Pre-Planning Submitted

Pre-Planning Submitted

So, today was the day I finally saw the sketches being submitted to the Council for Pre-Planning. It's a small but important step on the road to find out out if I can build a house.

The sketches have taken a while to develop but at 89 square meters represent a very comfortable house for 1-2 people. The Architects, MosArt, have done a fine job extracting my requirements and with little nudging getting the sketch to where it's at.

The main feature of the site is that the front of the house is just off South at 220 degrees. This means the rear of the house, which is perfect for privacy is a lot darker. The challenge was to increase light here through the use of as many windows and skylights as possible. I've also got a roof at the front suitable for up to 6 solar PV panels. I might also fit some down the back if I'm lucky later.

The key interior design is an open plan living / dining / kitchen area at the rear. With a sliding door to the Garden it represents new living space for me and a chance to break out of my bedroom where I tend to spend most of my time currently!

So, looking forward - there's a few more things to do. Feedback from the planners is of course going to be anxiously awaited but they are very busy currently so we'll see how we do there.

Cost is the other big factor. I plan to engage a Quantity Surveyor and get a handle on costs to determine if this is something I can afford. I can then choose to proceed, proceed but do more of the work myself, or, cancel the build as it's too expensive. I can work with the Architect to reduce cost but at some point you have to call it a day if you're too stretched. There are other ways to get a home after all...!

Once I make a decision on cost I see Planning Permission and going out to Tender as a joined up task as one leads to the other. Finding a good builder and bringing in the project on budget are going to be very important goals.

Well, I wish you well on your projects at whatever stage they are at!

Stage 1 Complete - Up to Pre Planning

Stage 1 Complete - Up to Pre Planning

Well, made it to pre-planning with a good set of sketches finally. The house has increased in size squeezing the back garden a bit but I'm looking at 90 square meters instead of 75. The issue of cost comes into it of course so I'll probably engage a Quantity Surveyor for the first time and see what they come back with. At the very least it will give me a realistic cost to build and if that's over my budget and contingency then it's game over. But if not or if it's close I can keep an eye on costs, do more myself and get this over the line!

I'm just back from a UK Homebuilding & Renovation show in London's Exxcel exhibition hall. That's a big sucker, like multiple RDS's and a food court down the center! Got two appointments with an Architect and Interior Designer and some good common ideas. Talked to a few vendors at their stands and was a bit shocked at some of the prices. A nice open glass sided staircase costs over 25K sterling! Think I'll mark that as a nice to have for now!

There was also a few good talks on various topics, not least was budgeting. Unfortunately the slides aren't available to my knowledge afterwards to it's take photos or notes from items that stick in your head or you're lost. Impressed with the Federation of Master builders in the UK, there is an FMBI of course over here but it appears to have a different focus unfortunately.

There were loads of tips at these talks including several on renovations, interior design with lots of pictures demonstrating ideas and trends. You could spend all day at one of the three talk areas and listen away! 

The size of the exhibition was larger than BiCester, slightly bigger than the Cork Self Build I've been to previously but well worth visiting even if most of them don't cover the ROI. I was surprised to hear that the Mortgage Store does offer a small number of vendors in ROI! 

You always get to play with a few bifolds and lift and slide doors. One thing I picked up on was when a lift & slide door is open, the two overlapping sections are much harder to see through. Not something I'd picked up on before. Solarlux have a nice airtight bifold set of doors, the doors fit into each other and this groove helps with air tightness, still not sure how they would hold up and good installers as ever might be harder to find. 

Nothing on KNX there, some more bespoke entertainment centric automation pieces were demonstrated though. ADT alarms have an app and their controller can do more automation but won't integrate with anyone else's. Typical of most vendors today, they are duplicating intelligence that would be better centralised. This is unlike Cytech's alarm panel for instance which has a KNX interface. 

What else can I add? The more you read and listen, the more you learn. Compared to a year ago I've picked up SO much and while I've not touched a brick or window from my planned house yet it's amazing how much detail goes into designing one. 

One surprise from the weekend in London was both Professionals I had a 15 minute talk with suggested an ideal spot for a wood burning stove, something I'd not considered, being more attracted to heat pumps etc. But as a focal point in the room it made a lot of sense. Also, I've an internal window and saw a great idea to create a protruding box so you can sit down and look into the open plan area from above, which mirrors the rear feature window. Another great idea was to create shelves in the internal studwork. This can be in the Bathroom for showel gel/shampoo and in the Bedroom for a reveal behind the top of the bed. There were great examples shown with it lit up in the Bedroom. 

Anyway, there are lots of things to consider at all stages so enjoy and I hope in another year I'll be on my way to something big and beautiful!