Here come the builders

Two representatives of the preferred tenderer called to the house today to discuss the plans and have a look round. We are happy enough with the approach they're taking so will be offering them the contract.

The contract is just one of the steps that has to be taken before work begins properly. A variety of other matters have to be attended to so that we have up-to-date plans, the relevant health and safety documentation, and details of the order in which works will be done. The more scripting we get done now, the more efficient the process will be when it begins. The builders reckon that, all going well on the document front, they can have people working on site at the end of January, beginning with the isolation and demolition of the extension. They weren't offering a finishing date yet, however.

It remains to be seen how practical it will be for us to live in the house as the work goes on. In particular it looks like our sad little kitchen will be isolated and gutted early on. I'm not sure whether we'll be able to get a temporary sink installed somewhere else for the duration, nor what it'll mean for us if we can't. Don't really fancy doing the dishes in the bath.

Goodbye glass brick wall

... as Elton John might say if he were re-modelling our house, which, I hasten to add, he isn't. Anyway, looking at the figures on the builders' estimates, and in particular the figure next to the line about replacing the wall above the stairs with one made from glass brick, we've decided, reluctantly, to let this particular feature go. Regular readers will know that the purpose of the wall was to let light into the landing after the window (at the right of the picture) is blocked up for the extension. The better, cheaper alternative, is to have a glass-panelled door in the small front bedroom. This way, if a future buyer wants to use that as a bedroom, it'll be a lot less work for them to change the door than to replace a wall.

Today we have been living in this house for one year. Very little has changed visibly in that time, but we have a great big pile of documentation to show for it.

Of the three builders who tendered, one firm is reluctant to offer a full breakdown of the figures for fear that we'll use this information to get a better quote from someone else. We wouldn't, of course, but we can't enter into a contract with them on the basis of the information they're willing to give us. Which leaves two. One in particular seems to have thought the whole thing out better than the other and come in with a slightly lower quote, so they are now Preferred Tenderer and we've arranged to meet them next week.

Another baby step forward.

Quotes

All three builders who were invited to tender came back with quotes. They're in the general ballpark of what we were expecting, though slightly higher than we would have wished for, with about 10% of a difference between the highest and lowest. We haven't sat down with the detailed bills of quantities yet to determine exactly what each one is quoting for, but we're due to get the documents today so will be doing this soon.

More anon.

Real live builder

Today we had First Contact with someone who actually works for an actual firm which builds actual things. He was working on putting our quote together and was looking for information on the current state of the house, and which bits simply need to be ripped out as opposed to demolished.

It's not really news. It's just that we've been waiting so long that contact with a builder is like a first glimpse of the Promised Land.

Tender ho!

Unbeknownst to me, it turns out that the engineer has issued the revised drawings to three contractors of his acquaintance. The deadline for responses is Friday week. This is slightly different from the original plans, in that the whole point of an independent engineer was to have someone completely separate from and unknown to the builders he supervises. But on the other, we don't have to go sending sheafs of documents out to random builders: woo-hoo!

We'll still be doing the selecting of a contractor from the responses we get.

The latest drawings had to be only slightly corrected, but now we've decided we should add a sink to the utility room, if that's practical. Here's hoping changes like this won't become too much of a bad habit: especially after building starts and they become Expensive.

Things are moving at last...

... in a good way and in a not so good way.

Today the revised drawings arrived from the engineer. They're pretty much the same as the ones the architect did for us, with some extra technical details about the construction and the foundations. Once we've gone through the bundle of papers and are happy everything's OK, we'll be able to send this out to builders for tendering.

The other movement is something we noticed last week when the back door stopped closing. It looks like the extension has shifted slightly to the rear and side. I really think we'll need to have it down before the frost starts arriving. We don't want the demolition team beaten to it by the winter.

"...an architect who listens"

Going through the detailed specification provided by our architect, the engineer reckons that we will not, in fact, be needing a quantity surveyor after all, such is the high quality of the document. We responded that we'd all put a lot of effort into the spec and that "this is what you get when you have an architect who listens".

He had a right laugh at that, as if the very idea was something utterly implausible.

Anyway, good news: no QS. That still leaves the tender. The engineer will be spending about three weeks working up the drawings to tenderable quality, and in the meantime will offer some recommendations on contractors. While he does that, we will be putting our shortlist together and aim to have the tender out by the end of the month.

At last, an ally!

So we met our engineer and he seemed quite optimistic about the whole project. He thought our budget was reasonable and that a project schedule of about six months was a runner. Most importantly, he is interested in being our project manager and will

all for a flat fee.

What we still need to get for ourselves is a quantity surveyor and, oh yes, a builder. But at least now there's someone on board who knows what they're doing.

Hunt update

We have an appointment next week with an engineer who may be interested in doing our project management. Fingers crossed. He has said, however, that he isn't willing to do the tender process. That bit shouldn't be too hard though, right?

Permission to build

At last, our planning application has been approved and this time with no niggling conditions.

There's still a five week period for appeals to be observed, which is just as well as we are still hunting for a structural engineer and project manager. Our specification is done, though, and we have construction-ready drawings. It's just a question of legwork now.

Second planning application

Our second planning application has now been submitted. It's exactly the same as the first, but is accompanied by the following explanatory text:

In reference to our planning application submitted today, I have the following additional comments on the specific building line sought:

1. Maintenance of building line, symmetry, site-specific precedent
The proposed extension is designed to maintain the building line of the group of similar houses (three pairs of semi-detached houses all with the same building line), and the building line of the individual house which currently has a single storey extension flush with the front of the original house;
The extension was designed to extend sympathetically the existing roofline of the pair of semi-detached houses;
The extension was designed to introduce a new visual symmetry to the individual house, having regard to the context of the group of similar houses and to the neighbouring property to the south.

The established building line on the individual plot – that of the single storey extension in poor repair – is currently flush with the front of the original house, and the new proposed extension is intended as a replacement and enhancement of the existing extension. A previous planning permission granted for replacement with a single storey extension also allowed maintenance of the current building line.

2. Structural issues
In addition to the overall appearance of the final structure, we have a number of entirely pragmatic reasons to seek maintenance of the established building line. First is that we wish to extend the roofline directly across the extension: this will increase the utility of the loft-space, and ensure that the most straightforward structural solution can be implemented. Any deviation from the building line will require one of two options: either (a) alteration to the roofline, with the introduction of additional hipping and gulleys, or (b) maintaining the current roofline with a consequential significant overhang to the front of the house and reduction of the upstairs accommodation.

Option (a) would require introduction of additional hips and gulleys to the roof, which, in addition to being visually unappealing and injurious to the integration of the extension with the existing roofline, will increase the maintenance requirements and increase, if only marginally, the possibility of failure at several points on the roof, as well as requiring more complex, visually intrusive, and high maintenance guttering arrangements to assure suitable run-off.

Option (b) would reduce the available upstairs space as the building line at the back would remain flush with the current house, and thus unnecessarily cramp the new accommodation. It would also require significant structural reinforcement to support the overhang – again increasing the maintenance requirements and increasing the possibility of failure.

We believe that either option for deviating from the building line would introduce an unnecessary degree of risk to the roof structure, and involve higher costs, and will have implications for the internal configuration.

3. Internal configuration
Because of the limitations imposed by the existing layout and structure, the placement of openings from the existing house to the proposed extension cannot be amended significantly. This means that any set-back from the established building line, without undertaking a total reconfiguration of the existing and proposed internal accommodation, would reduce the sizes of the rooms to the front of the proposed extension to a size which is inconsistent with the overall dimensions of the house and would seriously reduce the utility of those rooms and the overall flexibility of the accommodation. The only obvious alternative to avoid cramping the rooms to the front would require the removal of the proposed utility room and en-suite bathroom, which would very seriously compromise the quality, comfort and value of the house to us.

Conclusion
Given the site precedent, proposed roof structure, and internal accommodation constraints, we are particularly keen to maintain the building line as established, flush with the front of the house. We hope you will give this favourable consideration, and will be happy to provide any further information you may require.

And that pretty much says it all.

The illustrated kitchen

We have a quote from a second kitchen place, which is higher than the first, but we prefer their layout and general attitude, so they're now the favourite. They also gave us drawings. Here's the plan:

That green bar on the top side of the island, opposite the hob, is the dishwasher.

The main units look like this:

One big advantage over the design from the other place is that the cooker is over on the left. The last guy insisted on it being at the right-hand end. I don't remember why. It's better here, further from the dining space which is off to the right. The non-integrated fridge and freezer are at opposite ends of the kitchen because there isn't room for them to sit side-by-side.

From further back:

The island doesn't have much storage space: just that shallow cupboard on the left and the space under the sink. Sitting space is maximised because the far side will be used for food preparation and the space beside the dishwasher will allow chef to sit while chopping, while the near side will be facing the TV off to the right and will function as a breakfast bar. When we last spoke to the designer there was talk of a leg supporting the island worktop at the end, but that seems not to be necessary. Which is good.

The only major problem I foresee is that once this is installed it will take us ages colouring it in. Where's my brown felt-tip..?

What are we doing?

After extensive consideration and consultation we have been advised that the best way forward is to resubmit our planning application exactly as before, and append an explanation as to why one of the conditions in the previous permission makes the project untenable. Having gone over the options we have absolutely ruled out building the extension according to the Council conditions, mainly due to the engineering difficulties with the roof and the reduction in room sizes necessitated by the repositioning of the door openings.

Our new application will be submitted on Thursday of this week, meaning we will be expecting a planning decision some time after 10th August.

If we are unsuccessful again, and no suitable alternative can be found, we will apply to have the extension knocked down, have a planning-exempt extension built on to the kitchen at the rear, renovate the whole lot, and sell on at the earliest opportunity.

But hopefully it won't come to that.

There's always a catch

Good news: the Council have granted us planning permission.

Bad news: they are insisting that the extension be pushed back 50cm from the line of the original house. We're still working out how this is going to affect things like the shape of the kitchen and the design of the roof, but we foresee problems ahead.

More news as it happens...

Seeds of a kitchen

Today we saw a man about a kitchen. It all went quite well and the initial quote came in some way under what we were expecting (but don't tell him that). Unfortunately for blogging purposes, we don't get any of the pictures until we put a deposit down, which we won't be doing until we have a few more quotes. Suffice it to say it's cherry and it has an island with a sink in it.

The Shed Zone

When we first moved in, the back garden looked like this:


Under the weeds in the back corners there were two former shrubberies. We decided that the shed should go in the back left corner. So, over Easter, I set about with a shovel and moved all the earth and stones from the left to the right, trimmed back the ivy spilling over from next door and dug out the briar plant over which the ivy was pouring.
The result was this:


Today, the 12x8 shiplapped barna shed arrived.
First the foundations:


Then the pieces ready for assembly:


Up go the walls:


The front:


And finally the windows and roof:


So here's my new shed, just needing to be treated on the outside and filled with the contents of the extension prior to the start of demolition work.

In black and white

The paper sent us complimentary copies, bless 'em, so here's the ad.

The site notice is up, too. The full application will go in tomorrow.

We went to see the neighbours this evening and they mentioned that the reason the current extension subsided is that the whole development is on an old quarry. Good to know, if slightly disquieting...

The Master Plans

So here they are: the final drawings of our remodelled house for our planning application later this week.


The front is pretty much as it always has been in these plans and my mock-up below. The window illustrations are a bit closer to what we hope to have, however.


Here at the back you can see the pitched roof extension gable in all its glazed glory, as well as the new patio doors from the living room.


Ehmm, for some reason the application requires a roof plan, and here it is. The two white rectangles are the kitchen skylights. We'll be having a couple of solar panels on the back and one on the side when this is built, I think.


Another dull one: this is the detached side, with the back door into the utility room and the en suite window upstairs. If you remove the exterior wall you get...


... this section through the (anti-clockwise from top-right) dressing room, en suite, master bedroom, kitchen, utility room and TV room. The viewpoint is looking out of the patio doors in the dining area which have a double window to the left of them.


Not much has changed here since the last set: the utility room has moved forward to make the kitchen bigger and 20cm of extension width has been sacrificed to the side passage. The kitchen is very nearly a perfect L and we decided at the last minute to move the front door forward -- we'd like a porch, but we need that space even more.


Upstairs, behold the hotpress! The master bedroom is looking pretty small, but with a separate dressing room that shouldn't be a problem. There was much debate about the bathroom layout, including the logistics of moving the whole right-hand wall about a foot further right to make the right-hand bedrooms fit flush and give more bathroom space. We decided against it: the bathroom has beaten us and will remain tiny, though moving the hotpress will allow some flexibility.

And there you have it. The drawings are done, the site notice is laminated and the display stake is ready for the front garden. On Wednesday, if they do what we've paid them to do, the local paper will print our notice and fire the starting pistol for real.

Planning timetable

It's tempting fate to write this, but given how long we've taken to get this far it feels good to be able to put some definite dates on things. So:

1. This Thursday, 19th April we will be submitting our planning notice to the local paper.
2. On Wednesday 25th it will be published, and on the same day the site notice can go up in front of the house. By then the plans should be finalised so that...
3. On Thursday 26th our planning application will be lodged with the Council. We have up to two weeks (to 10th May) to do this, but there should be no reason not to do it straight away.
4. The expiry date for objections will then be 31st May, and
5. By (and probably on) 21st June we will have our planning decision.

By the end of this process we hope to have everything ready to go for building to commence immediately. We will have the plans certified for building regulation compliance, a specification drawn up, a project manager appointed and tenders issued to contractors.

What could possibly go wrong?

All looking very familiar

New plans, and tantalisingly close to the final version:

Downstairs the kitchen has been repositioned, though we don't think we'll go with that wall jutting out near the cooker. The room is not yet a perfect L but that should be easy enough to amend. The whole extension is now a uniform width, but we suspect it's too wide for the side-passage space. We'll be taking about 20cm off the width shown here. We're also inclined to bring the utility room forward to make the kitchen bigger and take space off the less-essential TV room.

Upstairs:

If the utility room downstairs is moving forward, the en suite will have to move with it. Still we are without a hotpress, but it will be going somewhere between the en suite and dressing room. The glass bricks in the small study have returned and the pitched roof on the kitchen is now visible -- what it needs are two roof lights close to where it joins the house.

Once this checklist has been gone through, we'll be ready to apply for permission.

Building starts (sort of)

Today a builder bricked up the kitchen into its original shape and installed what will be the temporary back door after the demolition.

Not all the residents of 265 are pleased, however:

Just mucking about now

A hasty photoshop to give an idea of the finished product (though with different windows, a wider gateway, neater shrubbery, etc.) :

Getting closer

The second set of plans (which I confess we've had for a couple of weeks now) are rather more restrained than the previous. Possibly a little too restrained.


The front elevation shows the two storey extension very much in keeping with the existing house. At the back, the living room now has patio doors and the flat-roofed kitchen now projects into the garden. This is clearer from the ground floor plan:

The general shape of things here is as we'd like it, with utility space added in front of the kitchen, similar to the original extension plans. The space behind the living room is a patio, with doors onto it from the living room and the side of the kitchen extension.

The major change we want to make concerns the kitchen / dining space. We want to reverse the positions and have the kitchen near the utility space, with units along the outside wall. The dining table will then go at the very back, with glass on two sides. The entrance area to the kitchen, adjoining the living room, also needs a bit of tweaking. We think it would help if the wraparound concept were abandoned so the back is made narrower. This will make the room a perfect L, rather than the C presented here. To make up for the lost width, we reckon the kitchen can be made to extend a bit further back than it does here.

Before leaving the kitchen, there's one other major change we're suggesting: instead of a flat roof, having an apex extending back from the original house with a glazed gable and two skylights, which should go some way to bring light into a room which otherwise runs the risk of being very dark.

Upstairs, then:

We have an en suite but are still short a hotpress. Sadly, the glazed screen has gone from the small study and we'd like that returned. The only major alteration to make here is the positioning of the en suite: if it's moved back to make the bedroom smaller the space will be used better (we don't need a big bedroom, but more wardrobe space is always welcome) and the en suite can sit directly above the utility room for ease of plumbing.

All these observations have been passed on to our long-suffering architect and we should hopefully be heading towards a formal planning application in the next couple of weeks.

The first plans

The sale included planning permission for a single-storey pitched-roof extension replacing the current collapsing one. Here are the drawings for the proposed new front and back:


The extension was to wrap around the back of the house, making the kitchen much bigger, and included a utility room and downstairs bathroom between the kitchen and TV room, like so:



We decided from the beginning, however, that we would prefer to build two storeys, adding an en suite bedroom and dressing room to the upper floor. In January we sat down with a friendly architect to begin throwing ideas around. He came back last week with an ambitious set of plans:



The ground floor footprint is fairly similar to the current one, though it opens a set of doors between the library and living room. The new kitchen does not extend any further back than at present.



Upstairs there's no en suite, just the bedroom at the back and dressing room to the fore. One of the big problems with the two-storey extension was always going to be getting light into the stairway. Here, that is solved by glazed screens at the bathroom and "study" (currently the box room), and internal windows from the new bedroom and dressing room.

So far, so simple, but here's the bit that'd turn heads:



Seen here from the side, instead of a normal pitched roof there's a "factory roof" of two pitches sloping the same way. The vertical surface of each is a window bringing light into the new upstairs rooms.

In 3-D, the ground and first floors would look like this:



We rejected the factory roof idea, largely because we don't want that much light coming in to the bedroom - one of the reasons it's at the back, west-facing, is to keep it as dark as possible. Nor do we like the internal windows, except for the two glazed screens at the bathroom and study. The full-length dressing room window is another keeper from this plan. An en suite, shower and hot press, however, are must-haves for upstairs.

Downstairs we won't be opening that new door from the library as shelving space is at a premium. A utility room is essential, and we don't think there will be sufficient dining space in this design. Extending backwards seems the only way to go. Based on the first, wraparound, kitchen we hoped to be able to extend the original kitchen as well as the new one, but our architect informs us this will leave the middle of the room very dark. So only the new part of the kitchen will be extended in the next, eagerly awaited, set of drawings.

First impressions

This is our beautiful new house. The extension to the left of the picture was built without proper foundations and is now pulling away from the main house, hence the huge cracks in the masonry around the window.

We first saw the place in June 2006. The estate agent's brochure said:

We finally moved in on 11th December. This is how it was left to us:
	The hall doesn't merit much comment except for the unpleasant dark red carpet. The kitchen is at the back and two doors lead off to the right: the dining room is at the front and the sitting room at the back.
	The living room looks a mess but did shape up once our furniture went in. It has the advantage of a fireplace and a storage heater, making it the only room in the house which doesn't require a separate electric heater to make it habitable.
	One of the blanker canvases in the house, this is a well proportioned, square-ish room at the front. It has temporarily become a substitute kitchen but it will probably end up as a library in the final plans.
	The brochure above runs the kitchen and "breakfast room" together, almost as if it was trying to hurry you through and out again. The kitchen to the right is part of the original house. To the left, the "breakfast room" is an extension. The two rooms are not quite joined at the ceiling as the extension is slowly pulling away from the main house. This leaves a crack big enough to see the sky through.
	Here we are in the breakfast room looking back into the kitchen. The crack separating the two is clearly visible in the wall above the leftover fridge. One of the first construction tasks will be getting the L-shaped gap here bricked up with a door installed. This will weather the original house and allow for the demolition of the extension.
	The last room downstairs is at the front of the extension. The white plaster shows the structural cracks quite clearly. From the lack of carpet, I suspect that this room never really got used for the purpose it was intended.
	Here's a close-up of the room from the outside, with those cracks in glorious detail. Thankfully it seems that all of the damage is in the extension (and we have a surveyor's report to back that up). The whole condemned wing should come down without too much fuss, hopefully.
	The master bedroom at the back, with its built-in wardrobes (all of which is coming out, eventually). The room is a good size and merely requires luxuries like a source of heat.
	This is the upstairs front bedroom. Facing out onto the main road it's probably too noisy to ever use as a bedroom, but it does get the sun in the morning so I'm sure we'll find some use for it. It was supplied with the carcass of a sliderobe, minus the mirrored doors. Two days with a manual screwdriver took the whole thing out, and the filthy threadbare carpet followed. We shall not see their like again. With luck.
	The box room at the front was one of the disaster zones. Awful carpet, non-functioning blind, leftover junk and no working source of electricity (most of the other rooms have one working socket). Out came the junk, up came the carpet and the cats moved in. They don't seem to mind the wallpaper. This will probably eventually become a study of some sort. Until then it's just for keeping things (like cats) out of the way.
	The brochure saves the best room to last. Tiny bathrooms and kitchens seem to have been the norm in the mid-1960s when the place was built. I'm guessing it was last renovated some time in the '80s, during the coloured suite craze. Turning this into something habitable is one of the major challenges facing us.
	A side passage, including the extension's back door, leads down to the garden (though this is the view towards the main road at the front).
	It's quite a generous space, overshadowed (though not overlooked) by the apartments next door.

Nothing for it now but to get to work.