It's been another month of no new posts. We're just waiting to hear from Tom who will be sending in the agreed plans.... I've come to the conclusion that building a house is a wife who is a liber has it's own challenges or put it another way I'm going to buy her a t-shirt "Libra but I'm not so sure now!"
But watch this space.
Monday, 28 March 2011
Friday, 25 February 2011
How difficult can it be?
One month later since my last post and still this project amazes me in the twists and turns we have had to take. Making decisions at times especially with the consequences of living in a house for long time can be hard .... but lets us also put the whole thing into perspective (thank you to a good friend for this bit). It's also very easy to concentrate on what we deem as perfection which is not to say we should necessarily lower our standards to get on with it together is more important than going round and round in circles winding each other up! So that's how I feel, after a considerable amount of discussion this weekend, I admit has at times left me feeling a little angry out of sheer frustration of not understanding why Flora can't see my point.
One week later.
More ups and downs with lots more talking and considerably less frustration with Flora (and I hope she is of the same feeling ..... well she says she is). We responded to Tom's email asking us to list how we can visalise each room and what it will be used for going down to the real details like dimensions of the cupboards. A worth while exercise that has helped us agree on many points. I would have liked some sort of slate on the sitting room, kitchen dinning room area as this is a really efficient way of absorbing the suns heat and then in the evening it would let it out when needed. Well we're having wood as I also agree it is warmed to look at a feel under foot and even more importantly when you drop a plate it is less likely that it will break! So much for my eco design!
I've been in contact with a few oak frame companies to try and ascertain if our design could be easily transferred to a oak frame house. So far they've all been in contact which is a good start and Welsh Oak have said we could have a frame built in our budget but lets see I don't want to get up our hopes just yet!
Next small bit we've decided to extend the size of our house I'm calling Ropewalk House by the way. The design which I have still failed to actually put up on this blog (I promise to tomorrow when I go into work) is for 190 m2 we now know we can push the finances a little more to make the total build 210 m2. This in turn has cemented our belief that we really want a curved end to the sitting room .... oh God costly curves, yes that may be the case but I'm not convinced by our east elevation windows especially as I saw the same ones (or near to) on a very ugly visitors centre when coming out of the loo! This may also sound like spoilt children stamping their feet not being content with what they've got. It could be deemed as pushing the part of how big do you need this house? However in our defence this is one thing we have actually agreed on from the start that we would like some sort of curve be it in the roof, or walls or just something to make the structure less box like and more dare perhaps organic. It's not surprising we are taking inspiration from the Longhouse.
I'm going up again to the Eco homes exhibition in London next Wednesday which will hopefully be useful not full of people trying to sell me things are clearly not environmentally designed!
One week later.
More ups and downs with lots more talking and considerably less frustration with Flora (and I hope she is of the same feeling ..... well she says she is). We responded to Tom's email asking us to list how we can visalise each room and what it will be used for going down to the real details like dimensions of the cupboards. A worth while exercise that has helped us agree on many points. I would have liked some sort of slate on the sitting room, kitchen dinning room area as this is a really efficient way of absorbing the suns heat and then in the evening it would let it out when needed. Well we're having wood as I also agree it is warmed to look at a feel under foot and even more importantly when you drop a plate it is less likely that it will break! So much for my eco design!
I've been in contact with a few oak frame companies to try and ascertain if our design could be easily transferred to a oak frame house. So far they've all been in contact which is a good start and Welsh Oak have said we could have a frame built in our budget but lets see I don't want to get up our hopes just yet!
Next small bit we've decided to extend the size of our house I'm calling Ropewalk House by the way. The design which I have still failed to actually put up on this blog (I promise to tomorrow when I go into work) is for 190 m2 we now know we can push the finances a little more to make the total build 210 m2. This in turn has cemented our belief that we really want a curved end to the sitting room .... oh God costly curves, yes that may be the case but I'm not convinced by our east elevation windows especially as I saw the same ones (or near to) on a very ugly visitors centre when coming out of the loo! This may also sound like spoilt children stamping their feet not being content with what they've got. It could be deemed as pushing the part of how big do you need this house? However in our defence this is one thing we have actually agreed on from the start that we would like some sort of curve be it in the roof, or walls or just something to make the structure less box like and more dare perhaps organic. It's not surprising we are taking inspiration from the Longhouse.
I'm going up again to the Eco homes exhibition in London next Wednesday which will hopefully be useful not full of people trying to sell me things are clearly not environmentally designed!
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
All change!
The Christmas holiday must have done some good or at least calmed us down. To summarise the conservation officer finally got back to us with his written comments. He thinks it better if we do the following: -
a) Not build near the wall boundary
b) Single storey with possibly a limited second storey element
c) Position the house towards the telephone exchange rather than in the centre of the garden
d) Either make the look more modern or very traditional which would have to be clad in stone
So in the other words he doesn't like our house design at all!
So we can apparently do two things
1) either get loads of written testimonials from surrounding residents or
2) start again or at least take on his comments in a view to compromise. After considerable deliberation we both decided that if they're not interested in the preservation of the trees then we would certainly have a better view from the corner of the garden rather than the middle.
I also have made a decision (I must be growing up all of a sudden) that I need to put my energy into getting the house built rather than getting frustrated and angry with planners..... which isn't to say we're going to build a house we don't want.
We had a meeting last Thursday with Tom the architect and he made the comment that our original house design might be called what his old lecturer would have called a 'sweat house'. In other words we thought about the design so much you could tell that something wasn't quite right with the final design. I must admit that I agree and we can use this opportunity to do something better.
We bounced around lots of ideas but we know the dimensions of each room so that's a good start. The key to the design is to minimise on the amount of hall and landing space as it's effectively dead space or transitory space. I think it will be relatively easy to design an upside down house, in an L shape with better views and less visual impact but still a house. It's never going to be ultra modern so we're try with a design of softened aspects (you're have to wait and see what I mean).
I think this all means that you should not be surprised if we don't start building until next year. It may be earlier but this is a long project as you might have gathered!
a) Not build near the wall boundary
b) Single storey with possibly a limited second storey element
c) Position the house towards the telephone exchange rather than in the centre of the garden
d) Either make the look more modern or very traditional which would have to be clad in stone
So in the other words he doesn't like our house design at all!
So we can apparently do two things
1) either get loads of written testimonials from surrounding residents or
2) start again or at least take on his comments in a view to compromise. After considerable deliberation we both decided that if they're not interested in the preservation of the trees then we would certainly have a better view from the corner of the garden rather than the middle.
I also have made a decision (I must be growing up all of a sudden) that I need to put my energy into getting the house built rather than getting frustrated and angry with planners..... which isn't to say we're going to build a house we don't want.
We had a meeting last Thursday with Tom the architect and he made the comment that our original house design might be called what his old lecturer would have called a 'sweat house'. In other words we thought about the design so much you could tell that something wasn't quite right with the final design. I must admit that I agree and we can use this opportunity to do something better.
We bounced around lots of ideas but we know the dimensions of each room so that's a good start. The key to the design is to minimise on the amount of hall and landing space as it's effectively dead space or transitory space. I think it will be relatively easy to design an upside down house, in an L shape with better views and less visual impact but still a house. It's never going to be ultra modern so we're try with a design of softened aspects (you're have to wait and see what I mean).
I think this all means that you should not be surprised if we don't start building until next year. It may be earlier but this is a long project as you might have gathered!
Monday, 20 December 2010
Bath time!
Ok apologies for the complete lack of posts over the last month but simply put, we're still waiting for response from the planners. They were supposed to reply in writing over a week ago but when Tom contacted them they hadn't even started! Oh give them a break it must be the weather ....... or Christmas .... or just the wrong type of snow.
However we have progressed a little by amazingly choosing all of our bathroom fixings (?). Go into one shop that has a large sale, take one pleasant attentive sales person and then let Matt, Flora and occasionally Isla climb all over your demonstration pieces. I thought it was going to be headache (remembering our time in John Lewis trying to decide wedding gift list) but it was great. Look at three similar taps then look at the price, choose the one that has a large discount, simple!
Apart from that we are in limbo land until we get some feed back from the planning / conservation people. The idea is still to hopefully have an oak framed load bearing house and envelop it in hempcrete. Have a look at this video to see what I mean .... we may be calling on you for some help.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcctSvVFheA&feature=related
We've been around some houses looking at the possibility of using aluminum coated window frames as we might be in danger of having too much wood and this also means very low maintenance for many years to come.
We did have a aspiration that the planning application would firstly be in by September then it slipped to December so now that will be 2011.
Merry Christmas everyone!
However we have progressed a little by amazingly choosing all of our bathroom fixings (?). Go into one shop that has a large sale, take one pleasant attentive sales person and then let Matt, Flora and occasionally Isla climb all over your demonstration pieces. I thought it was going to be headache (remembering our time in John Lewis trying to decide wedding gift list) but it was great. Look at three similar taps then look at the price, choose the one that has a large discount, simple!
Apart from that we are in limbo land until we get some feed back from the planning / conservation people. The idea is still to hopefully have an oak framed load bearing house and envelop it in hempcrete. Have a look at this video to see what I mean .... we may be calling on you for some help.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcctSvVFheA&feature=related
We've been around some houses looking at the possibility of using aluminum coated window frames as we might be in danger of having too much wood and this also means very low maintenance for many years to come.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Sunday, 28 November 2010
A good game of poker
When Tom the architect begins his email about the recent planning meeting last week with "Well, I wish I was in a position to say that they were in full support of the scheme.... They played a good game of poker and revealed very little."
My life! I thought just maybe that they might actually be able to point us in the right direction or be vaguely helpful rather than giving nothing away or was I asking too much?
These were the points from Tom: -
I which point I sent a despairing email back saying something like "bugger, why can't the county council cuts happen any faster and should we just rip up current design?" See below. Luckily Tom and Flora is an amazing stroke of positive behaviour both said don't worry it's not that bad rather just the first round or put it another way it's not considered a sprint more of a marathon .... so lets just wait. Saying that Flora thinks we're going to start the build in 2012 whereas I'm more optimistic and suggest late summer 2011.
This is not the final design but it is getting there.
We also went to the Home and Renovating Show on Saturday which was pretty interesting (also met Tom the architect) but nothing spectacular. Masses of window, solar panel, oak frame builders companies mixed into the pot a couple of ventilation stands - Mechanical Ventilation Heat Units which we are now pretty certain is a good thing especially as it costs about £60 per year to run and ensures you don't have condensation in the house. Our current rental cottage was pretty good when we moved in but now it all seems like a howling gale is blowing through the small hallway right into the living area. I know it's pretty cold outside -2 so this is spurring me into action giving me a good feeling that someday we're be in a warm house that takes a small amount of energy to keep it a pleasant temperature. What is a pleasant temperature?
My life! I thought just maybe that they might actually be able to point us in the right direction or be vaguely helpful rather than giving nothing away or was I asking too much?
These were the points from Tom: -
Position
- They still have strong concerns about the north boundary wall site.
- They understood our argument about all the houses on Higher Backway being road fronted – but his argument was local to the gap between Provender Mill and Tolbury House.
- They would prefer to see the house positioned closer to the telephone exchange.
- They understood the reason for the desired position and the reason for maximising the garden and south amenity.
Design
- They thought the design looked compromised.
- They felt the house needed to be either reflective of contemporary design and materials, or reflective of period housing stock found in the vicinity. I hate to say it but they were swaying more for the former.
- If we were to go down the period housing route, they would want to see the majority of the house in stone.
- They did not dislike the house behind the wall features, but felt the wall would become too high and dominate for the street scene.
Use
- They mentioned that the only reason why they are considering this application is because of the certificate of lawfulness on the previous application, otherwise they feel it would not be fit for development.
- They are not opposed to a four bed house in this location.
Access
- They will be consulting highways to see whether it is feasible to have vehicular access as we have positioned.
- It might be worth appointing a highways consultant to fight our cause – I’ll get a quotation for you.
I which point I sent a despairing email back saying something like "bugger, why can't the county council cuts happen any faster and should we just rip up current design?" See below. Luckily Tom and Flora is an amazing stroke of positive behaviour both said don't worry it's not that bad rather just the first round or put it another way it's not considered a sprint more of a marathon .... so lets just wait. Saying that Flora thinks we're going to start the build in 2012 whereas I'm more optimistic and suggest late summer 2011.
We also went to the Home and Renovating Show on Saturday which was pretty interesting (also met Tom the architect) but nothing spectacular. Masses of window, solar panel, oak frame builders companies mixed into the pot a couple of ventilation stands - Mechanical Ventilation Heat Units which we are now pretty certain is a good thing especially as it costs about £60 per year to run and ensures you don't have condensation in the house. Our current rental cottage was pretty good when we moved in but now it all seems like a howling gale is blowing through the small hallway right into the living area. I know it's pretty cold outside -2 so this is spurring me into action giving me a good feeling that someday we're be in a warm house that takes a small amount of energy to keep it a pleasant temperature. What is a pleasant temperature?
Tuesday, 23 November 2010
Planning meeting tomorrow, should we lose sleep?
Having phoned Tom the architect three times in the space of 7 days without an answer I really want to know when or if a planning meeting had been set up, I finally received an text. "I'm on holiday this week but have set up a meeting for Wednesday 24th will go it alone for this one" or words to this effect. I keep reassuring Flora that Tom is the professional and we're paying him to design our house and get it through planning. So why do we feel we would like to go in person and fight (sorry) explain our thoughts in a calm and rational manner? I think I might have just answered my own question!
We are both funding the lack of progress frustrating, but to keep us busy we met up with Tom the expert wall man. Just to make it simple there are now three Tom's potentially involved in the Ropewalk house build. Tom the architect, Tom the oak frame builder and now Tom the wall mason. He was recommended by a neighbour who had to have some work done to her wall also in the conservation area and luckily used Tom to not only build the wall but far more importantly deal with our local conservation officer! Last Friday we met up and talked walls which was pretty interesting. I liked the positive in the manner of how he went around carefully explaining what could be acceptable and how we might appease the powers that be at the same time. It's my finger in the air estimate that the walls will be around £15k (hopefully less) but I may be completely barking mad (it's not the first time) but at least we will know. Some of our ideas may just have to wait a while after the house is finally complete, the only trouble is that we could just get used to having that wall up to the height or what we might have to wait for.
So he hasn't said but I get the feeling that Tom the architect has put all drawings on hold until this meeting tomorrow. It may mean that we can't have a second storey or something of this nature (Tom also designed this house in a conservation area for a disabled client). I've got to say that this sort of curved sedum roof house appeals with the slight niggle that I don't completely trust the warranty life span of the roof membrane.
We are both funding the lack of progress frustrating, but to keep us busy we met up with Tom the expert wall man. Just to make it simple there are now three Tom's potentially involved in the Ropewalk house build. Tom the architect, Tom the oak frame builder and now Tom the wall mason. He was recommended by a neighbour who had to have some work done to her wall also in the conservation area and luckily used Tom to not only build the wall but far more importantly deal with our local conservation officer! Last Friday we met up and talked walls which was pretty interesting. I liked the positive in the manner of how he went around carefully explaining what could be acceptable and how we might appease the powers that be at the same time. It's my finger in the air estimate that the walls will be around £15k (hopefully less) but I may be completely barking mad (it's not the first time) but at least we will know. Some of our ideas may just have to wait a while after the house is finally complete, the only trouble is that we could just get used to having that wall up to the height or what we might have to wait for.
So he hasn't said but I get the feeling that Tom the architect has put all drawings on hold until this meeting tomorrow. It may mean that we can't have a second storey or something of this nature (Tom also designed this house in a conservation area for a disabled client). I've got to say that this sort of curved sedum roof house appeals with the slight niggle that I don't completely trust the warranty life span of the roof membrane.
Monday, 15 November 2010
Is the paint dry?
No we haven't suddenly built our house in the last couple of weeks. In fact I think we've hit the doldrums of the house build waiting for the planning officer to actually be bothered to set up a meeting sometime in the next decade. I may be sounding cynical, ok I am just sounding cynical there is no doubt about it. We're in limbo not knowing if our carefully and painstakingly detailed plans are going to be dismissed by this person so we've come up with a strategy. Get everyone you know in the local area to write that they like our general building concept. It makes us feel that we are doing something useful or correctly speaking Flora has put in at least 95% of the energy doing this but it may prove useful in the planning stage. So the whole few weeks have in my view been a little like watching paint dry.
I should be concentrating on monitoring the plumbing markets for possible discounted baths but I just can't get fired up when I don't know when we might just be able to start in 2011 or could it be 2012!
I should be concentrating on monitoring the plumbing markets for possible discounted baths but I just can't get fired up when I don't know when we might just be able to start in 2011 or could it be 2012!
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