The plan

Dividing the work up into 4 major areas, cost wise gives us the following:

• New Kitchen
• Complete electrical re-wire.
• Install gas supply, new gas combi boiler & replace/upgrade radiators where needed.
• Replace single prefab garage with double prefab (try to sell single garage).

Sounds simple, doesn't it?

The kitchen is pretty straightforward, into a favourite national DIY Chain with some drawings/sketches of layout and get it ordered, demolish old kitchen, dump it in a skip. We'll have a gas supply (see below) so a gas hob and an electric over is the best combination. Saying that I like the sound of these new inductive hobs, expensive though...

The electrics will be pretty involved, and will include chasing new wire-ways into the wall, lots more sockets (1 per room just doesn't cut it these days). New consumer unit with plenty of extra space for expansion. Whilst chasing I'll put extra routes in for network cable, tv co-ax, and other AV stuff.

The heating system will largely be on the advice of a heating engineer, I tried a few calcs with regard to heat losses and radiator efficiency and ended up with numbers ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. I'll want to over-size the boiler to allow for future expansion, extreme weather conditions and someone running the hot tap whilst I'm in the shower.

I'm tempted to go for a modern storage cylinder with additional heating coils for alternative heat sources- the house roof has an east-west aspect so we could get solar water heaters, or the front garden see's a lot of noon-day sun, so ground source heat-pumps are also an option, though I doubt we'll have the budget for that to start with. It would be good to have the option in a few years, especially if there's subsidies to be had.

The gas supply will be mostly down to the transport company (wales & west) though I can probably save a few quid by digging the trench myself. Perhaps hire an excavator and dig out the pampas grass that's taking over the front garden at the same time.

I always fancied a go on a mini-digger.

The garage will probably follow later in the year once we've got the house sorted and moved in, initially it'll be a storage place for non-essentials whilst we're working on the house. The car(s) will have to be accomodated elsewhere for the duration of the work. The existing garage is a prefab, but has seen a new roof recently, if I can get a few quid for it then that'll help.

The size & shape of the property makes me think I can get a modest double width (16ft) onto the land if I loose the shed and coal-bunker alongside the house. If I sneak the front upto the line of the porch then I can go a bit deeper, which would be nice, though it's iffy ground with regard to planning. I'll need to dig out the old foundations and lay a pretty massive slab (20ft x 20ft), I imagine that'll be quite messy, but more fun on a digger I suspect.