This section of Cheshire Mum was added in July 2011 as we got ready to move from our old, fully removated, remodelled and finished, house to our next home and project. A 1960's place with 1980's updates - pure potential! Here's the timeline:
25th July 2011 - moved houseJanuary 2012 - started search for architectMay 2012 - appointed Innex Design as our architects- June 2012 – developed initial designs & measured up
- June 2012 – great feedback from blog readers & twitter community
- July 2012 – second revised & to scale plans developed
- December 2012 – plans finalised and agreed
- January 2013 – planning permission application submitted
- 3rd May 2013 – planning permission GRANTED!!
- December 2013 – downstairs WC makeover & new kitchen window blinds
I have in my possession revised scale house plans, thanks to Chris at Innex Design and they rock! Taking on board my and your feedback, make sure you catch up with Chris’s feedback here, Innex have further developed our house design. Whilst I am itching to share that with you, first I want to share the “wildcard’ idea and throw that out there for your feedback and thoughts. A very different scheme to the previous designs. If you are new to this blog or want a refresher on the existing house design and plot this post House + Plot = Opportunity is the best place to start. So here’s the Wildcard, lets start with the ground floor… This uses the ground floor space in a very different way. The entrance will be double height with a void through to the first floor, the current playroom reduced to make way for a corridor, the kitchen stays where it is but combines the current utility room space and a utility room is connected through to a double garage. On the other side of the house the living room is extended further to create a large dining room and a study can be accommodated at the front of the living room if necessary, see the enlarged option below. Upstairs it is pretty much all change especially with the master bedroom incorporating a balcony over the dining room extension and the inclusion of an office / fifth bedroom upstairs.
A very different scheme, the void to the first floor would create a really different feel on arriving but does it work as well and will it add as much value? Do we need a double garage or is more living space more use and a better investment? As always, would love to hear your thoughts … later this week I will post up the further developed plans for the other scheme … come back soon! So three weeks ago I shared the details of the opportunity and the challenge that faces us with our house development, if you haven’t see the post it’s here. I wanted as much input, feedback, different points of view and opinion as possible and the comments on the post and through twitter have been great. Crowd sourcing opinion can only make the end result the best that it can be so thank you and keep them coming! Having shared the initial ideas as a starter for ten we sat down with Chris our Architect from Innex Design and went though every comment and every tweet as well as our own thoughts, ideas and reflections with time on the plans. Whilst we were doing this the Innex team were busy measuring the whole house, inside and out, marking up every light fitting, and wall type and finishings off. Chris wanted to respond to the feedback we have received so without further ado I shall hand over to Chris at Innex Design… I thought I would drop by and answer a couple of the points raised by people on this blog and twitter along with letting you know that I am finding the whole process very refreshing. In all the years of designing peoples homes I have never had the initial input from so many people, especially online, its good to see peoples interpretations and thoughts. Anyway as this is a public experience I wish to reply to some of the feedback received from the sketches and explain the design rationale The comment by Karen (@kbmanc) questions the office at the rear centre location, the reason this was initially placed here was with you & Rob working from home, if your anything like me when your working you don’t want to feel cut off from your family but need the space so the location at the rear enabled you to be in the centre of the house, and would enable you in summer (not this year) to see your children playing and enjoying themselves, whilst getting work done. Also the office would benefit from the south facing aspect resulting in better light. Aimee‘s comment about the garage door opening up the area for future use is funny considering the existing playroom is a converted garage. The requirement for the door is noted Aimee, we won’t take it away! Claire over at Little Stomper’s comment, no. 6, has similar thought about the office location to myself but concerns about bedroom 3. Bedroom 3 appears to be a unworkable space from the sketch, but bear with us when we get it drawn to scale I think you’ll see where we are coming from when you consider the wall which runs to the right hand side of the staircase running in bedroom 3 as existing houses a standard bath (1700mm) a cupboard (400mm) resulting in a minimum assumed length of 2100mm meaning a bed could be fitted to the area with ease leaving a large floor area, the wall is actually 2320mm. Let me know your thoughts when you see the to scale drawings with measurements. A interesting view was provided by Monika @mumonthebrink via twitter, her comment focussed on frontal view and grandeur on the street scene. The view is important but should not overshadow purpose. The extension sketch accommodates a constant 1000mm separation gap from the boundary and ground floor extension at first floor to avoid the terrace effect in line with householder planning policy. Trying to convert the loft of the existing property would increase the build cost significantly for a number of reasons, the main being compliance with approved document B of the building regulations would require all existing and new doors accessing the stairway to be new self closing doors possibly with new frames to increase the rebates the alternative being a domestic sprinkle system which are costly but avoid the need to upgrade existing elements. Also the introduction of a new staircase up to the loft rooms would have to have a minimum height headroom of 1800mm below a pitched room to the lowest point and given the existing staircase location building over with a new staircase would require a rear dormer to be formed to achieve the head height. Also in most buildings of this age the roof timbers are not sized to sustain a new live floor load again, resulting in increased costs to reroof the existing with suitable attic trusses. A loft conversion is a non-starter for this project as there are other lower costs solutions open to us. I hope the comments continue to come in now the design is being worked up to scale, next to be shared on the blog will be some different options following the feasibility study. An exciting project, I hope you are enjoying being part of it too. Chris Catelani ACIAT, ABII So according to the Estate Agent’s brochure our new house is “located on a corner plot, southerly rear aspect, and popular location, a detached family home with two separate reception rooms, breakfast kitchen, utility/playroom, cloakroom/wc, three bedrooms, en-suite shower, family bathroom and separate wc. Scope for extending (subject to planning permission)”. We love where it is, we love the corner plot, we love the southerly aspect and we love the scope for extending. So this is what it looks like … Here’s the plot from google earth and I have had a go at outlining our plot, the next stage is for Innex to measure and draw this up properly but this will give you the lay of the land. Here’s the front of the house… The view from the back, it is now summer here but these are the photos I took back in January when I started the search for an architect, this is “pieced” together from three images to get it all in … If you look at the front of the house you will see our separate garage to the left, between the house and the garage is this load of dead space which we see as being the main opportunity (BTW we have now cleared it!) … So that’s the outside. On the inside the floor plan is like this, click to enlarge it … Now comes the hard part, how to maximise the potential and exploit that “scope for extending” and I’d really like to hear from you, if it was your house what would you do? We want to get a fourth bedroom and we’d like an open plan living, dining, kitchen and Mr L and I need some office / study space – the office is currently squatting in the utility room whilst handy for throwing on a washing load between projects it isn’t ideal! So whilst you’re thinking about which walls to knock down, add in, let me share what our architect partner Chris from Innex Design came up with after just an hour, its our back of the fag packet, starter for ten. The plans below show the ground floor to the left and the first floor to the right, the current layout is at above the initial suggestions shown underneath. Click to expand… Its a big project but one which we welcome your thoughts and opinions, as far as we and Chris at Innex Designs are concerned we’re excited about sharing it and hearing what you have to say, the more input, opinions and ideas we can have the better. Would you live in a house like this? How would you change it? Maybe this will be the house that social media built, I hope so, once we’ve got the build design right we have to add technology, decorate it and choose soft furnishings – whoop! Cannot wait to hear your thoughts… ***UPDATE 22nd June 2012 – Thanks for all the feedback a response to comments posted here*** We moved in July. Goodbye old home of mod cons, our project there was completed. Hello property of potential. Or as Lil H says “the new house that is old”. We’ve been busy, we’ve been doing, we’ve planning. What I’ve not been doing is sharing it here which is what I wanted to do, what I am going to do. So now I kind of have a catch up story to bring you up to speed … oh and some exciting news … So what have we done, these are all “make do for now” maneuvers … So how do you search for an architect? Like everything in my life these days I headed to twitter a few tweets and a search on #architect and I had four great potential architects who I have met up with over the last few months. I met Raynes Architecture, Mark Burgess, DV8 Designs and Innex Design they were all lovely and made the decision very difficult! Two things made the difference and helped our decision, the willingness to share and come away from an initial meeting and email rough thoughts, and also the opportunity to exchange my marketing skills in exchange for their architectural design expertise. I’m every excited to be working with Innex Design and their sister businesses Innex Developments and House of Nostalgia. This is a marathon not a sprint of a project and we’ve warmed up and have made our way to the starting line! So the warm up, the warm up was … I have no clue about number four but I am working on the basis it isn’t a bridge I need to cross yet, money always works itself out, I can work it out, I have to! There’s no deadline but we’re hoping to have a design pretty much there to go to planning with by the beginning of next year. I’ll be sharing for your input, thoughts and feedback. I’m going to start back at the beginning with what we have done so far and with the very initial scamps from Innex Design so who’s ready to knock down some walls with us? Claire x We moved house six months ago, its a house of “potential” built in 1961 and updated in the 1980’s – its great size, great location but in need of updating. However with the mahoosive cost of the move we have to put up with how it is whilst we recharge the savings and make our plan. The reality is lots of bits are very tired, old and even when cleaned still look grubby if not dirty. I am no domestic goddess on the best of days and knowing given a fair wind I will be knocking down the majority of the house and redoing the lot I have even less motivation than the neglible level that is my norm! LimeLite asked if I’d like to try their Limescale remover for showers – given I have showers with limescale, that of other peoples I hasten to add and its promise of being easy peasy and quick I gave it a whirl. All I did was unscrew the pretty useless shower head, add the stuff, leave for 2 minutes and voila! Not only does it look a whole lot better and less skanky (it had previously been bleached to no effect) the shower actually has a bit more oomph. LimeLite lives up to its claim to some power back in the shower in my opinion and I will be using it again. LimeLite Limescale Remover Spray, RRP £2.55 For further details and stockist info: http://www.lime-lite.co.uk/products.php?id=3 So here we are New Years Eve. It’s been a super busy year, one of lots of change, it’s been challenging at times but it has certainly taught us lots. We say hello to 2012 a wiser family in many ways. Here’s our round up: Lowlights Highlights Looking ahead Wishing you a fantastic 2012! Claire x At the end of September, I was invited to check out the new John Lewis at Home Store in Chester which was opening 28th September 2011. I am lucky, I have a three floors of John Lewis loveliness just down the road from me at Cheadle. But I have never been to a “John Lewis at Home” store and as a girl who likes to shop this I had to see! Chester is only 40 minutes away so I thought I’d whizz over and check it out, new house and therefore new home furnishings to dream about! It was just me, the store manager and the PR and 38,000 sq ft of perfectly stocked John Lewis with the very latest and best products across furniture, homewares, furnishing accessories and electrical and home technology. Not a pair of shoes, a top or latest toy to distract me from its perfection. Although I did wonder about the shoes, top and toy – never fear – free click and collect is available here for those items. So anything else I wanted I could order online and pick up at the John Lewis at Home store, perfect. Being the only one in the store was just like a calm relaxed online shop but I could touch, turn, feel and see everything. I thought the John Lewis Brights Photo Frames in Red, Pink, Lime, Turquoise and Silver were great value starting at £6 with childrens photos and drawings in they would be great Christmas presents. I was stopped in my tracks by the Rob Ryan ceramics if a new tumble dryer and a new dishwasher weren’t on the list I’d be asking Santa for some new loveliness for my dresser, except a dresser would have to also be on the list! Tumbler dryers, dishwashers, furniture, technology and a lovely cafe can all be found upstairs. I felt like some sort of peculiar honour to witness the John Lewis towel wall which took a team days to create its perfection and whe Having never been to a John Lewis at Home store before, I really liked my experience in Chester, its was great to have a preview and when I am ready to do some homewear spending I will go back. The Chester store is on the Greyhound Retail Park where you have a huge choice of all the usual out of town furniture suspects if you want to check out and compare plus you can also park and ride from there into, the notoriously difficult to park, centre of Chester. So even though I have John Lewis Cheadle on my doorstep this is different and a change is as good as a rest as they say. Thank you John Lewis at Home in Chester for showing me round. Related Links The bedroom in our new house is VERY 1980’s with fitted wardobes, cupboards over the bed but no bedside cabinet/shelf/table thingys. Add our Super King Sized bed and ours from Lancaster Towers don’t fit. The has resulted in a growing stash of books, magazines, chargers, alarm clocks and glasses of dusty water on either side of the bed. Glasses of water are a great idea when you are going to bed but when you add small children to them in the morning they are a terribly bad idea. To be honest I wasn’t that fussed by it, on the list of things to do at Villa Lancaster it was low, like page 2-3, but Mr L decided to “make something” and a jolly good job he’s done too! Off he popped into his new, his first and most favourite place in the entire house, his garage. Returning and installing these two child-proof, glass-of-water-protecting bedside shelves. What do you think? I was impressed? Then I looked down – I was less impressed! Luckily I had the Dirt Devil Handheld vacuum given to us at The Lowry on our Dirty Stinky Day. We have been putting it through its paces and Mr L initial declaration that it was “a nifty bit of kit” still stands. I put it through the mammouth challenge of removing two weeks of beach from the car – it met that challenge with brushes, suction and passed the test. The car is now a mess again but that is a reflection on my family and not the Dirt Devil Handheld vacuum. I regularly use it after meal times mostly around Baby G’s Tripp Trapp and the wake my husband leaves from his lightbulb moments of genius! We like the convenience of the Dirt Devil Handheld vacuum, its affordable price at £59.99, its rechargaeable, wall mounted and ready to go. On the downside we found got a bit blocked up when we used on new carpets – its brushes are very good so to be fair I would say probably user error there! I’m wondering this at the moment. We bought the house two weeks ago, decorated Lil H and Diva G’s bedrooms, set up the playroom, stripped the bathroom wallpaper, moved in five days later and finished the last of the unpacking. We’re in, our things are in, we’ve done the ikea run, we’ve had friends round, we live here. The house is great, it’s all the potential and more we saw but we have no real places where things live, there are places where things have been put but that’s just an output of unpacking. We have no memories here, have had no birthdays, celebrations, no little traditions. When I think about our wedding, being pregnant, my children being tiny newborn babies, their first steps, our Christmas tree, the pile of H and G’s birthday presents waiting for them to get up and be super excited, BBQ’s and sharing jokes with old friends all this is at the old place. We’ll create all new memories, as good and better memories from this address but right now I’m living in our house, our project and its not yet our home. Could it be because I don’t have any broadband until 20th August? I literally feel like I have had a limb cut off, I promise I will be uploading and sharing piccies of everything we’ve done just as soon as we’re back online. I think we need to put our pictures up on the walls, maybe have a housewarming? What do you think, when did your house become become your home and is there anything I can do to help me connect, connect in a non-Internet way?! Love to hear your thoughts on this? Yesterday we moved house. After nine very happy years, one wedding (ours!), two children (ours!), countless parties, celebrations and hangovers it is time for a new family to live here – we hope you will be as happy as we have. Over the years we changed, remodelled and decorated every part of Lancaster Towers, I love what we did and whilst I’m excited about a new project and blank canvas to start again with it has been a great home to us, let me show you round … this is where we were: Welcome to Lancaster Towers, the first thing we did was laid wooden floor throughout the ground floor, on the diagonal something a bit different. Through the living room into the dining conservatory and out into our courtyard garden, all our plants are now flowering and they’ve come with us to the new place but never have I had to do any jobs in the garden at the weekend. Those days are over, but boy there were good! At the front of the house is the twenty-thousand swear word kitchen, whilst the process of getting this kitchen was, well utter nightmare doesn’t come close, my goodness its good, like really, really good. Whilst small all the modern storage solutions and systems made the most of every centimeter, we moved the washing machine upstairs to make more room, oh and I had a kettle tap, instant boiling water – LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! What do you think? Upstairs we go to the first floor, note the stair lights on every other step – bargain – £75 on eBay and Mr L fitted them. Here’s the children’s bathroom, we did this at the same time as the kitchen, a mistake in hindsight. The big orange hammock is a toy hammock from Ikea I use it for bath toys, I’ve left it for the new owners as it goes with the bathroom. Its about 99p but I am definitely getting another one. Underfloor heating also cleared up children’s bath time splashes quickly, also on the must have list for the the place. Then Lil H and Baby G’s bedrooms – can you guess which is which?! Up to the second floor and this is where the magic happens *snort* well we collapse in a heap of tiredness, watch telly, surf the Internet, plan holidays, stress about things big and small – you know the usual. The en-suite is probably about 7 years old, but I still love its natural theme and the pebble border remains one of my favourite things in the house. So there you have it a through the keyhole look at our before house – where we were – what we did. The move went smooth, right back to 1961 with some 1984 highlights, a big garden to keep us busy and now, now I’m off to choose paint. The plan is to get H and G’s bedrooms painted and the playroom set up and then move them in. So far so good – so what do you think? Let me know your thoughts, what should I do again do differently? Cx
Director
Innex Design Limited
http://www.facebook.com/innexdesignltd
@InnexDesign
T: 01925 630361
House + Plot = Opportunity
Cheshire Claire : May 28, 2012 9:02 pm : Family, Home Building, Interiors
Putting our shower in the LimeLite
Cheshire Claire : February 15, 2012 11:37 am : Home Building, Interiors, Reviews
2011: the good & the bad!
Cheshire Claire : December 24, 2011 6:02 am : Family, Home Building, Interiors, Life, Uncategorized
Mr L’s employer started to struggle financially in January
Wages became at best sporadic, but mostly not at all
We discovered Lil’ H had a loss of hearing which required grommet surgery
We had to pay stamp duty & lots of other boring costs to move house, sorry but they totalled close to £25,000 and I remain bitter!
In November Mr L’s employer went into administration making us income free – argh!
I made a friend who reminded me how false & insincere people can be
We sold our old house
Diva G started walking
We enjoyed a great Royal Wedding weekend with good friends
Lil H turned 4 years old
We had a great break at Center Parcs
We held an amazing naming day with family & close friends
We had a fab, almost rain free, fortnight on holiday in Cornwall
We bought & moved into our new home and project for the next decade!
Lil H started full time school, settled in well, has lots of friends and has developed massively
I stepped back up to do more freelance work continuing to work with great clients and also gaining more clients & projects
I ran some projects that I was able to work with my online community, sharing good stuff with them
Baby G turned 2yo promoted to Diva G & started a couple of mornings at Pre-school
Mr L released from the shackles of employment started his own handyman/joinery business in Cheshire (go – like his Facebook page!), less than two months in and we already know we won’t look back.
I value myself. I don’t like everyone and I don’t expect everyone to like me. I’m cool with that.
I have had a theme word rather than resolutions for the last two years, 2010 was a year of enjoyment, 2011 was a year of change. Both lived up to their themes. 2012 is a year to PLAN. I am woefully behind on blogging house updates that’s just putting living life with two kids, a house move and a redundancy I’ve been surviving life with very little time to document it. I have my mojo back as a blogger, a mother, a professional, a person. I’ve missed it. So now, now I’ve got ideas and thoughts and I need to reflect and PLAN, first up is find an architect to get my Pinterest inspired dreams into plans that can be both approved and afforded. So that’s the PLAN for 2012 to PLAN!
The New John Lewis Home Store, Chester
Cheshire Claire : November 8, 2011 7:39 pm : Home Building, Interiors, Media Requests
I sort of forgot the manager and PR girl were there as I had my first glimpses of John Lewis Christmas. It may have only been September but I was truly festive within moments of stepping into their Winter displays. I loved the Advent Calendar House 
n I say perfection I mean perfection! No sooner than the doors open this towel wall will never again be quite so perfect. The clock wall was pretty fab too, but the towels had the edge. I was also able to indulge my love of lighting with its galmourous aray of sparkles and colour too, like the Jolie table lamps in red, pink, blue, green, yellow and white for a very reasonable £35.
Web: http://www.johnlewis.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JohnLewisRetail
Twitter: @JohnLewisRetail
You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/johnlewisretail
New bedside shelves
Cheshire Claire : September 9, 2011 5:00 am : Family, Home Building, Interiors, Reviews
Anyway – back to the bedside shelves – what do you think?
When does a house become a home?
Cheshire Claire : August 10, 2011 7:59 am : Home Building, Interiors
