11 March, 2017

Dreaming of a Grand Design


Ideas are coming together for the house I am designing. I've started re-watching Grand Designs to encourage the flow. There's a drinking game based on the show. Some of the reasons to take a drink are:

  • The owners get pregnant during the build
  • The owners are depending on an unreliable supplier for a rare material
  • Problems with expensive custom made windows
  • There is partial collapse of a building
  • There is incompetent use of heavy machinery
  • Access to the site is difficult for some reason (such as steep gradients or narrow pathways
The first one isn't going to be a problem as I'll be 55+ by the time we are ready to start building. The rest of problems, and more, are being taken into consideration.

The plan is to have all the funding secured (by selling our current house) before we start. Professionals will be employed, including a quantity surveyor.  The build figures given by architects seem to bear almost no relation to the actual costs of building!

I don't want a fancy piece of architecture, I want a home that will meet our needs for the foreseeable future.  It has to be comfortable, easy to maintain, and with space for a downstairs bedroom (should we need it).  

Thankfully, there are lots of old Manx farm houses that are rectangular boxes with a triangular cross section roof.  These houses are very often white, or are made from Manx stone.  Both are elements I want in my house.  It's going to look like a modern version of a traditional Manx farm house.

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