Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them

Hello,

So, again it's been a little while.

What has been going on. Well we went on holiday for a week in Northumberland in a cottage... which was ace. views of the see and great weather. loved it. One day I'm sure we'll live there.

Hannah is doing final year and very busy working part time and i spend my days reading about conservation and calling Kirklees planning :)

So how is the house i hear you scream. Well we are starting to get excited as balls are starting to roll.

The application we put in for double glazing was refused. it just aint happening. I pushed and pushed and eventually got the conservation officers out to the property to have a good old natter. The main points i took from this are

Conservation officers don't have horns
Double Glazing ain't happening
Conservation is actually fun, interesting and rewarding.

With this new information we have put together a new application for the external work (the whole lot was denied due to the windows) which includes rerendering, single glaze windows, french drain and guttering. Same old, but should get passed through nice and easy... fingers crossed.

And the other application we have put together is for internal work, this includes the 'big project' we have previously referred to. This includes

Replastering with lime the kitchen, living room, landing and bedroom
Replastering ceilings
Moving bedroom door
Removing ceilings
Cleaning Beams
Opening firepalce
Creating a pantry

Think that is about it.

You can see the documents if you click <here>

I have sent these to conservation so they can offer advice before we put the real app in. This should speed things up.

I'm not hopefull of some of the work, like removing the ceiling on the landing, but if you don't ask you don't get.

Decisions come down to whether the proposed work damages or removes the original fabric of the building. Removing the slath and plaster ceiling would be counted as damaging the the fabric so... we'll see...

anyway, lunch time up. meeting calls.

I'll keep you posted.

hugs and kisses

The great outdoors

MMmmm sleepy and achey. I've had a day in the garden today. It was an over grown jungle of spikey plants and creeper weeds. So I went at it with some help from the wife. We have now stripped out the garden of plants.

It looks a little bare at the moment, apart from Marsha the Rabbit's little house in the middle.

We have big ideas for our small patch of garden. I think i might have a bash at growing some leaks next year and maybe some other vegetables. We also fancy doing a mini grand designs on it with lights and gravel etc... but there is little point as i image various rooms may end up in the garden when we rip out the inside of the house next year... so for now i think we'll stick some grass seed down and get a little mower to keep it trim. I'd like one of those push ones, mainly for the memories of cutting the grass at the family caravan as a wee Ben but we'll see what freecycle throws up.

Right, i stink. Going to get a shower and have soom tea before tuning into the return of Match of the Day.

Toodle Pip
Toon Army.

A little more conversation a little less action please?

So it's been a while. I've had a week in France with the wife and her family which was very pleasurable and in my super organisation managed to get a response to the planning restrictions sent off to the office.

I rang them today (2 weeks later) to find nothing has happened with it yet. But... to be fair the lady handling it has been on holiday. Anyway... In a week i should know if we can have double glazed windows or not. Hurrah. We'll wait and see.

I have booked a man to do the guttering. I'm going halfies with Phil the neighbour for getting both houses done at same time. Pops and I had a bash at fixing our wooden guttering last summer, however, we got the angle wrong which means all the water pours into Phils gutter and overflows just above his door where in anything heavier than light drizzle, a spectacular water fall can be observed. i thought it was mildly entertaining... I'm not convinced Phil sees it the same way. Come September 19th and all should be well.

As promised a little while ago... here are some pics of our bathroom. Still not the latest as these don't have the bath panel on, but should give you an idea.

toodle pip.

Slow Progress... Same old then!

So my time estimations can occasionally be off. Often I'll say I'll leave work at 4, when in fact it's closer to half four by the time I've done the last check of emails and finished my brew.

I had estimated 4 weeks to finish the bathroom. 14 months later and it's in a reasonably finished state.

I had estimated new windows in July, new render in August. My get out clause is the absence of any year attached to these months. So I guess to be on target I actually have the rest of my life... which is a good job as writing a proposal to get past listed buildings department is a lengthy process.

Windows will definitely happen before the winter months. The render however... the conditions need to be right for it to 'work'... and those conditions aren't typically associated with Huddersfield winters (or summers, springs or autumns when i come to think about it!). Maybe a patch up job in the Autumn to stop any rivers running through like winter 07/08 and then a full re-render in the spring could be an option...

But we'll see. It would be nice to have it done soon... as always...

Here is some interesting stuff on lime rendering if you would like to read more...

Back and front of our project home

Planning Approved...Kind of

so today we got our planning granted for the next project....Kind of...

We can have our new windows... but they have to be single glazed (WHAT??!! who uses single glazed windows??) and Painted (WHAT??!! Why painted nice wooden windows, rubbish!). Perhaps over reacting a little as further written requests could allow us to install double glazing... but the sense in it all has seemed to have dissipated surprisingly early in proceedings.

I have however learnt about French Drains... like a French Kiss, only quite a lot different. More about this in the future I'm sure.

Anyway, for those interested here is what the planning consent said...

In accordance with the plan(s) and applications submitted to the Council on

30 Apr 2008, subject to the condition(s) specified hereunder:-

1. The development shall be begun not later than the expiration of three years beginning with the date on which permission is granted.

2. The development hereby permitted shall be carried out in complete accordance with the approved plans and specifications except as may be required by other conditions.

3. All windows shall be timber fixed or side hung casements. Mouldings and timber sections shall be of a traditional design and profile. Details shall be agreed in writing by the Local Planning Authority before development commences.

4. All windows shall be single glazed unless otherwise agreed in writing by the Local Planning Authority.

5. The render shall harmonise with local natural stone, the mix, finish and colour shall be agreed in writing by the Local Planning Authority before development commences. A method statement for the removal of the existing render will also be required prior to development commencing.

6. All external joinery shall have a painted finish.

7. The rear door shall be of a timber vertical boarded construction. Details to be agreed in writing by the Local Planning Authority before development commences.

8. Notwithstanding the submitted drawings and specifications, the removal of the stone step is not approved. A method and details of creating a French drain without the need to remove the stone step shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the Local Planning Authority before development commences.

So there it is. This being our first planning consent thingy, I am slightly suprised at the specifics they request. Wait until the big project is revealed in Autumn 2008! Lots of nit picking there I am sure.

The thing that annoys me most about this 'successful' planning approval is the fact it is going to take still longer before I can contact the joiner, to make the windows. What was meant to be a summer project I can quickly see stretching out to October/November. We certainly have a rush on to get the Lime rendering on the walls before cold wet weather hits though, as lime render won't cure correctly if conditions are too damp... it simply doesn't dry! Not good when facing a Huddersfield Winter. Another lesson learnt. Get your finger out very early when it comes to listed building consent.

So next step is to write back to the kind folk of Kirklees planning with an action plan for render removal, window glazing and french drains....

The story so far

A Shakespearean tragedy? Hope Not.

So... on the 1st May 2007 we (me and Mrs wise man who built his house on solid ground) got the keys to our first house... a 400 year old grade 2 listed cottage in Huddersfield... which needs a lot of work.

So work commenced on the first day by ripping out the Bathroom including ceilings walls and floors and starting again. Much help from Pops Ward and Pops Evans and notable thanks to Si G for a plumbing masterclass meant by the time we moved in 4 weeks later we had a bath and a toilet... and not much else.

Any hoo... over the year we plodded away with notable landmarks along the way...The day the sink was installed, a tiled floor, an installed radiator, a shower (a special day) and 9 month sinto the project a bathroom door!

Any hoo. a year and almost 2 months on the bathroom is as good as done. Just need to finish a patch of grouting and clean up some mess. Hurrahh. Just got to motivate myself. I feel the lack of time pressure to get the project finished was not a good thing!

So here we are today. readying ourselves to start the next project... although with the pitter patter of small feet in the house things could get interesting! By that I mean we are taking in a lodger who is quite wee in her pint size proportions. Miss Cole... welcome to the adventure...

Oh... and did I mention I had never done a spot of DIY before buying this house...

is that water I can hear dripping...

Here are some pics of the bathroom in it's destruction phase. I'll post some finished pictures soon