Plastered...... almost

The master bed, ensuite and dressing room are coming on. There are plasterers coming tomorrow and we're picking up the lights on Friday so the rooms should be ready for decorating by the weekend. Hopefully the ensuite shower will be plasterboarded by the end of the week and the fittings might even be in. Not sure when it will get tiled but it should be soon. We're moving the kids out this Friday for two weeks whilst one of us goes with them to my parents'. Geoff can then get on with the big work - the last wall, the floors, the kitchen and then the UFH.



This is the Wediboard floor to the shower. It is concrete impregnated plasterboard and is waterproof. It is sealed with special tape and the drain unit comes with the pre-shaped floor. It is probably more expensive than a shower tray but you can tile it to fit in with the rest of the room.

Shopping frenzy

An eBay-tastic couple of days. After the success with the basin (got - very nice) and sink unit (not received yet), I guess we got a bit carried away. We have received the tap for the bowl. It is really solid, and from what i can see we got a bargain at £26 delivered, RRP is more like £260! From "the Kitchen and Bathroom Outlet" on eBay. (All suppliers in the links list)



We have also ordered the shower and mixer for the ensuite. Apparently, the control should have been £600, but we got this for £150 - bargain! In theory it can control both a bath and a shower simultaneous with sufficient (1 bar per outlet) pressure. It has preset programs so I can set one temp and the wife can set another. We could even set it to turn on at a certain time. More practically, we can use the second outlet for body jets one day without needing to buy a divertor and shut off valve - they are expensive on their own. The controller came from "bathroomstuff4u" on eBay, the shower itself from HIE Plumbing Direct.
The shower is a neat design. The water comes in through the mounting bracket at the bottom of the rail. Above and below that you can just make out the In-line valves - these mean that you can have one or both of the heads operating at once - so we only really needed to add a thermostatic control as the flow control is built in. The digital controller is overkill, but at £150 it was on a par with any decent concealed thermostatic control.

Finally, we chose this light at Morgans months ago, but it's RRP is £200! So when we got the chance to nab one for £50 we had to take it. From "airmyncc" on eBay.



The single basin came from "i-bathrooms" and the vanity unit from "bathroombits4u".

Here we go!

Well, we finally got the money today! (well the first batch). After months of chasing the bank and them doing nothing they said, how they said and when they said, we have just picked up a cheque for the first installment from the solicitor and contacted the builder.

The bank managed to almost scupper things at the last minute by insisting we needed an independent solicitor and a local search - another week! - but we persisted and here we are....

Next steps are to sign the contract with the builder and agree a start date and schedule.

Building Regs

Once we had planning permission, the next step was to gain building regs. We decided not to continue with the architects for this work as we wanted a very detailed set of drawings to enable the builder to work without much input from us. We found a freelance architectural technician to draw the plans for us.

He drew the plans and worked with the structural engineer to get the beam calcs done. We ended up needing 6 beams and a pillar in the middle of the big room to keep beam sizes down and allow us to open up the stairs. The net effect being we need a party wall agreement with our attached neighbours. (see the direct government website for info on this)

Luckily, despite them objecting to the plans, they have been reasonable in our dealings on the party wall and our structral engineer has met with them to explain everything - hopefully we'll get their agreement this week!

We gained building regs relatively quickly once the structural calcs were submitted - all we need now is the money from the bank and we're off.

Planning Recommendations

How well do you get on with your neighbours? How would you feel if you fell out with them?

We didn't really know our neighbours and we made a mistake not talking to them as soon as we started thinking about an extension. It probably wouldn't have made any real difference as we wanted a big extension on two floors and I suspect they would only have been happy with a single storey, but it still might have made the process easier.

The first time we submitted plans, we told them after we had submitted so they knew to expect the letter from the council. One neighbour objected but the other did not and said nothing - so we assumed they were ok. In hindsight - this was obviously the wrong time but we were just caught up in the design process.

The second time we showed them the plans just prior to submission. The neighbour who objected came round, measured up and pronounced he was OK - then promptly objected anyway..... the other neighbour also objected!! Shows you never can tell or assume anything.

Basically, tell your neighbours all the way through but expect them to object anyway. Talk to the planning officer - or get your architect to talk to them, so there are no technical reasons for a rejection - it can be very expensive redesigning your plans.

Finally, planning can only be rejected on technical issues - things like reduction in their property values has no bearing on the decision - although if you share a party wall (as we do) best not to upset them too much...

The Planning Process

We began the process of having our extension designed in January 2006. We engaged Cork Toft Partnership, a nearby architects practice and they began by measuring the house and producing a CAD drawing of the house as it is now.

Once the initial measurements had been made, the next step was to work up some options for the extension. Our original thought had been to include a full length garage to enable pass-through of vehicles, but it became clear that we would get no ground floor living space if we did this.

The architect produced a revised plan with a 2 storey extension the full length of the main house, initially with a step part way along to accommodate a garage at the front of the house and living space behind it.


At this point, we gave up on the garage and decided to go for a full size extension on both floors. The next design reflected this by moving the hall, and introducing 2 new reception rooms, but leaving the existing lounge and kitchen relatively unchanged. The first floor had a large dormer on the front to soften the impact, but extended back the length of the main house, providing 1 new double bed with en-suite and dresser, a replacement double bed with en-suite and adding an en-suite to one of the other beds - so 4 beds, 3 with en-suite and an option to en-suite the fourth.


A couple of iterations later (D) and the extension had grown yet again, bit downstairs was still a collection of individual rooms.


We submitted these plans but they were rejected in part because a neighbour engaged a surveyour to write an objection letter, but primarily because it was basically too big on the first floor.

The extension was redesigned to remove the dormer and cut the first floor back in line with the existing gable end wall. By now we were into June and a few thousand pounds worse off. It was at this point we fell out with the architect slightly as we felt he should have forseen some of the specific objections raised (or at least raised the possibility) and we also felt there hadn't been enough designing by them - much of the design was what we drew for them and they put into CAD. In hindsight, this may be a bit unfair, but when you get knocked back at planning, it is easy to look for a culprit!

The revisions were done in close conjunction with the planning officer (something we and the architect should have done from the very beginning) and we soon reached an external layout which he implied would be acceptable. It was this revision (F) that introduced the open plan layout which excited us so much. We re-submitted the plans in July 2006 and watched the council planning website with anticipation. On the 6th September we finally received permission !!!! As it turns out, that was the easy bit...

Front and Side Elevations:
Rear Elevation:
Internal Layout:

Introduction

I intend to use this blog to document the forthcoming extension of our house - warts and all. Partly as a way to remember what we are going through and partly so other people considering major works will know what to really expect.

Paul