Tomorrow is December...

...and at the end of next week we're due for a decision from the planners. Oh I do hope they say yes! - we're waiting for any comment from the tree officer after we responded to his concerns. We've sent the schedules of all our proposed internal specs to Peter the Architect. OK, not everything is sorted but we've done all we can from here pending some clarifications from him. Oh, apart from kitchens where we're still wrestling with trying to get two suppliers to quote like-for-like. We've found ourselves a quantity surveyor who's waiting for the building drawings to drop through his postbox. Budget panic time is imminent... #adoptsKevinMcCloudvoice "Will it really come in on budget or are they going to have to make some compromises to their dream?" Guess we'll know within the next couple of weeks...

Where are we now?

Perhaps it's an appropriate time to remind ourselves where we are in the whole process. Our Planning Officer is beavering away on our application with a completion date of 9 December for a decision - the Tree Officer had some queries about how we will protect the trees which are to remain, hopefully he's happy with our response. Peter the architect and his team are likewise beavering at detailed drawings and we're trying to tie down as many elements of the spec as possible. Big chunks not yet finalised are the heating system and the windows. The heat calculations suggest we need between 2 & 3kw to heat the whole house when it's freezing outside - which is roughly the two heated towel rails in the bathrooms plus a little heater in the ventilation system. So we'll have to open the doors when we run the logburner... The average boiler and heating infrastructure generally is set up to deal with old-tech much less well insulated houses. Oil, wood pellet etc don't make small enough boilers to match our heat needs - the only units small enough are LPG. Windows are of course part of this sum - you need good windows to retain the heat. Aside from the big ones, ours are small (!), so we really need to focus on getting the big north windows heat- and draught- proof. Although the payback period for triple glazing is huge, there's a suggestion that by minimising any convective draughts triple glazing actually does rather better than the direct heat loss calculations would suggest. So we'll probably go triple on the big windows and take the cheaper option on the small ones. We're tempted to go tilt and turn for the bedroom windows, anybody got any comments? In particular any experience of Jeld Wen t&t which seem to be very 'sensibly' priced - but are they any good? Oh, and did I say? Stainless steel for the gutters - contemporary and stylish, huh!

Absolutely gutte[re]d!

Today's free samples - alu, copper and stainless steel guttering, and two different sorts of limestone tile... if we get enough samples from enough people maybe we can do without actually buying anything??

Have we seen the light?

I've been instructing today but Alan's been scratching his head over the lighting & electrical scheme. What lights where? What sockets where? What switches where? And where do you put the light switches when it's all open plan and so you have no walls?!!!??? Anyone done this and got any advice? Meanwhile, the big budget question - should we rely on the market giving us a competitive price or should we commission a quantity surveyor to tell us how much they should be quoting?

Upstairs Downstairs

I don't think I've posted the floor plans yet - here they are:

The Sun Always Shines on Tytherley

(did you see what I did there?) One of the locals from the rookery on the hill on this lovely sunny frosty morning. Meanwhile we have solved the bath conundrum (how to get a bath that's big enough to submerge yourself in but still fits into the bathroom and doesn't cost a packet) and are now moving on to rainwater goods. It seems you can have plastic, steel, GRP, copper, cast, extruded or pressed aluminium, cast iron or zinc gutters. Copper and cast iron look lovely and cost a packet; plastic is cheap but I think our architect would hang himself if he thought we were going to specify that - any great thoughts out there? And rainwater harvesting - anyone done any calculations of how much you need to store for garden irrigation and carwashing purposes (we won't be using much on the latter, that's for sure....)

Sliding or folding? And is bespoke more expensive?

Decision time - are the two big windows going to be sliding doors or bifold doors? Heat/ventilation performance seems to be about the same. Bifold are slightly more expensive. Sliding doors have less in the sight-line when they're shut but don't open the space fully when they're open. Bifold doors open the space fully when open but have more bits in the sight-line when they're shut. Anyone out there have views or better, experience, as to which it should be? - if so please share it. Alan and I are evenly split between the two options! Would one of each be a compromise or would it look silly? Also can anyone recommend a good cabinet maker? We've been wrestling with the bathrooms & kitchen - when you know what you want, often that doesn't seem to exist so I'm wondering if it might actually be cheaper - or at least no more expensive - to go the bespoke route. Indeed, there's a suggestion that it is in fact cheaper to get someone to build it for you. Again, anyone got any advice?