The House Projects Thread

[Gavster]

That sucks @Gavster. Puts mine in to perspective.

I just can't believe there doesn't seem to be any sort of proactive screening of requests going in to departments for starters. We've two things in progress just now...

One is in with a commission who have a 3 month lead-time, which has an extra 3 months+ delay due to "covid". After 3 months, I did a quick chaser just to check how things were looking. They said they had no idea, but now they've looked at it, we needed to submit an extra map. Which wasn't listed on their submission guidelines and clearly wasn't checked when it was submitted. So if we hadn't chased, they wouldn't have asked for this until they'd got round to looking at it later this year.

The second one was submitted in February with their guidelines advising a decision by mid-April. Last week, they asked us if we could perhaps flip the house 180 or add lots of windows to the other side because it didn't make for a very "active" view for passing motorists... who will struggle to see it from the single track road as its going to be down a hill at the end of a field which has a stonedyke wall round it. All this was discussed in the supporting documentation, but again, surely there should be some sort of initial review to make sure everything is there when they get a submission and make sure there's no obvious concerns?

That's mind-numbingly slow very unhelpful when we need more housing in the uk

[Rich B]

£550K for a 2 bed!

I've just paid £320K for a 4 bed detached with a decent sized plot!

yep, that's sunningdale for you. I bought it for £250k, did the work over 3 years and sold it for £412k 5 years ago.

[Jobbo]

£550K for a 2 bed!

I've just paid £320K for a 4 bed detached with a decent sized plot!

You know what Levelling Up means? Increasing the prices for house in Yorkshire

[Delphi]

£550K for a 2 bed!

I've just paid £320K for a 4 bed detached with a decent sized plot!

You know what Levelling Up means? Increasing the prices for house in Yorkshire

Hope it does! I won't be moving again!

[Ascender]

It was going to get rejected so we've compromised for the sake of those people who won't be able to see the house from the road and who may get offended by how "inactive" it would look. Time to submit it and see what happens...

Before....



After....

[Mito Man]

This is bizarre, however I’ve had the exact opposite when we were planning a workshop although that only required the less arduous prior notification. The planning officer wanted no windows and for the structure to be more visible rather than hidden from the road - although in that case they were afraid we would secretly convert it into a house…

[Ascender]

This is bizarre, however I’ve had the exact opposite when we were planning a workshop although that only required the less arduous prior notification. The planning officer wanted no windows and for the structure to be more visible rather than hidden from the road - although in that case they were afraid we would secretly convert it into a house…

Yes, its weird isn't it? And with my logical PM hat on, if there's a clear directive for this sort of thing, why not do a quick check when accepting the first version of the plans to make sure there's nothing that's clearly going against current guidelines.

[Jobbo]

Very odd - is that going to get consent now?

Planted a spiky plant on Saturday. Realised it was the first thing I have planted at this house since moving here just over 5 years ago - most of the time I have spent removing the overgrown foliage, entire bushes etc. Quite pleased with how it looks.



It needed to go into the ground since it was in a pot which broke and it was clearly terribly pot-bound. I'd had it since 2009 (inherited when I bought my previous house) so I wanted to give it a decent home. It's also very spiky on the ends of the leaves so it had to be somewhere we wouldn't need to walk past it much.

[Ascender]

Very odd - is that going to get consent now?

Planted a spiky plant on Saturday. Realised it was the first thing I have planted at this house since moving here just over 5 years ago - most of the time I have spent removing the overgrown foliage, entire bushes etc. Quite pleased with how it looks.



It needed to go into the ground since it was in a pot which broke and it was clearly terribly pot-bound. I'd had it since 2009 (inherited when I bought my previous house) so I wanted to give it a decent home. It's also very spiky on the ends of the leaves so it had to be somewhere we wouldn't need to walk past it much.

They're much happier with it, whatever that means! So fingers crossed...

Spiky plant looks good. I like the simple pleasures of stuff like that, very satisfying.

[Mito Man]

Needed a weatherproof storage shed in the woods for when I want to park up the quad bike and trailer for longer periods plus it’s nice to just be able to have a space with a workbench to hang up a few tools. This was the cheapest thing I could find which was a decent size (3mx6m)
https://www.waltons.co.uk/products/wal ... qoQAvD_BwE
It was £1200 a month ago but it’s made in Australia and claims it can stand up to 147kph winds so I thought it can’t be that bad.

I threw together a 2x4 frame for it to sit on and it went together pretty well and is pretty strong now that it’s all screwed together


Still needs some trim doing and aligning the doors up properly next time. I’ve bought some bubble wrap reflective insulation for the roof which is recommended for shipping containers to stop condensation then a pair of solar lights and it should be done.

[240PP]

Completed on a top floor flat in a nice part of Cheltenham this morning. Two bed, two bath, shared freehold.

About five hours before the mortgage offer from March expired too!

[DeskJockey]

Looks nice!

[dinny_g]

Yeah looks lovely 240PP...

I'm meeting my mate the garden guy on Saturday to discuss plans. We don't have massive amounts of money so everything I want to do is in keeping with the current style, can be done in stages and can me moved or removed if we want to do more or different.

There'll be::

New Decking area to replace the current one which is falling apart a bit
Pergola with retractable cover over half the deck.
7 raised planters - 3 down each side and one down the back to hopefully withstand mini-dinny's basketball. Made with sleepers to match the existing framing
Patio at the end of the garden framed off with sleepers to make a firepit area
New Path
Outdoor Kitchen area - 2 Stone topped prep areas with a gap to fit the BBQ and a plinth to fit this - https://www.gozney.com/products/dome

We'll price it all up individually and then decide on the order to tackle it. I'll just need materials as my mate will work for beers on the weekend and my brother in law's a joiner who'll work for Babysitting credits...

[drcarlos]

We've a big project coming up on our place. We bought it originally because of location and plot (quiet cul-de-sac backing onto school fields in a corner plot) however the house was not ideal, lacking a second bathroom, somewhere to effectively work at home (this was fixed by creating a home office in one of the garages which served me well for 8 years now) and just being a little small for a 4 bed house for 5 persons.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-price ... 95b4feaf#/

Pics are from when we listed it a year or so ago when we planned to maybe buy somewhere with my mum that had an annex, this never went ahead though and mum is now in a flat closer to me and my brother.

Architect surveyed earlier this week with a view to having a 2 storey extension out the back that includes removal of a partition wall between kitchen and diner creating a large open plan living area, blocking up the doors to current front room to create a private snug living room. Then upstairs creating an ensuite to the master bedroom, shifting family bathroom sideways and enlarging both rear bedrooms. We'll have the large bi-fold doors downstairs, new kitchen and 2 new bathrooms to fit out.
Not finishing there we are adding a small porch and extension to the front side where the current front door is to create a larger entrance hall and a study so I can reclaim the garage to store the TVR in.
While we are there we'll be fitting a solar array (5-7kw depending on how nuts I go) to the roof with battery storage system that can run in island mode and also has a diverter to heat the hot water.
We'll finish off with a re-landscape of both gardens, new patio and a new fence out back.
Expecting plans in a few weeks.

Never made changes to a house, so this is quite extreme for a first build I think.

[Mito Man]

My late night noodle snack has been ruined. I thought a new pope had been elected but it was just my electric hob dying.
Quite worrying as a lot of smoke was coming out from the oven vents and I had no access to it nor could I really do anything as it was an electrical fire.
Just removed the hob which took a lot of prying with a screwdriver as it was stuck down with double sided tape

It’s fecked and I can’t find a replacement electronic module for it online.
It’s also an awkward size being 68cm wide - Gaggenau sell a new version of it for a mere €2500. Luckily there is an AEG one for £550 ish so looks like I’m going to be ringing around tomorrow to see who can send one the fastest.
Also I need lots of air fresheners.

[Jobbo]

Completed on a top floor flat in a nice part of Cheltenham this morning. Two bed, two bath, shared freehold.

About five hours before the mortgage offer from March expired too!

I missed your post - congrats. Did you have to up your budget much compared to the one you previously looked at?

That’s a very much more Cheltenham purchase

[240PP]

Completed on a top floor flat in a nice part of Cheltenham this morning. Two bed, two bath, shared freehold.

About five hours before the mortgage offer from March expired too!

I missed your post - congrats. Did you have to up your budget much compared to the one you previously looked at?

That’s a very much more Cheltenham purchase

Cheers Jobbo. Was that the one with the leasehold garage you looked at? This was actually the same price (even managed to get £6k off the asking).

It’s a great part of Cheltenham. Really quiet but a few minutes walk to Bath Road and about ten to Montpellier.

[Jobbo]

The one you sent me details of was an odd freehold house in a less salubrious area which didn’t have a garage, as far as I remember. This is much nicer. I know approximately where it is from the photo but obvs won’t post that sort of info.

Shame the Daffodil recently closed!

[Jimmy Choo]

The one you sent me details of was an odd freehold house in a less salubrious area which didn’t have a garage, as far as I remember. This is much nicer. I know approximately where it is from the photo but obvs won’t post that sort of info.

Shame the Daffodil recently closed!

I grew up round there and my first job was smashing render off the outside of one of the houses down the street! It's a really nice area (now I'm not there).

[Ascender]

Completed on a top floor flat in a nice part of Cheltenham this morning. Two bed, two bath, shared freehold.

About five hours before the mortgage offer from March expired too!

Lovely!