The wider property market may be experiencing a touch of slowdown, but the warm weather we’ve had over the last couple of weeks will have been a spur for many of you to get stuck into your bespoke home building projects. With plenty of daylight hours to enjoy, it’s the perfect reminder of the benefits of bringing more natural brightness into your home – whatever the season – and this month’s issue of Build It comes bundled with our free guide to Choosing windows & doors. Whether you’re specifying a full self build, creating a kitchen-diner extension or simply looking to upgrade your home’s fenestration, it’s packed with all the inspiration and advice you’ll need to get your glazing right and successfully bring the outside in.
Let’s face it, everything’s that little bit easier when it’s sunny – whether it’s traipsing round plots to see whether the latest candidate could be the gem you’re after (see page 100 for Opinder Liddar’s guide to assessing a site’s self build potential) or getting your teeth into major works such as tackling a barn conversion (page 90). With all that sunshine (hopefully I’m not tempting fate here) now’s also a great time to add that garden room you’ve been hankering after – just in time for the summer months. Check out Mike Dade’s guide to securing planning consent for your outbuilding on page 104. And to take full advantage of the extra daylight, why not install solar hot water panels? Nigel Griffiths explains how you can tell whether they’ll suit your project and save you money on page 71.