Grade II New Build With Basement

When we tell friends we are building a new house next door to our Grade II thatched cottage, most people think it is really exciting, especially when we say we are building a basement. But I would say starting from scratch, with a blank canvas has been harder than I had anticipated.

It sounds like an amazing opportunity, and it is until you realise that it’s not really blank. At times it felt like we had three different jigsaws on the go with all the pieces muddled up. Remaining flexible has kept us sane.

It’s quite scary to look back at what we thought we wanted to build two years ago, at the beginning of the project, and what we actually are going to build. So many people have the right to have a say in what we build, and we could have ended up with a massive compromise. Holding onto some basic “must haves” has been hard but worth the effort – and arguments!

From the outset I decided it should not be out of the way to build something with normal height rooms, for at 6 feet tall, and despite years of practice, I still hit my head ducking through low doorways in our cottage, and I really would like to see the garden through the upstairs windows without having to lie down. It seems this request is not that normal. We have struggled through plans featuring fancy and “interesting” roof lines, which meant we would only be able to walk upright on the ground floor, and then plans with imposed conservation-approved windows, which were so small they didn’t meet fire regulations. We’ve finally agreed on full drop windows at the back, looking down the garden, with smaller sizes looking out into the village, and each floor is mostly 2.4m high– but only time will tell!

My husband’s idea for a basement has saved the day regarding creating flexible space, which is very dear to our hearts. Restricted by the local planners to a modest footprint, he came up with the idea of going down instead of out, in order to create the extra space we covet. Whilst it’s given the Engineers food for thought, everyone else is absolutely relaxed – the perfect solution, provided we underpin our own cottage first! Excavations begin today.

Before Demolition Aug 09 

End of 1st week 

And then it was gone...