This week really does feel like things are moving along. We started the week reviewing the designs for our 400 year old listed cottage (what’s left of the original farmhouse, before it was half-knocked down and replaced with our current house). We’re aiming to get this planning application (our third) submitted by the end of February – while the build itself won’t start for at least a couple of years, we want to be able to do all the groundworks for the site in one go so it’s less disruptive later down the line; plus we’ll need to do some remedial repair work to the back lean-to sooner, to avoid it collapsing and damaging the original cob walls inside. Having the planning approval in place now will just make everything easier.
Then on Thursday we heard that our second planning application (for the work to the top floor of the farmhouse) has been approved! The council have been really quick with this one – we only submitted it at the end of November – so it’s been much easier than our first application (although it is a much smaller change). A little frustratingly, we won’t be able to get much further until we know whether we can put solar panels on the external roof. This will be included in our fourth (and hopefully final!) planning application; we’re waiting for our renewables quote and heat loss survey to come back before submitting it.
Finally – given the crazy lead times for builders at the moment, we’ve engaged two companies about our project. Even though we’re not quite there with all our required permissions, we decided we had enough to get started. So hopefully in the next few weeks we’ll be able to visit some of their previous projects to look at their work. We’re deciding whether to go out to both companies through a tendering process, or choose one and go down a negotiated contract route instead – both seem to have merits and watch-outs, so it’s a constant topic of debate at the moment!
Ley Farm Cottages 