Make better use of the space at the rear of the house. On the side yard there is much wasted space and in the back, where there used to be a pond, the same exists.
So:
- Move the right hand wall out to the property boundary
- Move the back wall out by 3 meters
- remove the interior shower room and kitchen
- rebuild a new shower room and kitchen
- lower the garden area so it's at the same level
This is the current layout. Note the wasted space in the side yard and around the garden
This is the planned change. The design makes use of all the dead space giving much more room inside the house, a bigger terrace area and even more grass in the garden. From this you can see better the idea of the terrace being on the same level as the kitchen/dining area and how the bi-fold doors would work opening onto the terrace.
The end result should be absolutely great!
If you followed the saga of my loft extension blog (here) you'd be forgiven for expressing shock that I've even contemplated commissioning a further, far more complex piece of building work. We did spend some months looking for another house, sure that we would rather move but it was the act of showing people round the house and proudly explaining how much had been done in just the way we want it that showed us that we do like where we are. You could say I did such a good job of sales that I sold it to myself.
The big question is how am I going to tackle it and avoid the similar levels of disappointment as before? Well, in a single word, "experience". Since living here I've had the bathroom done twice, kitchen done twice, major works to a spare room and a loft extension, with the latter giving me a fair idea of the more unpleasant side of building. Of those that are unprofessional and those that are too focussed on profits. I think my eyes are quite open now.
The plans were first drafted in February 2007 and planning permission was granted in June 2007, but we never found a builder that could give us a sensible quote or was prepared to word a contract in a way that was both clear and specific. We nearly went with one builder last year, but didn't as he would not clarify items in the quote, cap items in the quote or confirm that all items were included in the first place, we never found a level of comfort where we knew how much it was going to cost.
From a layman's perspective, you don't know how
foundations are laid, walls are built or lintels are connected, you basically
have an architect draw up plans and want an all risk price to "make it look like
the picture". There are so many complex pieces of building regulations these
days that you simply can't understand all aspects required in a major
construction, and more importantly what's missing from the builder's quote. He
could have quoted for 40 items, but what if they're 43? And he might quote to
dig the foundations down to 1m, but what if the current regs require them to be
1.2m? Without question, a layman cannot validate a detailed quote to a level
they can be sure it is fully inclusive. The only way to tackle this is a single,
fixed price to realise the architects plans.
So after deciding not to have it done and moving, then to not moving and having it done, we waited until January to start our hunt for a builder. I had a list of 6 recommended ones, but an additional was added from a colleague at work who'd had a similar project done and he came recommended. This builder's recommendation from a similar job and his willingness to address all concerns (in writing) and to make the contract as clear as possible (ie. X amount of money to build the plans), we went with him.
This wasn't the lowest quote, and wasn't the highest. We suspected the lower quotes would source their workforce from Wickes' car park first thing every morning, and the highest were bigger companies who had more overheads in terms of office, vehicles, and PAYE staff.
Before you can commence any project on this scale, you need to employ the
services of an architect. We chose a firm who had a fixed menu pricing, were
specialist in home improvements and promised to guide us through the
complexities. We were told there would be two drawings required, the basic
design and sketch and then, only if we wanted to proceed, the full, accurate
plans (of the sketch).
The initial visit was good; we went through what we wanted to achieve, what we needed / what would be nice and the architect created a draft sketch that really worked for us. After thought, we gave the go-ahead to proceed to the next stage, of producing the full plans. However, we were told that before this could be done another piece of work was needed, of a professional survey, involving taking measurements of every corner of every room.
This, at nearly £800, was to be done by a different company and we were told was necessary as the architects measurements (2 hours worth) were not accurate enough (laser measurements) and even though the extension was just for the rear, we needed a survey of every room in the whole house.
Hindsight tells me this is not entirely true as the plans that were prepared (after the survey) was only of the lower level rear of the house and the exterior... ie. using only the measurements the architect himself took in in his 2 hours of measuring.
From memory I think it took 3 weeks to book the company in and a further 3 weeks to draw up those measurements and send the result to myself and the architect to proceed. But at this stage, the architect did proceed and a few weeks later had plans ready for planning permission.
These were submitted and 8 weeks later we were granted planning permission, but with 3 conditions; 1) We can't use the roof as a balcony, 2) the materials must be sympathetic to the area, and 3) the extension cannot change the use of the house. Seems reasonable enough, we had the thumbsup!
So, we source some builders and ask them to come round and quote. Unexpectedly, they all said the same thing - that these are planning permission plans, not building plans and they can't quote from those. As one said "for example, this drawing shows you have 1m foundations, but not what it's made out of... so I could make it out of margarine!". Ah, I see (saw)!
I called the architect to ask him about building plans they were all chasing and he told me they weren't strictly required. Well, it seems the only instance they wouldn't be required is if a builder's quote included creating these plans. After all (as I now know), they are a pre-requisite for the building control. They don't only need these to sign off, they need these before you can start and they'll consider signing off!
Right them, on we go with the next stage, of producing the building plans... but wait! There's another bit - Structural Engineer calculations! This extension will be involving some steelwork and (reassuringly) it's not on to just guess that a steel will be of sufficient strength. An engineer must calculate the steel strength and how they are to be connected, and document the workings. Again, for the building control office, but also for the architect to produce the plans.
Cue up another delay going through 3 structural engineers (seems they're busy people - all agreed to do it, and then didn't) before getting what was needed. Many many months since the first visit, the building plans were now mostly done, but we had numerous errors and were not accepting the drawings. For example, faults that had been fixed on an earlier drawing reappeared on a later one, a whole supporting wall/steel was missing, drainage considerations (need to be moved) disappeared, the soil waste ran through the middle of the new structure with a drain inspection cover in the middle of the kitchen, he forgot his own suggestions, advised an element of construction that simply wouldn't work, got an important element of the building regs wrong and for one drawing I was even sent someone's CV! Version control, quality and attention to detail were certainly not strong points of this architect. As the documents were emailed from his office by different names, I suspected that perhaps the qualified, trained (expensive) architect was not the one actually working on them.
In all, the experience was disappointing. The architect was a nice guy, had some good ideas and was enthusiastic at the start, but it faded away to a mess. They took far longer to produce the document needed than was originally told and with the tribulations of the loft extension episode and approaching winter, we shelved the plans until the appetite returned (or we moved!).
What I've learnt from this is the whole architect / planning process, which is:
- Basic measurement and draft sketch
- Full survey
- Design plans
- Submission to planning office
- Structural Engineer calculations
- Working drawings
- Submission to building control office
The build diary is over here