A bedroom needs a window to escape from in the event of a fire - I very much doubt that what you may be able to open up into space will be suitable for a bedroom as you describe it at the moment . Perhaps it could be used for extra storage space ? But not as a safe place to sleep from the sound of it .

Hi ... As you see on my profile picture, the front door is very much at the office, the only way to reach the house is via the main driveway to the black door. It's because the driveway is so long, the house is behind another house, and currently we dont have our "own" boundaries at the side of the driveway at the main road to post a sign on that some have an issue finding us....we will get to rectifying that. Even if we did allow access via the path to the utility room (which we dont want to do), that path also doesnt reach the main road either, and looks like an entrance to the new telephone exchange next door with identical gate to theirs (we are the "old" exchange). The main door was the utility but now I changed things and put the new entrance in, it's very obvious that going further than the office front door is private. Trust me... bloke with a sledge hammer has happened here already, several men 2200Watt demolition hammers... this place doesnt wan't to budge! I agree on the macerator, but it's the only way, I have however taken heed and re-planned to to only need one, not crazy 3. None of the internal walls are structural so to speak... apart from holding up the ceiling, which I add that is not sufficient as an upstairs floor using beams that should have been bigger than there is. The house is adapting through stages of also being able to live in it. While we tear down one part of the house, 2 bedrooms needed to be in service, the one bathroom retained, and the kitchen/laundry are going nowhere. Currenty the newly "finished" rooms are the Office, kitchen, Laundry, Bedrooms 2 & 3, the hallway(stairwell) shaped up and about to cut the bathroom door, the in floor electrics are in the living room, 65" wall mounted tv. Basically, we are working from one end to the other whilst keeping it liveable. Upstairs is future /maybe at this point. To be brutally honest, I dont think the architect has given it a thought, and in the latest plan actually removed a steel truss to make rooms look like will work, odd cupboards at the extremes, diagonal steel truss through bathroom, no thought to head height or where the plumbing services are. I'm sending a plan back with everything stripped out of the loft bar the master bedroom because of this... What I want to know, is how we are going to construct the floor and ventilate the loft etc... I cant say I'm enjoying it anyway, and I thought it was going to be and exciting move for the money :(

I'd go for dimmable downlights (yes you can get dimmable ones, your electrician will advise), but also include lamps for when you want cosiness (bedside ones and perhaps elsewhere too), plus potentially a pendant of some sort (again dimmable) over the bed if there's definitely one location for it. You could include a nice bright light over a dressing table for make up (though take care you don't create lots of shadows). You could also have some subtle lighting via LED strips as mentioned - eg if you have some bookshelves you can light the shelving, or you could have them inside wardrobes etc to help make everything easy to find when you're dressing. When you're creating a room from scratch it's an ideal opportunity to design something that really works.

Hi! This is a long a complex post! It's hard to know exactly what your question is. If you are looking for help with the layout design then this is something that I can help you with. For the technical questions relating to structural design then yes, as you say, these are best answered by a structural engineer. Getting the layout right for you first and then speaking to the engineer is usually the process that I would go through. I always start off with looking at what it is you want to achieve from the additional space you create. I would also look at upgrading the thermal performance of the roof since you will need to recover the roof anyway. You will need to add in insulation anyway but there are ways of doing it that is much more effective and there are some serious errors that are commonly made that you need to avoid - like cutting holes in the insulation to install inset downlights. You can have a look at how I work and get a copy of my free Design Your Home Vision checklist on my website here: www.i-architect.co.uk best wishes with you project, Jane