Project House Stage Two - The Plans

October 27, 2016



Hello! I've been meaning to get this post up alll week but in between the calling archaeologists/getting quotes for ground works/going into london/on top of everything else this week has escaped me and it's Thursday already! Ok so, project house round two and our thoughts so far. Hoping to start digging foundations by the first week of December eek!

This is our current house situation:

So far we've: Finished the lounge {aside from moving the log burner}, finished the upstairs bathroom, finished our bedroom, and kind of finished the spare room {more on that to come}. We've also painted the dining room. The current kitchen is too small for the size of the house and is awkward to get outside, using one small door through a small utility area. It's dark and cold. Our dream has always been to create a larger open kitchen with bifold doors out {remember our last kitchen extension?} with a bigger utility area and a new patio to make the most of the garden. We also want to pretty the back of the house up, the current kitchen was put on in the 70s and is rather unsightly.

This photo was taken back in January.


This house was always going to have two stages to the renovations, I think I first talked about it back here. We needed planning permission to extend the kitchen into our dream living space and because it's a listed building, it's taken us 10 months to get approval! We originally wanted to build a two storey extension but the conservation officer said that only one storey would be acceptable for now {because of that bloody window second from left that he doesn't want moved!}. So we amended our plans as the kitchen is really the biggest part in all of this and we wanted to at least get that approved this year. We will build the kitchen extension with foundations deep enough to support a second storey at some point and it will have a flat roof and enough steels so that in the future, whether it's in a year or 5 years we'll build a master bedroom on top of the kitchen extension. It may be a battle. But I said to Ben that we don't even have 1 child yet so 3 bedrooms will last us for a good while longer before we'll need more upstairs space.

So we finished stage 1 to get it habitable and then moved in and actually enjoyed the few weeks we've had living here without anymore building chaos. Until now! Now that our plans are approved, we just need an archaeologist's sign off {it's an area of conservation importance so we need an archaeologist here when digging foundations} and we've been getting quotes for the ground works. Ben and his team will finish the rest once the steel frame and foundations are in. We're hoping works can start the first week of December and be finished around March time by which time the kitchen will be ready yay! By the end of Spring/early summer I'm hoping everything will be done but watch this space.

So here are some of our thoughts for the next stage. We will extend the current kitchen both out and across. This will give us enough space for a large kitchen diner area with room for a sofa and TV, possibly a log burner. It will have bifold glass doors across the whole of the back of it that will open out onto the garden and a new patio area. We want to make it as light and bright as possible as it's north facing so will have skylights on both sides of the roof as well as the doors to bring in extra light. We'll redecorate the current WC and it will stay in the same place. We'll extend and go out for a new utility room so that we'll have an area for a washing machine and tumble dryer, a separate fridge, sink and extra dishwasher. It will have a door to access from the side of the house so we can come in with muddy boots etc.

As well as the kitchen we also want to finish the rest of the house. We need to decide what to do with the large upstairs bedroom, it's almost too big as one bedroom and has 3 windows so we may create another bathroom in there but can't decide if it should be en-suite or accessed as a family bathroom from the hall. This also depends if we'll get permission eventually to extend upstairs. We also want to finish the dining room -  I'd love to have it finished already but it's currently full up with boxes and sofas and tables for the kitchen extension. We always thought we'd have a dining room in that room but we've realised that we'll never actually use a formal dining room once we've got the new kitchen so I'm thinking now it will become a snug or formal study? We have far too much space for just us two right now but eventually if there are children running around then I'm sure we'll need all the space we can get. This was always bought as a longterm family forever home. In addition to the internal works we need to knock down and rebuild the garage at the side of the house, create the new patio area and landscaping in the garden as well as building a summerhouse and greenhouse. I guess you could say that we don't do things by halves!




I wanted to include some inspiration photos on here for what we're planning but I also kind of want to keep it under wraps for a while! And I'll probably change my mind again too haha. I've got a secret Pinterest board with ideas for it and can't wait to show you it coming together over the next few months. Ben's uncle is making our kitchen for us again up in Scotland and I think we've decided on colours, sink and taps for it so far. We've narrowed down our flooring choices to two options and now need to think about lighting. There are SO many decisions to make and it's rather daunting, especially knowing that we'll be here for the long term and trying to make decisions that will be family friendly for the future too. It's also hard with current trends whilst wanting to make sure that it's classic and has longevity too. We know we've got a few months of building work to come but we're hoping we can keep our current kitchen for most of it before knocking through to minimise disruption. And luckily our parents are only round the corner. But also no pain, no gain right. I'm just dreaming of the end result next summer and the fact we've actually got permission after all the uncertainty with the dreaded planning department this year.

This post has been rather rambled and I'm sorry if half of it doesn't make much sense! But watch this space. I can't wait to get started!!

R <3 xx 

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2 comments

  1. I love that you know what you are doing (well mostly) . We are just in planning stages of sorting a new kitchen but not sure which way to go. Will enjoy very much seeing your progress, good luck !

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  2. So exciting!! What program would you recommend for drawing out floor plans?

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