Fail to plan, plan to fail...

So in my last post (you can read this, here), I was waiting for the planners to get in touch regarding our initial thoughts. They gave us some constructive feedback, which has led us to head down a slightly different path.

When we first bought the house, we had visions of putting on a beautiful dormer roof, after we had extended out frontwards. But after looking into it, it wouldn't be too much extra to extend and turn into a 2-storey house. The plans we submitted were for just that. A full blown, 5 bedroom, 2-storey house. We were being very ambitious.

The planning department picked up that this couldn't be a straightforward extension, and it would be categorised as a demolish and re-build. This comes with a lot of groundwork, a lot of extra money, and more time wasted. So we decided to go back to our original plan - a dormer. We envisage the end result of the lower floor plan to look the same as our original thoughts, and with 3 bedrooms upstairs.

We are also hoping to re-build the existing garage/utility (on the right of the house, as you look at it) into a slightly bigger garage, with master suite on top, giving us that 4th bedroom with en-suite.

We have also decided, even though my husband is a whizz with AutoCAD, we are going to work with an architect to design and draw up our plans, and submit them on our behalf.

                                                     

Meanwhile we are enjoying pottering around doing things in the garden, and looking after our crazy chickens, who aren't enjoying being kept inside at the moment!

                                                           This is the building as it stands

New Year, New Plans...

2017 should be the year we finally get some plans into action and start some work on the house. It should also be the year I lose 2 stone, and become a more organised version of myself, but these things take time.

We have submitted a pre-planning submission, which basically means they'll look over it, and tell us roughly if it is likely to be passed, should we submit full planning permission for what we'd like to achieve. The trouble is, it isn't straightforward.

The bungalow is technically being extended, both outwards and upwards and a new garage being built to the side. It will need to be done in two phases. (see my previous post about this here) This is mainly for financial reasons, but also it saves us from needing to rent another property or hire a static caravan during the building works. We plan to build the garage, and master suite above, and the bungalow will remain untouched until phase one is complete. Then we move into the garage / master suite and start work on the main house.

So in effect, the house is an extension of the garage (Typical of my husband ;-) haha). It is a good plan though, and I am itching to get started. But I know once the work has started, and I hardly get to see said husband, I'll be tearing my hair out.

Meanwhile, we have given the house some much needed love recently. We had a good tidy and de-clutter of things after Christmas. It has made it feel much less crammed, and more organised. It is easy to keep on top of housework if you do the little things as and when they need doing.

Packing away the Christmas decorations made me want to clean behind the sofas, and give everywhere a good clean generally. My house looks really empty now!

The tree was here

Back to normality. And wine,

It's going to be tricky keeping on top of it now I'm back at work, and running or doing fitness classes 5 nights a week though. Add two children, two cats and two chickens in the mix and I'm screwed!

We are due to hear back from the planners any day now. Fingers crossed!