Nice people thread part 3- Nice as pie

PasturesNew

misskool wrote: »

Oops, I just OH what I thought it was and apparently, it's 3m x 2.5m
:rotfl: :rotfl:

spatial awareness = FAIL

I can't visualise new-fangled metres. I know how long feet/inches are.... but after 1m x 1m I'm lost.

lostinrates

vivatifosi wrote: »

Heaven knows what your ceiling is like lir if it's worse than mine. Have you got a hole in it or a leak or something, or polystyrene ceiling tiles? I can't think of many things that are uglier than mine atm.

sveral holes, very lumpy and bumpy and cracked.

When we first move there was no loft hatch i there, so birds used to stick their heads down and yell at me''Go away, this is ours place, our place''.Its quite easy to get terrified of birds diving at you in the early hours.:o

treliac

LydiaJ wrote: »

It's lovely to have people's input on my floorplans - do keep that coming - but what I really need is advice about what kind of boiler to choose. Anyone got any wisdom to share, please?

This thread's moving forward so fast, I can barely keep up with it.

Re boilers, you have to have a condensing boiler now by law. They are supposed to be 'greener' and more economical to run. We have had one for about 3 years. However, a number of drawbacks have emerged and, from what I've read, they are not really likely to be cheaper to run nor are they likely to last anything like as long as their predecessors.

Also, because the plastic condenser pipe runs around the outside of the house and into a drain, there have been big problems with them freezing up and stopping the boiler working in very cold conditions..... just when you need it most! This happened to us a couple of weeks ago. We got around it temporariliy by disconnecting the pipe inside the house and letting it run into a bucket. Not what you want to have to contend with however. We will have the boiler serviced in a while and hope to find a better solution.

Aside from that issue, you can have either a combi boiler, where the water is heated as it passes through the boiler. You don't need a storage tank and, I suppose this cuts the potential for house flooding. Again, I have read that they are complex and more prone to developing faults.

Alternatively, you can have a regular boiler with a hot water tank in the traditional way. The advantages of this are that you can store your hot water and for a family who are running baths, this can be a more effective way of maintaining supply. The other big plus is that if your boiler breaks down you can still have your hot water supply running on the immersion heater.

We kept with a regular boiler on the advice of our plumber.

Importantly, anyone installing a gas boiler MUST be on the Gas Safe Register, to ensure that they are qualified and approved to fit gas appliances properly. This replaced the previous Corgi registration.

....

misskool

PasturesNew wrote: »

I can't visualise new-fangled metres. I know how long feet/inches are.... but after 1m x 1m I'm lost.

10' x 8'

Does that help?

LydiaJ wrote: »

Thanks. I'll remember those. Do you have condensing or non-condensing? Combi or hot water tank, or the thing that michaels has just been recommending?

Combi, the standard one. No storage tanks, no space for any and we don't have many baths. It went into the loft and vents out the side of the house. We needed to pull out the back boiler and the storage tanks that took up the space where the fridge now sits.

LydiaJ

michaels wrote: »

I'll post my plans on here a bit later - nothing as grand as everyone else though - the kitchen was only 11 by 6 before we knocked it through to the dining room.

Well, your house is unremarkable as it is now, but it'll be lovely by the time you've done the extension in the plans you PM'd to me - and bigger than mine, I think.

I work with someone who's living in a house where the kitchen is about 5' square (1930s) with a large hatch through to the dining room. She hasn't been able to plumb in her washing machine and is having to get by on a combination of handwashing and the launderette.

Thanks for the boiler info, treliac. I'm using the heating engineer recommended by my builder (who was recommended by several friends). I'm inclining towards a combi because my lifestyle is very variable from day to day, and I don't always want hot water at a consistent time of day, so a combi would mean I wasn't heating water that then didn't get used and cooled down again. But that's not a fixed decision yet, so all info is much appreciated.

viva - on the assumption that your husband also hates your taste-free bedroom, I'd say go ahead and do it as a surprise for him, but make sure you pick colours you're confident he'll like.

PasturesNew

I only need one open-plan good-sized kitchen/diner/lounge downstairs, but I also want a good utility and a 'proper larder' and a downstairs loo and a good conservatory. I don't like kitchen cupboards, nothing ever fits in them.... but one good larder takes everything. I want a breakfast bar between the kitchen bit and the lounge bit, which can be used for reading papers, prepping food, eating at, working at (whether that's working online, working from home for an employer, or doing craft hobbies), and even ideal for spreading out a whole tax return's worth of papers

I can only be in one room at a time, so it doesn't make sense to have more than one room.

Upstairs, one good bedroom, with good storage, is enough, with a bath in an en-suite.

The trouble with the above is, it'd have to be built... wouldn't easily find that lot AND the right location etc..... which is why I'll end up with a house that has 2-3 rooms I never go into, just to get the bits I want

lostinrates

treliac wrote: »

Aside from that issue, you can have either a combi boiler, where the water is heated as it passes through the boiler. You don't need a storage tank and, I suppose this cuts the potential for house flooding. Again, I have read that they are complex and more prone to developing faults.

I really miss our combi boilers from metropolitan flats. The water is just...there...when you need it. We didn't expect though that it had electric componants...so even though gas it failed in powercuts.

LydiaJ

PasturesNew wrote: »

I only need one open-plan good-sized kitchen/diner/lounge downstairs, but I also want a good utility and a 'proper larder' and a downstairs loo and a good conservatory. I don't like kitchen cupboards, nothing ever fits in them.... but one good larder takes everything. I want a breakfast bar between the kitchen bit and the lounge bit, which can be used for reading papers, prepping food, eating at, working at (whether that's working online, working from home for an employer, or doing craft hobbies), and even ideal for spreading out a whole tax return's worth of papers

I can only be in one room at a time, so it doesn't make sense to have more than one room.

Upstairs, one good bedroom, with good storage, is enough, with a bath in an en-suite.

The trouble with the above is, it'd have to be built... wouldn't easily find that lot AND the right location etc..... which is why I'll end up with a house that has 2-3 rooms I never go into, just to get the bits I want

What about a bungalow? Then you could redefine what the rooms are, and so lose unwanted bedrooms to get more "downstairs" space.

lostinrates wrote: »

I really miss our combi boilers from metropolitan flats. The water is just...there...when you need it. We didn't expect though that it had electric componants...so even though gas it failed in powercuts.

I don't think that's specific to combi boilers. I think most of them do that. The heating bit certainly does - the hot water is electrically pumped round the radiators - but I think the hot water part does too for most of them.

misskool

This will just be up for an hour or so and I'll have to delete it but I would share as people have Plot of house and photo of the front

edit: time's up and all gone

lostinrates

MK I love those trees.....I bet you get lots of birds!