How do I bathroom / kitchen / extension? etc.

it’s a passivhaus

The entire gaff?

Would have been cheaper to knock it all down than retrofit to the standard :(

Our place currently has a far reaching view from the throne right down the landing, down the stairs and right out the front door. King of all I survey.

Not bad. I thought I could raise you with 'across the landing, through my office, then straight through the velox escape hatch', but I guess not.

There's a lot wrong with our first floor bathroom, but the throne positioning isn't one of the issues.

the entire gaff

they had a loft conversion and removed it to get closer to the standard
https://www.studiobarc.org/work/strathbungo-ecorefurb

Innovative Design
A key project driver for the client is the reduction
of energy consumption and reference will be made to Passivhaus
practice. Although the full Passivhaus standard cannot be achieved in
an older property of this kind, the scope of works will include
upgrading of all windows, external insulation to side and rear walls,
reduction of air leakage, introduction of energy efficient mechanical
ventilation with heat recovery. The extension will be designed to
achieve very good levels of thermal insulation and airtightness. The
large southern facing windows will contribute to reduced energy use
through passive solar gain.

Seeing things like that always makes me think we should have been more ambitious doing ours

Wow nice. Removing the LC is extreme but I guess they felt they didn't need it.

Want to do that 'dug out' style extension on our gaff in five years time. This is pretty much exactly what we want, maybe without the wood burner tho.

Yeah, if I ever move out of the best place in the world (The London) I want to do a self build and really play with levels. We have a couple of steps down to our kitchen atm and it really makes a difference in feel and flow.

Lota of levels are a PITA when you get old or infirm. Not great with small children (that might be grandkids or something).

more ambitious = more wonga.

not sure how much this would have cost. new mass alone £60k finished? then triple glazing throughout, adding clerestories to basement level at front, zinc roof... the mind boggles

You want it to look like a boring cafe?

Yeah that's something to avoid I guess.

It's a long time off, we'll have time to think how to make it interesting.

I'd just like to play with the levels a bit, and as our place is on a big slope anyway technically it might be less challenging than it is on a place without a 5ft drop at the back.

I always wanted a sunken living room.

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Yeah I'm not sure what the intermediate point is between doing as much as we could DIY and that but I always wish we weren't losing as much heat to the world as I'm sure we are.

Just after we got ours we looked around an eco house in Edinburgh and whilst I don't think we would have bought it we often talk about it now. House was great but the location wasn't. https://www.onthemarket.com/details/7720898/

+1.

I just look at that and imagine being drunk/tired/middle of the night, tripping on the back of the sofa and faceplanting on the shag rug over a concrete floor.

Could you ever get this NYC style bathroom to work in the UK without high ceilings?

Would continuing with white tiles after the black tile "dado rail" loose the feel?

Or is it just the massive size of the bathroom furniture that makes it a non-runner in small UK bathrooms?

our family bathroom is like this. it was a fun week when the doors were off to be stripped!

Bathrooms in the Ludlow hotel are similar to this but lower ceilings and smaller if you wanted some inspo

I fucking love that look. It's awesome. If we planned to leave town and we could bear to do another big project, I would do it.

Cheers.

It was weird finding that pic as it's almost identical to our old apartment. Sage green instead of the blue mural and a cupboard in the left corner.

You can retrofit any building to Passivhaus standards. There were a few players trying to do just that with huge outer envelopes ~10 years ago, but surprise surprise they didn't get much traction in the UK.

If a key driver was reduction in energy consumption, why is there a wood stove and exhaust poking out the roof of it? Fail.

Any rules on what appliances absolutely shouldn't go next to each other (from a 'you will regret that' sense).

We have a washing machine in a back utility room at the moment but in time I'd like to turn that into a wet room/shower.

So as we're looking at doing our kitchen at last I'm toying with bringing it in. I'm assuming it's not wise to put oven (double under counter) next to an integrated washing machine (am assuming our freestanding thing can even fit under the counter) - spinning cycles wrecking the oven is more of a concern than electrocution tbh.

And again, presume not a good idea to put a dishwasher next to the oven (heat from oven damaging DW)?

Can 'wet' things (sink/wm/dw) be easily put on a different wall to where the current water in/out is? Surely it's just a bit of extra piping? My FiL is sucking his teeth 'oh can't do that' and he may well be right, but I'd like someone who isn't him to confirm that.

We have an awkwardly placed low window which means that of a 5 meter long room we can only have approx 3m of worksurface so are looking at an L shape (3m x 2mish). Currently the oven (a range we're ditching in place of something narrower) and sink are on the 3m run and we don't have a dishwasher.

Struggling to see why I can't put the dishwasher (the narrower closed door in the attached first draft) in place of the bin on the left run and then swap around the washing machine and bin so the bin sits next to the oven?

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assuming you're going for an undercounter oven so you have space for the hob / don't sacrifice the limited worktop area?
any room for an island at all?
yes, you can move sink etc. to a different wall, but keep in mind that you may need to have additional drainage works outside (may need to move the gulley)

Yes to limited worktop area (though we have even less space at the moment with a larger sink and a larger hob - the return on the L is just a butchers block with a microwave (that we'd get rid of) and toaster on it so I do almost all prep on about 70cm or less.

No room for an island, unfortunately. To the left of the return is a door through to some steps up to the utility room so would want some kind of flow through / not dodging an island.

Would have been interested in an eye level oven but as well as the limited worktop is perceived impact on light/space - we put a tall unit in that position in an earlier mock-up and it just felt too dark/imposing as you came into the room. The windows look into an alley with steep walls beyond, so it's quite dark at the best of times (even though it wouldn't technically block a window).

But good to know re. moving a sink, though it sounds like additional drainage works would push beyond our intent of 'mainly DIY and trades just where we have to'.

Get that sink out the corner! No space for a horse shoe shape kitchen? How’s the rest of the room? Can you not do a full height wall of storage and appliances?

No space for a horse show shape kitchen

Dressage or show jumping?