Our new house design

[ETC]

For what it’s worth my tuppence worth:

 

The roof is spanning the wrong way. You’re going to need massive purlins.

The kitchen is an inner room to the first floor.

The stairs are opening into the kitchen - BC will be looking for separation or a suppression system.

No natural light or ventilation to the GF office or utility room.

Massive larder and very small utility.

Massive boiler room.

Narrow garage for two cars. Consider getting out of the car if there is a car in the garage already.

Crazy first floor layout and bedroom layouts. Where do you put the bedside lockers?

Dressing room is massive. Smaller bedroom is practically useless.

You will have a flat roof above part of the larder not below the first floor store.

Not convinced with the visuals - too fussy - a maintenance nightmare - is this being built in the US?

 

[Glen]

23 hours ago, JohnMo said:

 

When we were planning our layout, we went to the beach, with tape measure and a stick. Marked in the sand

 

Great idea John, I work with measurements & scale everyday so I can visualise space, but my wife has no concept of scale, we’ve had more arguments over this in the last 12 months than we have in 35 yrs of marriage 🤣 

[Glen]

22 hours ago, ProDave said:

I would not fit conventional chimney's.  A stove just needs a twin wall flue system

Great idea Dave I’ve just been checking those out, it will save a fortune removing the 2 chimneys 

[Glen]

Some valid points made by AliG & ETC, we considered downstairs living if one of us became immobile, but decided against it, & retrofit a means of access to the first if required. The scale of the kitchen & larder mirrors what we currently have & we use every inch, I’m hopeless but my wife is an excellent cook & enjoys being in the kitchen, with space for friends to sit & enjoy the space. We considered the direction of the ridge line & this one will create the minimum amount of shade on the rear patio & garden areas. The staircase next to the kitchen scenario, we are thing of moving closer to the entrance to create some wow as suggested previously by Gus. 
Storage in the eves, prompted by AliG has given me an idea of building in some bedroom furniture, rather cupboards or sliding doors which we previously did in other houses. 
some great ideas to explore from everyone 👍

[Pocster]

54 minutes ago, Glen said:

Great idea John, I work with measurements & scale everyday so I can visualise space, but my wife has no concept of scale, we’ve had more arguments over this in the last 12 months than we have in 35 yrs of marriage 🤣 

My SWMBO is the same - zero visualisation. For our proposed new kitchen I marked out in tape the layout to scale on the floor .

[saveasteading]

26 minutes ago, Glen said:

we considered downstairs living if one of us became immobile, but decided against it

It is one of the very different requirements under the Scottish reg's, that a house must be future proof, for living on the ground floor.

That and minimum space and movement standards.

And a space that can accommodate a desk, with extra sockets.

 

All sensible and I would now say desirable, when self building , wherever you are.

 

Space for a lift, without compromising the layout is another option, and I would build a box-out into the floor to reduce disruption should this need arise.

[Bozza]

Just throwing this sketch at you @Glen as an alternative layout idea, with giving you the same rooms. *I am not an architect*. 
 

noting the need for a bigger pantry than my sketch,  extra space could be taken from the now bigger office.

My main idea for you to make the craft room bigger and overlooking the kitchen like a mezzine type thing.  This would make the seating area in the kitchen diner more intimate underneath with normal height ceiling there, leaving the kitchen / diner vaulted.

 

Back to downstairs the lounge is slightly smaller but more convertible to a downstairs bedroom and the new vestibule gives some privacy to acess downstairs shower room, which is located near to the garage for cleaning up.  Likewise the laundry room/utility there and at bottom of stairs.

 

The change of boiler room in garage would give up you a sink at back of garage.

 

This design, or something similar,  leaves you with a massive kitchen diner overlooking your garden which I think is key to your needs and would address the odd shaped rooms you currently have.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Glen]

Thanks Baz, I’ll take a close look at that when I get a minute. 

[AliG]

I like the idea of making the craft room open to the kitchen below. A lot depends on how noisy things are and who is doing what at different times, but it would open up the space nicely. In the existing plan it could just be the space above the larder.

 

However, it looks like there may not be enough space as you hit 1.5m head height well before the rear wall. Depends on how much room it needs. If not back to that being a good space for a bathroom.

[Glen]

Hi Baz I like the flow of that, I’ll see how the rooms scale up when I get back to work (I’m on holiday at the moment, so plenty of time to ponder)

this should give me & the wife plenty to argue about for the next few days!🤣🤣

[Glen]

Sorry Bozza, not Baz, i haven’t got my glasses on🤣

[Bozza]

1 hour ago, AliG said:

I like the idea of making the craft room open to the kitchen below. A lot depends on how noisy things are and who is doing what at different times, but it would open up the space nicely. In the existing plan it could just be the space above the larder.

 

However, it looks like there may not be enough space as you hit 1.5m head height well before the rear wall. Depends on how much room it needs. If not back to that being a good space for a bathroom.

Yes I think you’re 100% right that would be an issue AliG.  In theory if the staircase lands further south than on existing drawing, or is made to be with tweaking, that may give just enough head height/floor space as you enter the craft room.  Perhaps  utilising that low comb height for low level storage.
 

Our Comb height is 1.4m and you don’t really notice it  unless you’re mental and stand against the wall for some odd reason, but in fairness that’s on a 45deg roof pitch so would be more noticeable on Glen’s house with the shallower pitch.

 

 

 

 

[ETC]

My thoughts so far:

[ETC]

[ETC]

The emperor's first set of clothes.

[Blooda]

On 27/09/2023 at 20:04, Jilly said:

Minor thing, but watch out when the ufh is laid, as I'm assuming you wouldn't want it in the larder?

 

A neighbour's builder made that mistake and he (neighbour) nearly had a nervous breakdown over it. 

 

The Larder is big enough that It really needs a loop on it's own, but not running [or connected, just to future proof in case of shunting rooms around.  

 

 

[Blooda]

Oh [if nobody's mentioned it earlier]  the  ground floor toilet door needs to open outwards, so their will be clash there with he garage access. 

[Conor]

2 hours ago, Blooda said:

 

The Larder is big enough that It really needs a loop on it's own, but not running [or connected, just to future proof in case of shunting rooms around.  

 

 

We put a dedicated loop in to our larder/store... purely for cooling in the summer if it was ever needed.

[Glen]

Hi ETC I appreciate the time taken to create drawings like this, it’s a very time consuming exercise, some interesting points to consider, I’ll see if I can incorporate some of this into our plan although I don’t want to amend the exterior elevations as I’ll be starting again with planning. 

Some points I previously mentioned which give boundaries to the build are as follows, the garage is accessed from the front as previously mentioned due to the right side being only 1.5m away from the boundary wall & is to house 1 car plus motorbikes, so not as tight as appears. The rooms we have in certain locations are to make maximum advantage of the path of the sun, also using the maximum allowance for part O of buildings regs. 
interesting points regarding UFH pipes 👍

[Gus Potter]

On 01/10/2023 at 21:16, ETC said:

My thoughts so far:

Appreciate your input, learnt more at my end, admire your skill and knowledge.  A big thanks from me.