We’ve got planning permission! With no need to appeal, no conditions to speak of, none of the stuff which I’d convinced myself would go wrong. Whoop!

It’s been a while, I know. In fact it’s been so long since we started this process that Nadim, our architect, has relocated to London (rumours that this was to escape a particularly demanding client in the Canton area are unsubstantiated). I’m currently working on persuading him to take on the next stage all the way from London – I mean that’s gotta be an easy sell, right? Reconfiguring swanky city penthouse pads with mahoosive budgets  has got to be no fun AT ALL compared with working with an indecisive and neurotic forty something, on a rundown mid-terrace, with a heathy dose of First Great Western thrown in for good measure?

Anyways, I’m hoping that the time we have spent talking about what we want from the project and changing our minds about stuff and generally procrastinating over every little detail will stand us in good stead now we’re actually getting towards the building. Since we’ve discussed every single permutation of what’s possible, hopefully we can get right on without any last minute changes *stares ferociously at the Husband*

To recap, we are putting a bedroom and en suite in the loft, so we can move up there and the kids can then have a room each; we are carving a tiny separate study space out of what is now the main bedroom; and downstairs we are knocking down two walls and extending out into the side return, to give us a big family area as well as a separate living room (for grownups, ha!) instead of the four separate rooms we have at the moment.

It’s a pretty big project, and plan A was that we would move out for six months and get it all done at once, as well as some jobs that have needed doing for a while – resanding the floors, replacing some windows, sorting out the living room ceiling…I had this dream that I could pop back daily and project manage everything, and then we could move back in to a completely finished new house, and never have to lift a finger on dastardly decorating EVER AGAIN.

Alas for reality – basically, we need the extra bedroom much sooner than we would have it if we were to wait until we’d saved up enough to get everything done at once. So it’s Plan B – loft conversion and study asap, hopefully before my two younger kids do some real damage to each other, and that way we’ll at least have an extra room to live in upstairs when we get the really stressful work done in a year or two. And on the bright side, it gives me a bit longer to plan the layout of my new kitchen….

So. Next up – technical drawings and building control; picking a builder; thinking about the look of the new rooms (obviously BOHO CHIC, baby) and entering every competition under the sun that involves possibly winning furniture, bathroom kit, new boilers – or cold hard cash for that matter, I’m not fussy!

More soon…

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