Kelvin

Arrogant or not to be able to build so much of it himself given how complex it was is quite remarkable. It’s not as if it’s square boxes screwed together. Could good professional craftsmanship have achieved the same or better then clearly yes as we see plenty of stunning buildings out and about.

Good luck getting Siemens Studioline stuff.

Our architect detailed a 25mm void plus 15mm plasterboard which the lighting designer said was too shallow in their experience. I spoke to the architect about it and asked what normally happens and he said generally the electricians punch through the ceiling void to fit deeper downlights 🙄I said I didn’t want that so increased the void to 50mm.

I think most of us had already worked that out! The likelihood is you will get planning permission but it’s still a risk especially given it could accommodate more than one house and the plot next door built multiple houses. You’d be paying for land at a price as if it had planning before you get planning. I personally wouldn’t take the risk but your appetite for risk might be greater. All the books tell you to not buy land at extortionate prices without at least outline planning. Looking at it from the sellers pov, ask yourself why haven’t they sought to get outline planning? It’s relatively cheap to do and would lock in the value of the land etc. They must think there is a risk too as if they apply and it fails they then have to go through a lengthy appeals process so all they are doing is trying realise the full value with none of the risk and then have a second bite at it should you succeed in achieving planning. I can’t see many people running towards making that deal. It’s too one sided.

So they are asking for a shedload of money for a plot of land that might not achieve planning?

That depends on how much they want for a piece of rough land with no planning.

What’s the guide price? Presumably just a few thousand pounds.

Who is your DNO? They are all a little different to achieve the same end. I did exactly as @ProDave describes above after reading the forum. All relatively straightforward. Everything takes longer than you think though so make sure you plan for that.

Welcome. I’ve found this forum to be an invaluable source of knowledge experience and support. Look is great overall. Flows well with a good room layout. I agree with window comment. They look a bit randomly placed. The overheating problem is well made. That said, I just had all my heat loss calculations back which covers solar and overheating and their view is it’s not significant and we have more south facing glass but no east facing glass. I’m going to do my own calcs. The two storey design is a risk. Obviously you’re replacing an existing two storey building. We were told rural two storey buildings rarely if ever get approved. That said I have seen a few. Have you thought about how flexible your basic design will be in case they refuse the two storey design? i.e. could the front be reduced in height or even switch to room in roof design? I don’t know how far you’ve got with how the building will be sited, site levels, access from the road, visibility splays. It might all be quite straightforward for your plot but we ran into some difficulties with ours and an inexperienced architect and long delays for engineering reports. It’s set us back six months. Had I more experience we could have avoided much of the delay. Also don’t assume the architects get the application correct and follow the planning guidelines to the letter. Our application was invalidated due to really simple avoidable errors such as make sure every drawing submitted has a scale bar! If you are going to have PV and an ASHP include some documentation on both (technical brochures for example) They don’t need to be the final equipment you’ll use. Finally get the water source found and checked ASAP!

Would we even be allowed such a steep driveway if it exits onto the public highway. There are rules about fall etc. It caused us no end of grief trying to work out an access and driveway scheme.

£100-£150 is about the range for a service. My previous house was a barn conversion in a steading with 7 other conversions. All 8 had heat pumps. We were individually paying £130 for a service and all using different plumbers. I organised to get one company to do it on a set day each year and reduced the cost per house to £100. He’d start at 8 and be done by 12. An easy £800 for half a day of work. This was purely to maintain the 7 year warranty. I did suggest to the company that if they reduced the fee to £80 per house but didn’t bother sending their guy out they’d make more money.

On the hill start/stop. Buy an EV they are great for starting and stopping on hills. If you got a Model X the doors won’t swing back. £100k and problem solved. Cheaper than divorce too.

Install a button lift for the winter. We had a similar problem but fortunately has the room to move the entrance down the hill so the driveway goes back up the contour rather than across it.

Borehole guy or SE?

I managed to speak to the guy supplying my plant equipment a few minutes ago. He said in 30 years he’s never been asked to design the ducting and he does the Crown estate up here etc. I think you’re right on buying time. All a bit annoying. This SE has cost me a total of 12 weeks delay since March.

Thank you. I would expect the SE to do that bit of it as why would it be that different from the ducting entering the house?

To maintain the warranty cover you’ll find it needs an annual service. You could just stick £150 away in a maintenance account every year and do your own regular checks. You’re effectively paying for a breakdown insurance policy really and when viewed like that it’s quite dear.

Hi Was supposed to get my SE stuff back today. Instead I got a delay notification email and won’t get it until 23/9 so 7 weeks since they got the drawings. They also said they need a detailed ducting design for the borehole plant which will be in the garage. It’s literally 4 ducts that’ll extend 1m or so from under the foundation - water in, water out, waste out (might need a water softener), and power in. In addition I’ll need to add a data duct and another couple of power ducts. I’ve marked on the drawing where the plant will go. Am I missing something how much more detail do they need to add it to their foundation design for the warrant drawings? Can someone with a borehole share any drawings they have?

There will be buyers out there who will appreciate the house for what it is. You could offer to pay for a full building survey for example. We have friends who bought a brand builder built house that didn’t have warranty for example. They are serial house movers and cash buyers.

Fixed for 2 years gives everyone a bit of certainty. But there still needs to be a national campaign drumming it into everyone that the energy you don’t waste is the cheapest energy of all. I even had my other half switching a light off behind me. First time in 10 years 😂

Dressed sandstone from a quarry near me is £120/tonne delivered. There’s another place where you need to collect it yourself that’s £60/tonne. Definitely shop around.

Do you plan on living here a while? If so do you need the extra bedroom or will it be a room that never gets used? I think you should design your house for you and use every sqm and not the next people but have enough flexibility in the design to easily change it should you sell it. Our house design only has two rooms described as bedrooms, one upstairs and a guest bedroom downstairs beside a big wheelchair friendly bathroom. Upstairs is a master bedroom suite with large bedroom, large bathroom, and a large dressing room that’s open at the top of the stairs. It also has a study downstairs that’s beside the downstairs bathroom. Therefore can either be a two bed house, three bed house or a 4 bed house with a little modification. On the rooflights - I agree with Ferdinand, if you have a nice view then make sure you can see it from upstairs. If not then maximise light. Ours are 1600x900 to let us see the view we paid for and to let in lots of light.

No probs

Really sorry to hear. Presumably the certificate is transferable. I didn’t think they were very robust though should you need to make a claim. Different lenders have different criteria. You managed to get a mortgage with a certificate. But the mortgage market has tightened up since you built. When we sold our house last year (barn conversion with a warranty) the buyer’s mortgage lender had us jumping through hoops to prove all manner of things and taking out insurance indemnities for a few things none of which we had to do when we bought it 7 years earlier and it was with the same lender. You might get a cash buyer of course and not face any troubles like our neighbour did. While you can get a warranty retrospectively it is very expensive. Good luck.

Rats are clever little buggers. I thought I had rat proofed our chicken run as no rats for two years after building it. We put the house on the market and obviously the rats spotted it on Rightmove as they moved in to the chicken run underneath the coup. I didn’t notice straight away but did notice that the chickens were suddenly getting through a lot more food. Eventually I noticed the tell tale signs of some excavation work at the back of coup. Moved the coup, the pallet it sat on and the slabs the pallet sat on. I was very impressed with the basement apartment they had built. Sleeping quarters packed with feathers, en-suite loo in the opposite corner, and a well stocked larder of chicken feed and various bits of vegetables. There were two very neat tunnels great escape styli leading out from either side of rat mansions underneath all my carefully installed rat proof mesh, underneath my sunken perimeter barrier all the way to the boundary with the neighbouring field.