Diary of a Madman (or how to build a house extension - without necessarily staying sane)

These are some of the phrases that I have been confronted with over the years, generally when I'm drenched in sweat and brick dust, holding up a particularly heavy piece of timber which is not co-operating in finding its final resting place. (Ok, the last one has nothing to do with building but for the record - no). One is usually deserted by a sense of humour in those situations, however more often than not, being a nice person, I find myself shrugging shoulders and brushing it off, whilst desperately searching for the acro-prop that was there just a minute ago but has now become invisible....

So, with a background of  doing jobs for friends and family and garnering a reputation for being handy, you would think taking on my own house extension would be a piece of cake ? Well, as we say up here, "Dream on, pal".

Before I go any further, a disclaimer. I am not a property developing expert. What follows is my account of how I approached things and my experiences in doing so, nothing more.
Small print over... off we go....

Having worked for the last nineteen years as a surveyor, (my "proper" job), as you would expect, I have seen countless building projects. I have also seen countless go pear-shaped for many and varied reasons. They don't all turn out like Grand Designs. In fact precious few do. I like to call it, "The Law of Unrealistic Expectation." ;

Lack of imagination/style/knowledge/budget divided by what you saw on telly/in magazines equals hideous carbuncle.
 
Therefore, it was with no lack of trepidation that I decided to embark on my own "Grand Design", fuelled, not by glossy magazines or a Trump-esque desire for property megalomania but rather by a genuine need for space and privacy and no small amount of personal satisfaction. Does anyone remember that? Ok, most of the under thirty-five's won't but for the rest of us, we are constantly told that such simple desires are unfashionable and almost unattainable. Property is solely for money-making. Well I, being Capricorn and therefore stubborn, beg to differ. Yes, financial considerations are important but they are not the be-all and end-all. If the current downturn has taught the speculators anything, I would hope it would be that the value of investments can go down as well as up.

There is a great sense of achievement beyond financial gain to be found in creating something out of bricks and mortar, (or steel and glass if you're a minimalist). A sense that doesn't rely on exploiting other's misery. (If you think misery is too strong a word, have a chat to someone who missed out on their dream home for the sake of a few thousand, sometimes even a few hundred pounds). Without going all "Oprah" on you, maybe if we all took a moment to consider our property as a home rather than a stopping off point to becoming the next Alan Sugar, we might all be just a little happier....and a little more satisfied with our lot?

Anyway, I will put away the soapbox and get back to the building.

The first and most difficult step, I thought, was to obtain Planning Permission.
So, having established the need for extra space and checked with my solicitor and the original developer of my site that there were no restrictions on further development, in December 2007, I strode purposefully into ;

Phase 1 – Design

Where do you start? Being the practical sort, I started with how big I could go. I measured my plot. Being a semi-detached villa in a new development, I do not have Wembley for a garden. However, I originally purchased wisely after studying the site in depth and ended up with the largest plot for my house type, in the development. Good start. The Planning rules in Scotland are different from England and Wales. You can generally build on upto 30% of the total plot area. The upshot of this was I could go up to a footprint of 29.94m2 for my proposed extension. This opened up a list of questions ;

• Single Storey?
• One storey plus attic?
• Two storey?
• One storey plus basement?
• Basement only?
• Wrap-around?

These in turn gave rise to new questions ;

• Window position?
• Overlooking?
• Overshadowing?
• Architectural style?
• Orientation?
• Construction?

Which in turn gave rise to yet more questions;

• Timber or UPVC?
• Top hung or tilt and turn?
• Facing brick or roughcast?
• Pickle or Gherkin?
• French Fancy or Viennese Whirl?

Ok the last two didn’t come up but I am now strangely peckish…..

Anyway, after six months of long nights hunched over a steaming drawing board and eighteen (!) different designs, I emerged with the final solution.
I came up with a two storey, wrap-around design, inspired by my own imagination, other houses in the development and the actual physical restrictions of the site. Not to mention, budget.

I paid careful attention to seemingly small details, such as vertical emphasis of glazing, facing brick features to match the existing house and reflecting timber gable details of other houses in my window design. This attention to detail was to become more influential than even I thought.