Who are we?
I'm Gem and my hubby is TCM (which stands for This Charming Man) and our two children Katie (6) and Pip (20 months). We have two gorgeous Maine Coon cats called Leo and Willow. We live in Hampshire in a quite spacious 1950's bungalow set on a third of an acre. We've never built anything bigger than a patio so this will be our first build. TCM has been dreaming of this moment for over 10 years. I'm excited and terrified in equal measures. Terrified because I'm in unchartered waters for me and excited because, if it all comes off, we will have the most amazing home.
What is the project?
When we bought our bungalow 10 years ago it was already converted to a chalet bungalow but only had Velux windows upstairs. The bungalow has been subjected to a lot of bodging by the previous owner so we are pretty much gutting it all and starting again. We call the bungalow "the house that Bodge built".
The aim of this project is to complete the conversion of our 4 bed converted bungalow by fitting two beautiful flat triangular windows in the upstairs of the bungalow, front and back, hopefully avoiding a cyclops result. We are also building a 6 metre, two storey extension that will wrap around the side of the bungalow. This will bring us a new open plan kitchen with lounge/diner (and built in fish tank!....to keep the baby happy) overlooking the very large garden with an added healing room for my Reiki practice. We will also gain an additional bedroom upstairs which will mean the bungalow will have 5/6 bedrooms. We will move our bedroom to the back of the house enjoying a more spacious bedroom with an en-suite and the children will both have a good sized double bedroom each plus a shared family bathroom. The fourth bedroom upstairs will double as dressing room and a guest bedroom for when other children stay overnight. We're going to re-tile the roof, fit a new kitchen and bathrooms upstairs and downstairs. We're going to remove an internal wall and move the stairs. There are three walls in the property that will remain untouched, the rest will either be moved or re-sited. As well as my healing room, one of the things I wanted most was a utility room with lots and lots of storage space. I'm as excited about my utility room as I am about my healing room.
That's quite a lot to be getting on with especially if you consider that the origins of this project were first to simply redesign upstairs. This then widened to a single story extension out the back and side but, when it appeared the roof would be too complex, expanded further to become a two storey extension.
We have a budget of £150K for everything including finishing. The piling for the foundations will eat up at least £30k of that budget. I will admit that we do not, as yet, have a quote from our builder (mostly due to the pending building regs) and will be starting the project really on a wing and a prayer. We trust and like our builder though and he is fully conversant with our budget. We know that he will bring savings wherever he can and he is as excited about the project as we are. I'm sure Sarah Beany would shake me until my teeth rattled if she read this paragraph!
At the moment our bungalow looks like a typical 1950's bungalow from the front and a Swiss chalet from the back. Our aim is to give the property an identity; to help it decide what it now is and bring the front and back of the property together into one building. The large room at the back of the bungalow will have large bi-fold doors that will invite the garden into the house. We're keeping the design very simple though. We wanted to have a contemporary feel to the bungalow and to steer away from the dormer windows that are prevalent our neighbourhood.
What's the story so far?
We've traversed the complexities of our local Planning Department with the help of our Architect and Builder. Planning permission has been given and we are currently awaiting building regs to start work, hopefully the week after next. The design of the build has involved our builder from the start. It was his drawing in Sketch-up that brought it all to life for us. Our architect isn't overly keen on the design, although his wife is! I've kindly pointed out to him that he doesn't have to live in it. The bungalow has recently been coated in scaffolding, which arrived the day we moved out to live in rented accommodation for the duration of the build. The approximate building time is 6-8 months. The building will be unliveable for us with the two children and our two cats so we've escaped to a house about a mile away. Work is due to start in just over a week's time on the front of the bungalow (if our architect ever finishes sorting out the building regs!). Our builder is phoning him daily to push things along.
Oh, and we are the proud owners of 5,000 bricks which we bought on the advice of our builder because the price of bricks seems to be more inflationary than the FTSE 1000. They are going to be delivered next week, now we have permission to cut down the trees in our front garden so we can actually get them on site.
How exciting is that?
This blog will be the record of our build
............and quite possibly the outlet for my stress!
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Oooh I'm going to enjoy this blog. Friends of mine did an extension/building blog and asked loads of questions for readers to give their input - e.g. which shower unit do you like best out of a, b, or c, etc... Good luck with it all.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea. I will definitely be asking for ideas. Thank you for being my first commenter xx
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