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We have been working on layouts since April and managed to come up with something that worked for us and we were happy, however after a meeting with planning consultant we were advised to change orientation of the house (previous one was unlikely to be approved by planning). Now we have received two options for layout but we are not keen on it as we are losing a fair bit of space to the 'views' and everything seems a bit more squashed. the site is not an easy one as we need to have front facade look like its the main entrance but in reality it will be utility door and the main entrance to be on the side by the driveway. Main views are to the left and some views at the back of the house. We asked for both entrances (utility and main) to be connected for access to utility/laundry/ cloakroom we don't want the back of kitchen counter to be by the windows as we are losing cupboard space Architect seems to only take exact directions from us rather than give his ideas of what might work better. So I guess I am here to ask if anyone has any clever ideas/ suggestions what else could work here? Many thanks

Afternoon, Does anyone have any thoughts/ recommendations for betterment of the attached layout designs? Any usability/ construction issues anyone could foresee? I know they aren't the most ground-breaking plans, but we aren't after some futuristic Grand Design as it's our first self build in a small village. Any comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

At last, after a huge amount of discussion and lots of 'what about this.....' we have decided on our final layout. Due to cost constraints, the windows are smaller than originally hoped for. As the rear of the barn has a low roof I have a ground worker coming on Sunday to look at digging down. The floor currently has 4 different levels, I want them all taken down to the lowest so we can basically start from scratch. We want UFH, but as the roof and ridge height are fixed by the LPA it will need to be slimline. At least the slope of the roof is south facing and there is lots of it so PV panels will be beneficial and should provide enough hot water. The ASHP will do the UFH. Only the cess pit, rainwater harvesting and utilities to still plan. I'm now focussing on exactly what we want in each room, last night I did the snug and that took 2 hours so a big task. But, I can't get proper estimates until we know what we want. I'm a bit vexed that I have received an invoice for the phase 2 contamination gas monitoring, soil survey and report, when it won't be finished until the end of the year. I said I wasn't happy and they just sent me the T&C's showing that I must pay for what has been done. It just seems odd that the total price is 5k and the invoice is for 4k, hardly a correct breakdown in my opinion. It seems to me that lots of costs are nothing to do with actually buying stuff and building. We've had 3 planning apps, structural surveys, 2 contamination surveys, possibly a remediation report and, of course, architects fees. And we still need structural designs, building regs, asbestos roof removal (luckily only a small bit of the roof), all before we buy anything that is part of the house. Any thoughts on the above layout, please go ahead.

Hi All Looking for some direction. I have a fairly long (north to south 50m) and narrow (east to west tapers 36-26m) plot. I am keeping the house closer to the south side to maximise exposure to daylight, however this presents a headache over placing my garage and outbuilding (storage shed because....shed) to the north side. Is there guidance or a programme/info on how far away buildings can be from eachother without one being in a constant shadow of the other? i.e. if I were to have solar panels on garage roof, if there guidance on were to best situate the garage in relation to the house first?

Anybody recommend where/how I could draw a decent plumbing schematic drawing? I have a few queries I want advice on from the plumbing wizards on here but would prefer to furnish my post with a nice drawing/picture for clarity.