Owning your own home

It's the giant fluffy squirrel in the garden.

Interesting! Thank you so much for doing this, it certainly raises some interesting questions. I did originally consider the open plan approach, but have never lived in one, so never sure how practical they are when cooking something really smelly... Can I ask what program you used to make these plans?

@JonoMarshall Yes given we are AONB, we will probably have to go through full planning, so I'm sure there will be things they flag up. We will certainly be looking at the agricultural routes, as it was a cow shed for 100 years or so...

Return of builders into the house:(
Waited for a recommended builder to be available and today he starts removing all the damp plaster in the corner of our kitchen prior to damp proofing being applied. God knows what disasters he’s going to find. The plaster is pretty fucked now but still no real clue where the damp is coming in. Going to get a drain pipe sleeved as well.
Hopefully start of before and after photos ; Shagged plaster;

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Vectorworks. More thoughts - the two bed opt could do with a single shared bathroom. 4x4 is huge for a bedroom and the living is a bit tight so bed2 could be reduced to a 2x4 bunk rm or a 3x4 twin/double. Depends what the future use case is (holiday let ?).

There would be a way of doing a separate kitchen i'm sure.

Good extraction followed by natural ventilation would be fine for open plan IMO.

that is beautiful

ah ha! Vectorworks is a long way above my skills...

Yes, I have the interesting aspect of having the large brick pillars every 2 metres, which feel like very natural breaks. Would be much easier if they were spaced at 1.5m or 3m I think.

Likely usage is hopefully a holiday let, but could also be a granny annexe for elderly relatives (or me and the wife when my daughter kicks me out). So I guess in a holiday let, bedroom size and storage is secondary to living area, but for a granny annexe would definitely need a decent amount of storage space.

The other thing I need to consider is that there are no windows in the back or side walls (and won't be easy to put any in (thick old stone walls), so all light needs to come from the front or rooflights.

Anyone had an L-shaped dormer done recently? I’m about to get quotes and researching typical costs. Internet says ~£45k, although unsure what that would cover and what I’d need to budget for all-in, i.e. staircase, fittings etc.

It would more or less be the size of the loft in this floorplan.

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I think there are some time restrictions on the building still being used in an agricultural context, as the change was to provide more housing for farmworkers. You may have to re-instate the barn before applying.

Internet is always wrong, don't trust it.
My neighbour got a pretty standard one done and it cost 55 I think, but it was a shit show as there was no overall design or project manager so the trades didn't give a shit and worked in isolation resulting in thresholds that don't match up (slight step up into one of the rooms), messy as hell external pipe runs and flashing that looks over sized and unfinished.
You could prob get something acceptable for a shade over that but make sure everything is coordinated.

I'm planning on doing the same soonish so interested in how your experience pans out!

me and the wife when my daughter kicks me out

In all seriousness this is a while off and if it gets to that stage it's more likely you'll want something different, so I wouldn't have this as a consideration.

bedroom size and storage is secondary to living area

Yes. Definitely.

I wouldn't worry about open living. No.1 thing is good externally vented extractor fan. So given what you said about the walls you'd want to think carefully about this and ultimate cooker location.

This is a quick drawing of our old flat. Because the kitchen had an open back it never felt small. Having the sitting area slightly off / around the corner kept it feeling separate. Lack of external extraction was the only issue - especially stir fry and steaks.

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There is for sure. I mean the barn is still full of old straw and cow shit, so that might help!

Given that we have no neighbours, and we aren't proposing to change roof height, footprint or external cladding, I'm hoping that we shouldn't have any issues just getting a standard planning application through. The only thing they seem to get iffy about here is the roof covering changing, but we are actually reinstating the original roof covering, so hopefully that shouldn't be an issue (father in law is on the local council, so is pretty good at knowing what will and won't pass!)

Yes, much more likely to be a home for my parents in law in 10 years time than anything else.

I did have a question which I don't know the answer to, can cooker hoods be vented through the roof? All our bathroom extractors here are, but not sure of the regs on kitchen extraction. Coming round to the idea of open plan, it would certainly give more flexibility, and make things feel bigger.

Yeah, we found East Devon to be more than reasonable to be honest. Definitely get on the good side of your planning officer though. I imagine your courtyard setting will make things quite straight-forward.

Yep, hopefully we get the same people who did the main house, who asked zero questions and just signed it all off! I suspect given our setting we had it slightly easier than you...

The living space in my place is open plan. As has been mentioned, extraction isn’t ever an issue (even with smelly/smoky foods) as it’s vented straight outside.
I really like the open plan - it’s very sociable when there are a few people round (not recently), which might be a bonus for holiday let’s etc.
The only negative for me really- I hadn’t considered the acoustics e.g boiling the kettle is quite loud but it’s a small price to pay in my opinion.

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Good to hear positive thoughts about it, we cook quite alot (although my current thing is outdoor smoking, so that's not an issue!). noisy kettle just gives me an excuse to install a Quooker

I like the look of your place, its open but not too open (if that makes sense), there are still clear zones.

(I can hear the LLL police already. I’m rarely allowed a vote when it comes to interior design)

Cows you say ?

Would do storage along the back wall in the bedrooms.
Velux in every bay east facing - morning sun - west facing glass/doors to the courtyard for afternooon. Open them all up to get epic cross ventilation.

And yes - cooker extract through roof -doable - the longer the extract the more power you need

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Ha! Your drawing is almost exactly how it was used in the past, it was the rearing shed, so if you threw a calf next to each cow then it is spot on. It was not a fun job to shovel the majority of the shit out, it was just abandoned 50 years ago with everything left.

Yes, was thinking a combo of velux and glass doors should make it feel quite airy and light, especially if we do semi vaulted ceilings as well.

Yeah - I was counting on at least 55k, probably 65 - but not a penny more. Got other stuff to do.

I was initially contemplating a garden studio, but that's going to be too much faff for what would be relatively little use and would create a mostly unused spare bedroom. Instead I'm planning to optimise storage throughout the entire house.

So, in addition to the loft there would be a massive built-in wardrobe in one room and a huge cupboard in another, plus some shelving in a few different places. Also a refit of the existing bathroom, removal of a fireplace and decorating upstairs rooms.

Need to get all that in a budget of 80. Will let you know how I get on. I'm starting with the builder who did our downstairs renovation last year who we were very happy with.

Quooker

Can highly recommend them. Love ours.

Which one have you got?

We are in the process of replacing our worktops from laminate to solid, so would make sense to do it at the same time. Wonder if they ever do sales...

I had that in my old house, went quite high too (chest height)!

I would love a Qooker - especially working from home so much now. (I boil a fullish kettle and then put the extra in a Thermos to save me waiting for the kettle to boil again for the next one...) #thrifty

I've got the Flex in chrome with a 3l boiling kettle and the cube (chilled / filtered / sparkling).

Got it fitted mid last year, at the same time as having a water softener put in.

Getting rid of the kettle is great but the real benefit has been cooking. We have 4 gousto meals delivered most weeks and I would say 3/4 require boiling water for stock or for rice etc. Not having to twat around whilst timing everything is so easy.

It was spendy (never seen a sale on the actual equipment) but the installer we used gave us a discount so that the installation was actually free.