook at the top for a winch. Bike wheeling grooves are becoming more prevalent everywhere now. Great minds. F Piccies:

Not a good implementation. You need two so the balance each other.