Nice people thread part 3- Nice as pie

PasturesNew

You can have a tank with a combi boiler.

Doozergirl

silvercar wrote: »

Advantage of traditional one is that there is a tank of hot water available. Disadvantage is that once the tank runs out its gone, at least until the hot water is put back on and you've waited half an hour. It does mean that you can be heating water you don't need, but with an insulated tank it does stay warm for a long time.

I have no idea how the one in this house works. It's a brand new system but because it's quite a big house it can't have a regular hot water all the time combi boiler so there is a tank upstairs. Plumbing not being my strong point at all (yawn)

Well, I didn't turn the water tank on when we moved in (still no idea) but the water was coming out proper hot until we suddenly ran out of it... The last time it was switched on was over six weeks ago!

silvercar

I have no idea how the one in this house works. It's a brand new system but because it's quite a big house it can't have a regular hot water all the time combi boiler so there is a tank upstairs. Plumbing not being my strong point at all (yawn)

Well, I didn't turn the water tank on when we moved in (still no idea) but the water was coming out proper hot until we suddenly ran out of it... The last time it was switched on was over six weeks ago!

Sounds like a megaflow. Dunno what that is or how it works, but I know other people in big houses have them.

silvercar

PasturesNew wrote: »

You can have a tank with a combi boiler.

Sort of defeats the purpose if you use a combi to fill a tank with instant hot water.

vivatifosi

silvercar wrote: »

Sounds like a megaflow. Dunno what that is or how it works, but I know other people in big houses have them.

I've got one of those, but mine's on an electric system. It is basically a really, really big tank that if you run out of water then it has a back up tank as well. It's probably about 1/3 as big again as a standard tank if not bigger, and has the two imersions.

silvercar

Thanks Misskool.

The plot looks an excellent size - lots of potential.

I think this thread is overrun with plans and houses at the moment, when its quieter and I can transfer a pic or two to something less revealing than my photobucket or facebook accounts, you can all re-design my kitchen. Looks superficially good, but its a T shape and doesn't work well.

Doozergirl

lostinrates wrote: »

I've done it Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I think I might actually have been panting.

So many different ways to arrange that house!

The first things I thought of have already been suggested - opening your reception room into a more grand hall. I know you said the dimensions are perfect but we have done that in our house at home; and still have sitting room furniture and a fireplace in there so we can sit in there if we choose (usually after a few wines or when people we don't really know turn up).

If it were my house I'd like to see the kitchen in the middle of the house because I get so lonely or at least incorporate it into the main house a bit more It does seem a shame to be wandering through a small inner hall to reach your bespoke wooden kithcen. I wondered if you did knock the current kitchen through to the library if you could the fireplace in the library for a lovely range cooker (yummy!) and have a bigger door out to you double room?

And if you don't see the need for two downstairs loos, I don't either. It isn't cheap at all to install a loo and the middle of a house is not a good place for plumbing! Problem with architects is that they often don't see it the same way that a builder would.

The other downstairs loo though, there's quite some wasted space there around that back door - could that be a boot room? I'm guessing that you need one really and more space than the architect has given you would be nice. A downstairs shower could be useful more than another toilet?

Not even suggesting that you did all of those things in the same house, iyswim.

It's a shame that at the moment you have rooms with question marks by them. I would keep working on the plan so that you end up with something fabulous that you are genuinely pleased with. Seems a shame to have the dining room so far from the kitchen yet bigger spaces nearby that would qualify...

re: knocking walls - you have the option of knocking out as little or as much as you want to, so rooms like the reception/library can be capable of maintaining quite a separate feel and their proportions whilst letting through light or whatnot...

Good idea to have yourself a part that you can shut away, I'd like to see the main/favourite rooms tied together for that reason.

I haven't even seen your house so I hope you don't take anything too seriously No doubt I'd have an entirely differing opinion if I could stand in it!

The floor plans look so exciting and it sounds like a very beautiful and special old house!

EDIT: That was long, sorry!

michaels

Judging by the thickness of the walls in the original section of the property I am guessing stone and I suspect there may be major structural issues in trying to be too gung-ho about removing them?

My mind is toying with whether the long room could become a kitchen / breakfast room with a fabulous outlook and the 'kitchen' could be a fabulous entertaining room. Issue being the second stairs are at the end where you would really want the kitchen to be close to the dining room.

I know the minor reception is really nice but to my mind so many of the rooms including this one are used as 'corridors' linking other rooms together that this room could as DG suggests till be a sitting room but be part of the 'grand hall'.

I need to find out if my parents have plans of their barn conversion as it had some very similar issues - they went with a grand hall of about 60' by 25', a kitchen of 30'x20' and a sitting room of 25'x20' and hen a second galleried entertaining room of 60'x25' on the first floor but they have a further wing for the bedrooms and being a barn conversion there were fewer internal walls to worry about.

I am unclear whether the sections in a different colour (utility and 3 storey section) are existing or planned?

Doozergirl wrote: »

So many different ways to arrange that house!

Doozergirl

silvercar wrote: »

Thanks Misskool.

The plot looks an excellent size - lots of potential.

I think this thread is overrun with plans and houses at the moment, when its quieter and I can transfer a pic or two to something less revealing than my photobucket or facebook accounts, you can all re-design my kitchen. Looks superficially good, but its a T shape and doesn't work well.

You know you want to

michaels

For LJ I have no problem with entering through the conservatory but I am concerned about entering in to the kitchen after that. Also I am not sure whether having the conservatory in front of the kitchen window ruins the garden aspect of the room?

One thought - could you have a porch and front door on the bit of wall in the family room where the window isn't?