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daz1984

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Hello everyone.

 

Thanks for accepting me on BuildHub. I don't have a trade background so my providing some useful knowledge might be limited but I'm hoping to at least start some useful conversations and experiences that I'm about to go through, and with a bit of luck someone may find it useful.

 

I'm Darryl, 35, and me and my wife have bought a 5bed detached house in a local village near where we grew up in East Yorkshire. We lived in Australia for 5 years and now transitioning back to the motherland as we have a 3yo boy, and want to be near family. When we made the decision to move back, we made list of houses in the village which we would post letters of interest should they ever want to sell, but before we could deliver, our no.1 house came on the market! It took a LOT of research, digging, phone calls, and persistence to obtain the mortgage we did (expat mortgages are extremely niche by all accounts) but after 4 months of nerves it was ours, and by ours, I mean ours and the banks :)  Anyway, apologies for banging on.

 

The house itself is well built, late 80's, set on around 0.75acre of former church land - I believe the builder originally built it for himself in 1987, but was made an offer he couldn't refuse from the local bank manager, so sold up, bought the land next door, and built another. There the old couple stayed until they passed a few years back, and now we are the custodians and hope to stay for the next 30+ years. The house is in a conservation area which I'm told may prove difficult for certain updates but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

 

In terms of what we plan to do: bring the house up to modern standards in all aspects, electrical, plumbing, heating etc, achieve a reasonable standard of energy efficiency (although well built the only internal insulation I can see is in the loft) the old 80's(?) boiler had already been removed as it hadn't worked for a long time, the only current method of supplying heat is a log burner in the lounge room. New windows/doors, convert conservatory into a garden room, extension to side of house for open plan living/kitchen/dining area - this will involve removing part of external wall to make into one large room, other minor internal structural alterations, new garage, landscaping, UFH, GSHP/ASHP, solar PV, rain harvesting?, and incorporate some regard for the future - my wife is keen on an EV so maybe a charging station (haven't even began to look into this yet). I would ideally like to achieve zero monthly bills (apart from tax obviously) but not sure how achievable this is in real world.

 

My rough plan at this stage is to apply for planning for the extension ASAP, and whilst getting ready for that task in 2020/21, renovate the opposite half of the house so we can move in, not ideal I know but we are keen to move in - there is no hard time limit as such, as we are living in other accomodation, but as my wife is as tight as cramp were not keen on renting for too long :)  I would like to do most the work myself barring work that I can't (regulatory) and work that I won't (plastering!), I'm even keen to attempt some of the paperwork, planning, drawings etc, i figure the worst the local council can say is "get a professional" right?

 

Anyway, looking forward to crossing paths with you all. I will post some pics when I dig some out.

 

Now, where to start reading...

 

Cheers

Daz

 

 

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Welcome Daz, this is a great community and full of knowledge, we look forward to your posts on the various aspects of your journey. As a start, insulate, insulate, insulate, (as much as you can in an existing house), you only buy insulation once, fuel costs are ongoing and WILL rise in price. Next is airtightness, draughts cause a lot of heat loss once you are well insulated. ASHP are now a better option than GSHP (IMO) and the jury is out on whether rainwater harvesting is worth the cost. There are many blogs on the site well worth reading and we have some very scientific minds here (that baffles me most of the time)?. Happy reading.

Edited by joe90
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thanks joe90, from what I've read so far everyone seems really helpful and lots of great discussions and experiences.

 

My old man has built/renovated two older houses now and he said the same - max insulation! It has been my main reading as of late as the house has zero internal insulation, and the rooms are large so don't mind losing a few inches to PUR. I initially wanted cavity wall insulation also but read some horror stories about it introducing damp? Anyway, ill do more research on that, can be done at anytime i guess.

 

51 minutes ago, joe90 said:

ASHP are now a better option than GSHP (IMO) and the jury is out on whether rainwater harvesting is worth the cost.

 

I was set on GSHP, advertising got me i think, but having read some comments on here I'm leaning towards ASHP now also. With regards RH i initially thought only for flushing toilets but will look into it more. 

 

I am big on installing the provision for certain services and luxuries now and not use them, rather than want them later on and not having installed pipes/wires/conduit etc etc.

 

Thanks, i think lots of reading will be had over the next few months!

 

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Daz, sounds like a great project. I Wouldn’t worry about a lack of experience, many of us here started out without too much of it. So feel free to ask questions, post photos and generally get involved.

 

Just one small point, I found that ASHP was a lot cheaper and simpler to install than a GSHP.

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thanks @Triassic I'm sure it will be great, something I've always wanted to do - i just didn't expect it to be on such a scale but not afraid of graft.

 

1 hour ago, Triassic said:

Just one small point, I found that ASHP was a lot cheaper and simpler to install than a GSHP.

 

thank you, the more i read, the more ASHP seems the way to go 

 

@Russell griffiths ha yes we must, the pull of family was just too strong, that and I do love the English countryside and cooler weather. We lived in Darwin since March 2014 - loved the place. We did visit Gold Coast in 2015, thought it was fantastic, although everyone we met said the same thing "if you like the Goldie, you'll love the Sunny Coast" - sadly never got to go.

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Ha, I was Perth, WA for a few years, came back after having a couple of kids and wanting to bring them up around family and other factors about actually prefering the part of the UK I live in.

However, I questioned that decision around June 2016..... Still pondering it..

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2 minutes ago, Moonshine said:

However, I questioned that decision around June 2016..... Still pondering it..

 

@Moonshine to come back was the hardest decision we've made, and tbh still discuss it now whether its the right thing. I know of one couple that made the 'permanent' decision to move back to UK three times in 2 years, in one case after moving back to the North West, they said they'd made a mistake (again) and left back for Australia before their shipping reached the UK!! Madness.

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1 minute ago, daz1984 said:

 

@Moonshine to come back was the hardest decision we've made, and tbh still discuss it now whether its the right thing. I know of one couple that made the 'permanent' decision to move back to UK three times in 2 years, in one case after moving back to the North West, they said they'd made a mistake (again) and left back for Australia before their shipping reached the UK!! Madness.

 

Ping pong poms ?. Out of all the Brits I met out there, a high proportion of those that came from the north of England were staying permanently, those from the south not so much.

I could speculate the reason why, but I doubt it's valid. ?

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4 minutes ago, Moonshine said:

K'ing hell, not small is it!

 

Hello @Moonshine, hope your well, its not a bad size no, plenty to mess around with I guess. Like i said its bigger than i would have liked for a first project, but it was our favourite house in the area, and it was at an undervalued price (I think due to the death of the old lady, bless her, the family just wanted a quick sale). Unless something drastic happens i believe we'll be here for a long time.

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6 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

Welcome.

 

I wouldn't want to have to paint all those window and door bars ... ?

 

hello @Ferdinand, my missus said the same! I guess she was getting the hint in first eh ?‍♂️

 

I see you have a blog, I look forward to reading later on tonight.

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For the former Aussies here, turns out those two big trees in the middle of the back yard are Eucalyptus trees, native to Australia. We buy a little piece of England in the corner of Yorkshire, and find Australia has followed us... 

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1 hour ago, daz1984 said:

For the former Aussies here, turns out those two big trees in the middle of the back yard are Eucalyptus trees,

Hay there Daz, welcome to BH. I was out in the blue mountains (Katoomba) and palm beach In Sydney for 10 years, came back to Scotland 7 years ago. I still wake up in the middle of the night sometimes and wonder if I made the right decision....... I love it where I am but had always intended to switch back and forth as Australia was where I made my money..... 2 kids over here put a stop to that. The days of a disposable income are well and truely  over....... when I eventually get this place up and running I expect I will then sleep straight through without glancing back at “what ifs “ your place looks great but bloody hell its big !!!!! Best of luck. P.s it’s probably going to be a good thing that the Wife  is tight as a renovation of that size could very quickly get out of control in regards to a well intentioned budget. 

Edited by Cpd
Political correctness......
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Only ever visited "down under" as a tourist, we have familly there.  They live further up Queensland, nearest town of any size being Maryburgh.  The first time we visited they were even further north in Townsville.

 

Personally I would find it too hot there in the summer, if I had to live there it would need to be further south, probably south of Brisbane.

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