Madness!' was my first thought....'Bring it on!' was my second!! What an amazing thing to do - how hard could it be.....
...before we knew it we had purchased an option over our plot (see photo) which had previously been used as an allotment but which had (luckily for us) been included in the village development boundary. It did not have PP but the planners had agreed it could be built on - it was just a case of agreeing what!
My uncle Clive and Debs bought us a subscription to HR and I bought myself a folder. clippings and cuttings were kept and eventually we had enough inspiration to instruct an architect and design our new home.
Our wish list went like this.....
minimum 3 double bedrooms (no box rooms)
En Suite
Big family bathroom
Kitchen diner with an island
Inglenook fireplace
Large utility room
New England style
Lots of light and a house we could entertain in
...etc etc etc
The planning process was frustrating and there were delays/objections/amendments....until finally APPROVAL!!!
The next step was to go out to tender to get an estimate of the build cost - our DIY skills extend to hanging pictures (wonky!) so we would need to instruct a builder to provide a turn key service....or go as far as our money would allow us!
We eventually instructed our builder (after some initial eye watering figures...the bi-fold doors and aluminium windows had to go!)
Then to sell our house as we are lucky (!) enough to be living with my parents for the duration of the build, unfortunately we did not anticipate that selling our house would take 11 months and so the build did not start as intended in 2010.
In December last year we decided to wait until Feb 2011 to start the groundworks and hope that the weather would be on our side.....when the snow came we were very glad we made this decision.
And so......Feb 19-20th and the weekend before our build. It was very quiet and serene on the plot that day........
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