Amazingly as I write this, I have had 754 Blog views in less than 4 weeks. A huge thank you for your interest and I will try my best to keep it interesting throughout the build! This week has seen little movement in terms of physical activities (thank god my office hands probably couldn't cope with another weekend like the last just yet), however significant developments on the plans! I also had a thought that I hadn't really told you how we got to this point.
Originally the outline scheme and plans were done by Border Oak for Mum & Dad and getting planning was a pretty long and drawn out process. Although there were several rejections, planning was finally granted on the basis of the existing Chalet (come bit of caravan, bit of block built and any other bit of material that could be found) being already there. They carried out the works to make a technical start so planning would be kept live and from that point stopped. The reason they decided not to do the full build themselves was because the Herefordshire planning office would only allow a single-storey sized building and it was a little too far off the beaten track to be somewhere to retire to.
Original Border Oak Plans:
I moved onto the site into the Chalet initially, where Fliss joined me (it must be love to take that leap) and due to a leaky roof decided to side-grade to a Static Caravan giving a little more space and no leaks. During this process we've had help from friends, Ben Kuegler with the temporary electrics to the van, Chris Jones with the waste - making it livable for a short, well maybe long period. Ben Chambers of CES Electrical Services fixed the broadband for us and I am sure there were more!
Fliss & I took these plans and went on to the building regs stage enlisting the services of Jim Hicks at JJH Architectural Design, tweaking them to suit our preferences. I remember the meeting vividly, because we did it September 2012 straight from the Airport coming back off holiday. We went through the existing plans, outlining what we wanted and thought we could feasibly afford. As part of future planning we also asked Jim to sketch out how we could eventually put an upstairs in...
Through a bit of hearsay, I had heard that there had been some changes in the planning rules, which could provide an interesting development. We decided to take some pre-planning advice (a paid for service provided by Herefordshire Council) and I submitted some sketches (I did freehand myself) to include some extra windows & skylights to the front and rear and an upstairs plan. Having been told before that we wouldn't be able to have an upstairs, I have to say that I was surprised when a letter came back saying "planning approval wouldn't be required." There are obviously conditions to this including no changes to the footprint and overall size of the build. Another stipulation was that the roof-light windows didn't protrude too much above the roof. The lesson learnt from this is sometimes you need to check for yourself, rather than listening to other people - definitely something I will be applying throughout the build!
We set about getting some more drawings done by Jim and submitting them to the council building control.
Here are the plans:
Downstairs there is going to be a main open plan living space, incorporating the kitchen, dining area and lounge. There will also be a shower room and two further rooms. Upstairs there will be 2 bedrooms, one with a walk in cupboard, and a bathroom.
Border Oak have also written to us to say that our frame will be started on the 21st October - hopefully this means that we will have a completed shell in place by November.
We have an exciting week ahead, because Charlie Luxton will be coming down with the True North crew for our first session of filming for Building the Dream Series 2!
Thanks for reading, Tim
Originally the outline scheme and plans were done by Border Oak for Mum & Dad and getting planning was a pretty long and drawn out process. Although there were several rejections, planning was finally granted on the basis of the existing Chalet (come bit of caravan, bit of block built and any other bit of material that could be found) being already there. They carried out the works to make a technical start so planning would be kept live and from that point stopped. The reason they decided not to do the full build themselves was because the Herefordshire planning office would only allow a single-storey sized building and it was a little too far off the beaten track to be somewhere to retire to.
Original Border Oak Plans:
I moved onto the site into the Chalet initially, where Fliss joined me (it must be love to take that leap) and due to a leaky roof decided to side-grade to a Static Caravan giving a little more space and no leaks. During this process we've had help from friends, Ben Kuegler with the temporary electrics to the van, Chris Jones with the waste - making it livable for a short, well maybe long period. Ben Chambers of CES Electrical Services fixed the broadband for us and I am sure there were more!
Fliss & I took these plans and went on to the building regs stage enlisting the services of Jim Hicks at JJH Architectural Design, tweaking them to suit our preferences. I remember the meeting vividly, because we did it September 2012 straight from the Airport coming back off holiday. We went through the existing plans, outlining what we wanted and thought we could feasibly afford. As part of future planning we also asked Jim to sketch out how we could eventually put an upstairs in...
Through a bit of hearsay, I had heard that there had been some changes in the planning rules, which could provide an interesting development. We decided to take some pre-planning advice (a paid for service provided by Herefordshire Council) and I submitted some sketches (I did freehand myself) to include some extra windows & skylights to the front and rear and an upstairs plan. Having been told before that we wouldn't be able to have an upstairs, I have to say that I was surprised when a letter came back saying "planning approval wouldn't be required." There are obviously conditions to this including no changes to the footprint and overall size of the build. Another stipulation was that the roof-light windows didn't protrude too much above the roof. The lesson learnt from this is sometimes you need to check for yourself, rather than listening to other people - definitely something I will be applying throughout the build!
We set about getting some more drawings done by Jim and submitting them to the council building control.
Here are the plans:
Downstairs there is going to be a main open plan living space, incorporating the kitchen, dining area and lounge. There will also be a shower room and two further rooms. Upstairs there will be 2 bedrooms, one with a walk in cupboard, and a bathroom.
Border Oak have also written to us to say that our frame will be started on the 21st October - hopefully this means that we will have a completed shell in place by November.
We have an exciting week ahead, because Charlie Luxton will be coming down with the True North crew for our first session of filming for Building the Dream Series 2!
Thanks for reading, Tim
Tim, that's looks great. Best of luck with it
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