When we moved into our house in August 2017 we were adamant we were going to live here for a while before we made any major changes to it. We knew what we wanted to do but wanted to get a feel for the house, how it flowed and how we thought the space might work best for any work we would eventually do. Let’s just say it didn’t take us long to decide that we would like a kitchen extension.
We were very fortunate, or unfortunate as it were, to have a conservatory and a garden room that came off of our kitchen. It was beautiful in the warmer weather when you can actually throw the doors open but out of the first year we lived here, I’d say they’d been closed for 7 months purely because it was just too cold! There was a heating unit in there but it lost heat as quick as it came out, which is such a shame. So we decided to extend.
I haven’t written about the process up until now because we didn’t know if we’d get planning permission, or if we did at what point the build would go ahead, but we finally had permission granted on the 30th May 2018 and now we’re actively in the middle of building the extension. We had hoped to get a good head start on it before Milo arrived, but we only managed to get started a week after he was born – perfect timing, right? We had so hoped we might’ve been further along but we definitely want it finished, liveable and usable before the summer comes. So what’s been going on?
Starting The Planning Application Process
Jamie and I had an idea of what we were looking to do but we didn’t know if it was going to be possible. I spent a fair amount of time on our local planning application website to see what other work had gone on in the area and what problems we may come up against, but I couldn’t see anything that might present as an issue.
In February 2018, we decided to get a local architect in to establish what would be a reasonable option for the extension and to discuss whether what Jamie and I wanted was possible. Our brief was to:
- Remove the conservatory and garden room from the back of the house
- Extend the rear of the house to meet with the rear of the garage
- Join the garage to the house via a small corridor
- Bi-folding doors to the rear garden
- Velux windows in the roof
- A double sided log burner
- Incorporate a downstairs wet room
- New kitchen and appliances
Luckily, after drawing everything up, we were able to tick off every one of those wishes and the architect got to drawing. We received the first set of drawings but in between the architect leaving our house and producing us with a set of plans, Jamie and I had spoken at length about a potential ‘phase 2’ of the extension. We decided we may as well try and submit it all under one planning application, rather than two sets of everything just to do something a couple of years down the line. We decided to add to our brief!
- Convert the garage into a liveable space with two rooms
- Add a cart lodge to the front of the garden with log/bin stores
It took us a few weeks and lots of revisions to finalise the layout. The internal walls are usually ok to move around without planning permission but, given the size of the extension we knew we had to account for the heavy loads some of them would be taking. One of the main reasons for this is because we had opted to have vaulted ceilings.
Once we were happy with everything, the plans were submitted!
Submitting Plans For The Extension
The final drawings and plans were submitted to our local council in early April 2018 with a determination date of 30th May – we would be on holiday when we found out. We had already spoken to one set of neighbours about the extension who said they were happy for us to extend and would not be objecting in any way which was really lovely.
We like to think we were quite reasonable when it came to our extension. We ensured it didn’t overlook anyone and didn’t encroach on anyones’ views which would never have been a problem considering it’s on the back of our house anyway, but you never know what other people might think.
The planning felt like it took forever and I checked every other day to see what correspondence had been had between the council and anyone who may have written in about it. Luckily, there was nothing untoward for us. However, there was one problem that cropped up.
Our architect rang and spoke to us about the cart lodge we were hoping to have in our front garden; despite us having the space and being enclosed, there is (apparently) some kind of building line which we are not allowed to build any permanent structures past. This had not been mentioned to us at any point during the design stage, but it was the only thing stopping us from getting our planning permission agreed.
Jamie and I spoke and decided we could do without the cart lodge considering we have a drive, so we cut it out of the plans completely as the kitchen was far more important to get agreed. I felt a little bit let down because it wouldn’t have been too visible from the road, or to the neighbours and obviously we were thinking of converting the garage (the cart lodge would have replaced this) but at the same time I wasn’t totally sad about losing it.
Finally, on the 30th May 2018, our planning application was agreed! The grey lines on the ground floor layout plan show our existing building; the hashed areas were the conservatory and garden room. The red lines indicate new brickwork/insulation areas. The internal plans have now changed slightly, but more on that in another post!
In the next post I’ll be talking about finding a builder, getting quotes for the extension and the structural engineering work we needed to plan for.