Cooking up a Kitchen

The volume of money spent on kitchens is truly frightening.

Needless to say we have a tight budget - given that the overall build cost is high due to the challenging site.

I do have one special think I want to get in to the kitchen and I think it will be a show stealer: acrylic worktops made with recycled glass and/or shells. See here for details of the Glasseco worktops. The new site shows the more garish versions but you can come up more subtle effects.

The kind of thing I have in mind is

Setting this is a "must have" produces a challenge as the cost of the worktops is high. The other thing I wanted to avoid is having alot of mdf/chipboard.

I stumbled on these cabinets - which look great: Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets and the price is reasonable considering they are largely oak (oaks staves not solid panels).

Next step is to get a kitchen design worked out and see if these two elements can be combined within our budget. Taps, sinks, door handles etc shouldn't be too difficult to find a reasonable price.

We do want do install a built in "draw" fridge which will keep the lines of the kitchen clean (luckily there is a "AA" rated Hotpoint model which is just about affordable).

Cooking-wise we are probably restricted to electric (a) because I don't plan to have mains gas and (b) because we have been advised that using gas in an MVHR house could prove risky. A gas leak circulated by the MVHR could be very nasty!

Can we this all for 10k. Hmm, this could be interesting...

Wanna Do Business?

We're making slow progress, but not for want of trying.

RRA are finding that because this is a new type of build (aiming at Passiv House standards) there is alot of research to do. This is not a problem in itself, but to get an idea of what will work (technically and cost-wise), we need suppliers to give us quotes.

Until yesterday we had been unable to get even one quote for windows. What is going on? Don't people want to do business?!

We have one quote now for windows (Internorm Windows through TradePlas - thank you guys...) which comes in below our cost plan budget. This is especially good news as I am told that Internorm windows tend to be on the pricey side.

We still have only one quote for MVHR and chasing quotes on wood burners, PV and solar and on various other items has proved extremely arduous. What is going on: you'd think the building sector was booming.

Correction

Picture in previous post didn't have brick up to second floor - which is what the planners have agreed to. Here's the correct version. Actual bricks to use are still being debated. The planning department suggested something much more contemporary than the illustration: we're hoping we can use something that looks much older and ties in with the 19th century brick built cottage next door.

Here's the reason we are doing all this - below. With the riots going on only miles from where we currently live (South Birmingham) it seems timely to be thinking of living in the country - albeit it 1 mile outside a small market town. Can't think of a better plan at the moment than Morgan growing up in an eco house in the gorgeous Herefordshire countryside.

You're a brick, you really are...

Had confirmation today that Tim @ RRA has negotiated a change of cladding material for the ground floor of the house.

The original plan was to clad in local stone, but this proved to be VERY expensive thing to do and anyway it wasn't my first choice.

The stone cladding would have looked something like this:

The brick version (with railings instead of solid walls), would look something like:

Getting (And Staying) All Heated Up

Although we've had previous discussions with the Architects about how to the heat the house we now have to make a decision, and its not an easy one to make.

Few people are experienced enough with building Passive houses to know that a particular design will work perfectly. There are computer simulations which help you decide if your design should work, but there is still no absolute guarantee of success.

A Passiv house has to be built in an extremely high standard to work: it needs to be @ 20 times more air tight than is required with the current building regulations. We have a head start in that we are using ICF which by definition builds a sealed set of walls.

You then need to have top class seals between the walls and windows and then the walls and the roof (difficult to do apparently).

Then your windows need to be triple glazed with a uValue of @ 0.7 - which requires specialist windows.

If you get that right then you need to build in MVHR - Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery. This system means that house is properly ventilated with fresh air but as the clean is drawn in from outside it is heated by the air already in house.

You then remove all standard ventilation from the house: all extractor fans and trickle vents go.

With that in place, plus the right insulation in the walls and roof, you are minimising heat loss.

Then you need to think of what is going to actually get heat into the house in the first place. There are three categories to consider:

1. Solar gain
2. Humans - we give out @ 80W or @ 240 BTU/hour
3. A heating system

If you gain as much solar energy in your house as possible plus any energy gained from you being in the house, then it is possible to not have to add in any additional heat. To build a house on this basis is obviously a gamble.

I think we are likely to add in one or more of these additional items:

1. A wood burner (with a back boiler to give us a backup source of hot water)
2. Underfloor heating
3. Electrical heating to boost the air temperature coming out of the MVHR unit (hopefully we would be using electricity we are generating)

The bottom line is that we want to be as off grid and self sufficient as possible but we also don't want to end up with a house which doesn't keep all inhabitants warm.

Kick off!

I'm just back from the kick off meeting for the next phase of the project and although the bills are scary, we suddenly feel a lot closer to actually getting something built. We've even put the wheels in motion to put our current house on the marker as I will need the capital out of this house to build the new one. That kind of thing REALLY makes it feel real, after so long of wondering if it would ever happen.

RRA Architects have managed to get alot of the Buildings Regs drawings done ahead of schedule which pulls the build start date into 2011: the build is currently down to start mid October. We had imagined that we would be into 2012 before anything happened on the ground.

The sums involved are very frightening though. We started off with a budget of 250-300k, however this soon looked unrealistic. When I got the initial cost estimate from the Quantity Surveyor this week I had to lie down: the initial project cost estimate was for 462k (with professional fees on top of that)! There is plenty we can pare back and some items in the costing that we do not need, so we have agreed to go with a budget of 400k. That will stretch me a little more than I would like but it's affordable. That 400k includes an 8% contingency so, you never know, we might just make under that...

We can now start thinking about kitchens, bathrooms, floor coverings and the like. This is my kind of fun, but with the two of us there is some serious negotiation to do!

How we heat of the house is also still be decided: there are plenty of options but the key will be finding the most cost effective solution and also a solution that we are confident about being able to deliver the warmth and flexibility. More on this in another post.

Planning Permision Granted

Well, it's finally happened: we have our bit of paper which says we can build the house. It's been a bit of a roller-coaster, for us novices at least, but we didn't have to go to appeal etc which is a relief.

There is a long list of conditions: we have to get approval for pretty much every material we use, but as the plot is within an AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) this is pretty much what we expected.

The Quantity Surveyor is currently working a basic costing plan. This is the first attempt to put a realistic cost together and we have been warned the the results might give us a nasty shock....

There are various charts you can use to estimate a build cost but there are various additional consideration for this plot and build. Firstly there is alot of excavation to do. The house will be fit in snuggly against the hillside and to do that we to chop out a bit of the hill, plus we have to level the car parking area. The spoil will then need to be taken off site and disposed of. There will also be some reinforcing work to ensure that ground behind the house stays where it is when we do the excavation.

We are also costing in things like use of Welsh slate, local stone to clad half the house and self cleaning render for the upper half, not to mention triple glazing to suit the Passiv house type design. These are all expensive items. I really hope we don't have to compromise on too much. The thought of having to use Chinese slate to cut costs doesn't sit very well with us - especially as the Welsh hills are within view of the house.

We have a meeting with the Architect, Quantity Surveyor and Structural Engineer to go through the costings and plans next Friday. Exciting but scary times.

Staying Professional

Like many people I talk to I'm a great watcher of Grand Designs and in part it was Grand Designs that gave me the confidence to start this project. The one thing that always makes Jo and I cringe however is when people embark on projects without suitable professional help.

There are occasions and projects where I can see that you can 'wing it and do without some professional help (if you wanted to build a basic box of a home and had a nice flat plot perhaps), but more often than not you see people on Grand Designs running in to extra costs and immense worry when things go wrong and over budget.

Being of a semi-cautious nature I would rather pay for help up front and be able to sleep at night and I can't recommend this too much based on our experience so far. That said, the bills do wrack up, but think of that as paying earlier rather than paying later on when things go awry.

Because of the site we quickly agreed with RRA Architects that we would have a full Site Survey. The site is sloped and sits tight between to other properties so there is no margin for error. Getting a clear indication of the the gradient was also critical.

We also decided early on to get a full Ground Survey done - which considering the amount of excavation necessary and the fact that the building would be partially earth sheltered seemed a no-brainer. Other than the architects this has been the most expensive cost so far. Although not a complete guarantee of what we will find when we excavate we are reasonably confident of what is down there....

On the back of this info the architects and the structural engineer can start to design the kind of foundations and retaining walls we will need and we can start to get some idea of cost.

The choice of architect is obviously key. Without a trusting relationship things can get very messy as we found very early on. I engaged an architect in mid Jan but soon got cold feet. Contract and terms were muddled and too vague. That could have been sorted out but the alarm bells really began to ring when they started getting unpleasant when I queried these concerns. It was on the one hand a difficult decision to terminate that relationship as we had already invested a good deal emotionally in coming to the decision to use them. Conversely, however, it was an very easy decision to terminate the relationship as it was clear that we had lost confidence in them and there was zero prospect in being able to work with them.

That's how we ended up working with RRA Architects and were very pleased that it ended up that way.

Getting Into The Detail

Assuming we get planning permission (all digits crossed please) then we will be straight in to defining the detail of the build and starting to work out costings.

A Passiv house is an expensive thing to build. We are hoping to use ICFs (more on this in a later post) which should keep costs down and give us an intrinsically air tight house required for Passiv house type design. To have any hope of reaching a Passiv house standard we will need triple glazing - which is NOT cheap.

However if it gives us the comfort that a Passiv house should provide then I am happy to pay that premium. In fact I am not thinking of it as an "expensive" type of build but just an upfront cost for a long term saving scheme (both in cost of living and in terms of the environment).

Hopefully when we have a better idea of the excavation and basic build costs we should then be able to work out what renewable technologies we can afford to add. We will also need to work out what, if any, additional heating we will need. Even if we can't afford to add in grey water systems it would be good to get the plumbing in for this now, rather than trying to retrofit this later.

We are prepared to compromise a little on the fitting out of the new house (you can add in fancy bathrooms and kitchens later), however we won't skimp on the basic build quality and the Passiv house principle.

Why oh why?!

Although well in to the project, and tens of thousands already spent, Jo and I have been reflecting on why we are doing all this. It's not that we went in to this without thinking, but its good to remind yourself of the reasons that started it all off so that in the midst of the difficulties, bills and general aggro, we don't loose sight of the ultimate goal.

We both have had a long standing sense that our current way of life is going to change - in our life time and the life time of our daughter. Building this house is some insurance against these inevitable changes.

With fuel prices escalating rapidly (not to mention the effects of global warming) our thinking is that investing in home that will largely heat itself and hopefully produce some of its own electricity is an investment in our family's future.

That all sounds a bit doom laden doesn't it? Well there are more obviously tangible reasons to build a house (and a Passiv house in particular) apart from the saving on fuel bills and living in an utterly gorgeous setting.

We currently live in a Victorian terraced house - originally built @ 1910, but bombed by the Nazis during the war and rebuilt in the 1950's! I love fresh air and hate stuffy rooms, where as Jo closes windows as fast as I open them in order to keep the place as warm as possible for her comfort. A key principle with a Passiv house is to use MVHR (Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery) to get the best of both worlds: the MVHR system pulls in fresh air into the house but uses the warm air already in the house to heat the fresh air up to a comfortable temperature. So hopefully Jo will have her warmth and I will have the clean air I crave!

Planning Permission

The planning permission application should be with Herefordshire County Council today or tomorrow. Gulp.

Tim at RRA has done a magnificent job on the drawings and the application document and it all feels "right".

We are biased of course, so someone else may look at it a different way, but when compared with the previous permission it seems difficult to imagine that anyone could view the new design as anything but a huge improvement on the previous (and approved) design.

Take a look at the cross section of the new design vs the design that currently has planning permission and you will see just how much better our design works with the landscape. This is in the Design And Access Statement Appendix (F) - see below for the links.

We now have to wait for 21 days for local feedback and for the Parish Council to comment. I think we have to wait for @ 8 weeks in total to get a decision from the   Herefordshire County Council, so more waiting...

Here are the documents. Beware, they are large so may take some time to download.

A3 Drawings

Consultation Booklet

Design And Access Statement

Design And Access Statement Appendices

The Plot

I haven't said much about the plot yet - or even where it is. It in Wellington Heath, just outside Ledbury, in Herefordshire.

We turned found the plot by Internet search and something about it peaked my interest. I think we visited twice before making an offer. Its an awkward pitched site with a difficult planning history but I always wanted to build an earth sheltered house (although it tuns out it will be alot less earth sheltered than I imagined) and the price was within reach.

We had looked at alot of sites but they were in the middle of nowhere which I didn't want as I didn't want to totally reliant on a car, or were infill sites in villages/suburbs which just didn't set my imagination racing.

The site is actually an infill site, between a 50's council built cottage and an 1800's quarry workers cottage (brick built), but its has those views and is on the edge of the village so you don't feel to cramped.

I have quickly fallen in love with Herefordshire, a county I had barely ever visited before. As you turn on to the M50 from the M5 the countryside changes and soon you are in a very different world to the Midlands I am used to. It does remind me of the countryside I grew up in near Melton Mowbray, so I think I am getting comforting echoes of my youth and associations with my late parents. Now that they are both gone that connection seems suddenly very important despite the connection being only in my imagination.

Wellington Heath is a mile or so out of Ledbury which is a really lovely town - all the amenities you could need day to day and the people seem nice based on our experiences to date.

The village is quite ramshackle haven grown up through illegal settlements of quarry, canal and railway workers, but is rather fun for that. It has a good pub but no shops, but as Ledbury is so close this is understandable.

The View

 

When the going gets tough I gaze at this snapshot. 

If all goes to plan this will be the view from my office and the master bedroom.

Selly Park in Birmingham is leafy but it can't compete with views of the Welsh hills!

  

Let's Start

Start what? I'd like to say building the house but that is far off, so this start is the start to the blog. Still, we are closer to starting the build today than we were yesterday.

Although the plot has planning permission we never intended to build the original design - that house is too small, sits poorly in the landscape and just doesn't work very well internally.

We have therefore been working with Mark and Tim at RRA in Hereford to create a more sympathetic design. We also wanted to build an "eco" house. Why pay ever bigger energy bills when with the right design you should be able to pay (almost) nothing! With a PV panel or two we might just turn a profit, although the return on the investment isn't really the point - but I'll save that for a later post.

After a false start earlier in the year, yesterday we got the green light from the planing officer. There are few technical things to get get right but we hope to put in a planning application in the next 10 days or so. The only major hurdle from then on is the Parish Council.

Now that the build looks likely to go ahead (although this is by no means guaranteed), this blog will be a chronicle of the process. Wish us luck!