Owning your own home

@bobble

girlfriend had automist system in her kitchen extension too. since it just had stairs leading straight down to open plan kitchen/dining then she either needed to put a fire door at the bottom of the stairs (and box in the staircase on the way down) or do the mist system.
the former would have looked shit, so she went for the automist. all good so far

hardwick white for the lounge

Looks great and I love that sofa

The building control guy I spoke to was the one being used by the building company doing the work so ultimately being paid by me which probably made them a bit more amenable to questions, not sure how much you'd get out of the council for free.

I can't remember why you're redoing the floor plan. I'd be tempted to nick a bit of the bathroom for a washing machine maybe but other than that I don't think I'd do much. I lived in a place for 10 years with a kitchen about that size.

The only option I'd probably really look at would be swapping bedroom 2 and kitchen but that would possibly hit the resale value if that's a concern.

Again you're likely dealing with a small company or sole trader so their capacity for customer service, outside of being nice when on site, is usually pretty limited.

I know! Should I just suck it up? Be honest - should I just see it as the cost of learning to be more picky about who does what?

When you take a nice house and ruin, in my
Opinion

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Yeah, saw that one too, it's awful. My IG is chock full of these (and the #grindset #brrr crowd) because I follow too many renovation / crittall window accounts.

Fucking hell...

I'm amazed that they got planning for that. Can't imagine it's in keeping with the area.

Selling / sold too, off to ruin another house!

I can't imagine they'd make too much money on it. The upper limit for that street would, I would imagine, be verging on a normal house price. Judging by the house you can see in the back of the first photo the back garden isn't massive. Yet they doubled the floor space and slapped a flat roof on it that WILL leak in 10 - 15 years.

Edit - oh you can even see in the lowish Res photo that a shit job was done on the black render for that bay window.

Not sure how high your flat is. 3.18 b ii here might be relevant
I think this is relevant. You wouldn't be running past the cooker but you'd be running past the LHS of the room with the cooker in.

Don't want to be a dick or endanger my neighbours in anyway but having an open plan new kitchen is definitely safer than the current setup which is good knows how old and the oven is sketchy as....

Also don't want to not be able to sell it. The building is from the 1850s and is already built, so quite hard to meet regs

You would probably be expected to defend the front door from an overnight kitchen fire so the bedroom occupants had time to escape.

what do you mean by this sorry?

edit. On this:

Building control will usually ask for your plans to be signed off by a fire officer if there's any ambiguity (fire risk assessment/fire strategy plan).

I don't think any of this will go to building control, just me giving a paper SoW to the contractor (likely a 1 man band)

similar numbers? Cheers

cheers. My mate had the idea to ask a couple of EAs. Losing the bedroom would almost certainly loose value and utility but the kitchen would be sick

Asking estate agents before starting work is always a good idea. They (in theory) know the local property market better than anyone else and are happy to give valuations based on what you're intending to do.

Without a door to the kitchen you'll probably need to demonstrate how a sleeping person would still have 30 seconds to exit if there was a (big) fire in the (high risk) kitchen.

For us, this meant detailing the sensor/alarm and then having the automist (initially one, but they made us get two). Our kitchen to front door distance was further, but we had the added risk of a loft room.

'Defense' meaning water/foam/screening/etc. Or you could possibly detail a second fire exit through a window, etc.

similar numbers? Cheers

Yep, very similar. Fraction more maybe but I think still about 3-3.5k

anyone bought a cantilevered parasol that isn’t shit they would recommend?

no but I can recommend the posh (pricier) Ikea ones with the heftier base, it tilts a bit too, but do be careful with slight winds as it gains momentum like a good boat when tilted. Otherwise no complaints after 3 years of use (the £10 covers are also worth it)
https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/kuggoe-lindoeja-parasol-with-base-black-grytoe-dark-grey-s09267617/

I'm amazed that they got planning for that.

Probably didn't need it, due to PD rights.

Spotted this similar place the other day. Actually thought it was really interesting, especially in the context of the street. But I could see why people might find it troubling. Our problem is that we built our houses to last.

Front 'garden' is a crime against humanity, obvs.

I don’t actually mind the house too much, although it is pretty crass considering surrounding houses, but yeah, that paving, what are they expecting? A fleet of Ranges? Probably…

I quite like that house. Also like the idea of how triggered some of the neighbours may have been.

Its my understanding that that wouldn't qualify as it's facing a public highway and the floorspace added would be well over 1/3 of existing.

horrific

I have £5 says there's a glass dining table and some kind of metallic velour sofa/throw cushions.