Planning Ahead

We have finally decided to keep our two semi-detached properties as two separate buildings (instead of creating one large home), with the aim of selling one at the end of the build. Now the decision has been made, we’re moving forward with our plans to extend both houses.

We actually find the design process one of the most enjoyable parts of the build. Sometimes our ideas clash, which inevitably leads to one of us losing out, but it’s about finding what works best for the project overall.

An impromptu conversation with a local estate agent led us to our designer, Mark.

He’s actually a stonemason by trade and coincidentally supplies the same decorative stone that we will need for our project. He also happens to be a CAD software whizz, with the ability to produce architectural drawings at a competitive price (saving us around £1,000).

Mark has a vast knowledge of the planning process, having worked on many largescale stone-built homes previously. We anticipated that the biggest planning hurdle would be the size of the extensions — a 60% increase in the size of the overall property isn’t a small ask. But we decided that anything less than this wouldn’t be effective enough for what we wanted to achieve. In particular, for our own home we wanted a generously proportioned fourbed family home, with family bathroom and master en suite with dressing room.

We made a decision that if we weren’t granted the planning permission, we’d revert to Plan B — knocking the two cottages into one to create a large five-bed home.

As such, we’d only require funding for the renovation works if we were to default to Plan B — which we anticipated costing approximately 50% less than Plan A. With this in mind, we held off applying for funds until a planning decision was made, as we didn’t want to be borrowing double what we needed. We knew this could potentially delay us further down the line, but it’s more important to us to be sensible with money than to get carried away with completion dates.

Of course, size wasn’t the only planning decision to make: build materials, the overall look of the building, including what doors and windows we should use, and just how open plan we should

go on the ground floor, were just a few of the other big decisions to make.

Our plans included extensions built in locally sourced iron stone and reclaimed roof slates to match the existing house. We hoped this scheme would provide the least visual impact on the property and the surrounding landscape — important considerations to planning officers for buildings in ‘open countryside’.

We decided to make the kitchen/dining/living area open plan along the rear of our house, and wanted to install bifold doors in each area to maximise the light and frame the views, as well as having the extra benefit of being able to access the garden from any of those spaces.

Unfortunately, when we calculated the heat performance ratio, the amount of glazing in the building wasn’t going to pass the Building Regu-

lations’ requirements for thermal heat loss, which meant scrapping some of the bifolds in exchange for French doors. This ‘accidental’ compromise, I believe, will actually improve the overall look of the building and is something we hadn’t considered until there was a reason to.

We’re still deciding the final overall look of the interior. We need to choose whether to stay true to the date stone of 1937 and incorporate features from that era such as parquet flooring and keep the original fireplaces, or embrace the farm cottage heritage of the building. However, we know we will install new hardwood sash windows throughout.

But for now, we’ve submitted our plans — and all we can do is wait.