Big Bungalow Build!! (new build progression)
Discussion
So.... after several years of following this sub forum, watching other projects come together... it's finally my turn! I have always been so grateful & thoroughly enjoyed others sharing their open & honest experiences about the good, the bad and the expensive of build projects, I feel only fair to follow suit. I am happy to discuss how we are making it all work for interest / educational use for others, as well as the mistakes, stresses & wins along the way. Happy to answer questions, go into details & share whatever I can for interested people!
As we stand today, we are several weeks into construction, with another 7 months still to go.
Bungalow as it stood:
.
How did it all begin? We are a large family of 6, so wanted a house to accommodate us all (5-6 bed) but we are also a very 'outsidey' family needing garden space...our budget could get us one or the other...but definitely not both. The only option we had was buying the location & adapting a house to work.
After several months of early-COVID house hunting we came across the bungalow. It was a 1960s timber frame, 4 bed, 3 extension, bungalow in a brilliant 0.75 acre garden – loads of mature trees, over grown, very private & plenty of space!
The garden was perfect for us & the bungalow seemed fine. Full structural survey showed no major concerns, EPC rating of 86 (obviously very very wrong) and ‘nicely’ decorated for an eldery couples home.
We really wanted to make it work as a new build, but quickly ruled it out based off estimated £/sqm (even with no VAT) so settled on a large extension & refurb, making use of the ‘EPC 86 bungalow’ + a large extension.....We set about on 12 months of design iterations & planning discussions.
Desire was for 6 bedrooms, study, large garage (to supplement the single garage in place) keeping it as a bungalow as timber frame wouldnt allow us to build up. Also a playroom, utility room. We needed/wanted to have plenty of ‘wow’ factors to keep it ‘special’ – covering an eventual £1m+ sunk cost if we ever came to sell it in future.
The short version of events (i can post the full story if interest in the background) is we spent 10 months planning a refurb & extension.....as we couldnt afford the extra 10% to make it work as a new build (even with VAT saving)...just didnt have the money. Favourite builder (but 2nd most expensive) had a last minute commercial cancellation....and said he could do it as a New Build for the price of our Refurb with some tweaks...and if we met his timing demands he would meet our affordability demands.
This kicked off 5 weeks of madness.....Architects had to go into over drive changing everything to a new build, planning had to start again, we had to move out & he wanted to start the demolition...we were taking several months worth of work and fitting it into 5 weeks. ‘Proceed at risk’ was a phrase we put into email several times...and I basically stopped sleeping at night through the mind warp of what had just happened.
The finalised design (12 iterations of refurb, 1 iteration of new build) is below. This is very much a product of ‘our’ wants – quite personal tastes. Mono Pitch, 3 - 4.5m ceilings & 8m of sliding doors for the ‘wow’ factors then rooms for our family needs. Over sized garage, but not too many bathrooms.... hopefully targeting our wants whilst avoiding our dislikes (ie cleaning toilets & showers).
Front:
Back:
.
.
Low and behold D day arrived, we had just managed to find a crappy rental to move into and his diggers arrived and demolition begun.....a whole new planning application had been resubmitted 2 weeks before (with our friendly planning chap) and it all kicked off...’at risk’
Inside Demo:
.
.
.
.
Outside Demo:
.
.
.
Everything proceeded physically.... whilst we battled all maner of headaches behind the scenes with ‘proceeding at risk’....we upset the Bat people (even though survey said No Bats!) we upset the tree people (becuse we removed 4 ‘low value/low matruity trees’) and then we upset the Hamlet....we found their High Voltage supply cable!!
This is where the fun really began! Builder dug looking for our water pipe....and instead found the Hamlet’s HV cable. Cable of prob 3-4” diameter was severed.....2 dozen houses lost power. The next few days were even more stressful....cable was in the wrong place, they didnt know which direction it ran in, lots of holes dug, vans, road closures & for 3 days & nights they worked to rectify it! Foruntely, because the cable was under our verge, when it should have been under the road....nill cost to us or the builder...but it did cost us a lot of bottles of wine for the locals, some who had a diesel generator sat on their drive for a couple of days.
.
.
.
Still...work progressed.....site was cleared......trenches were dug...
.
.
.
.
....and that is up to where we are! We are off to visit the site tomorrow, to hopefully see concrete & the first step of 'doing' vs 'undoing'....but it still feels like a mountain to climb before July when we have move in date scheduled!
I hope you like it, Ill continue posting weekly updates until move in date in July!
As we stand today, we are several weeks into construction, with another 7 months still to go.
Bungalow as it stood:
.
How did it all begin? We are a large family of 6, so wanted a house to accommodate us all (5-6 bed) but we are also a very 'outsidey' family needing garden space...our budget could get us one or the other...but definitely not both. The only option we had was buying the location & adapting a house to work.
After several months of early-COVID house hunting we came across the bungalow. It was a 1960s timber frame, 4 bed, 3 extension, bungalow in a brilliant 0.75 acre garden – loads of mature trees, over grown, very private & plenty of space!
The garden was perfect for us & the bungalow seemed fine. Full structural survey showed no major concerns, EPC rating of 86 (obviously very very wrong) and ‘nicely’ decorated for an eldery couples home.
We really wanted to make it work as a new build, but quickly ruled it out based off estimated £/sqm (even with no VAT) so settled on a large extension & refurb, making use of the ‘EPC 86 bungalow’ + a large extension.....We set about on 12 months of design iterations & planning discussions.
Desire was for 6 bedrooms, study, large garage (to supplement the single garage in place) keeping it as a bungalow as timber frame wouldnt allow us to build up. Also a playroom, utility room. We needed/wanted to have plenty of ‘wow’ factors to keep it ‘special’ – covering an eventual £1m+ sunk cost if we ever came to sell it in future.
The short version of events (i can post the full story if interest in the background) is we spent 10 months planning a refurb & extension.....as we couldnt afford the extra 10% to make it work as a new build (even with VAT saving)...just didnt have the money. Favourite builder (but 2nd most expensive) had a last minute commercial cancellation....and said he could do it as a New Build for the price of our Refurb with some tweaks...and if we met his timing demands he would meet our affordability demands.
This kicked off 5 weeks of madness.....Architects had to go into over drive changing everything to a new build, planning had to start again, we had to move out & he wanted to start the demolition...we were taking several months worth of work and fitting it into 5 weeks. ‘Proceed at risk’ was a phrase we put into email several times...and I basically stopped sleeping at night through the mind warp of what had just happened.
The finalised design (12 iterations of refurb, 1 iteration of new build) is below. This is very much a product of ‘our’ wants – quite personal tastes. Mono Pitch, 3 - 4.5m ceilings & 8m of sliding doors for the ‘wow’ factors then rooms for our family needs. Over sized garage, but not too many bathrooms.... hopefully targeting our wants whilst avoiding our dislikes (ie cleaning toilets & showers).
Front:
Back:
.
.Low and behold D day arrived, we had just managed to find a crappy rental to move into and his diggers arrived and demolition begun.....a whole new planning application had been resubmitted 2 weeks before (with our friendly planning chap) and it all kicked off...’at risk’
Inside Demo:
..
.
.
Outside Demo:
..
.
Everything proceeded physically.... whilst we battled all maner of headaches behind the scenes with ‘proceeding at risk’....we upset the Bat people (even though survey said No Bats!) we upset the tree people (becuse we removed 4 ‘low value/low matruity trees’) and then we upset the Hamlet....we found their High Voltage supply cable!!
This is where the fun really began! Builder dug looking for our water pipe....and instead found the Hamlet’s HV cable. Cable of prob 3-4” diameter was severed.....2 dozen houses lost power. The next few days were even more stressful....cable was in the wrong place, they didnt know which direction it ran in, lots of holes dug, vans, road closures & for 3 days & nights they worked to rectify it! Foruntely, because the cable was under our verge, when it should have been under the road....nill cost to us or the builder...but it did cost us a lot of bottles of wine for the locals, some who had a diesel generator sat on their drive for a couple of days.
.
.
.
Still...work progressed.....site was cleared......trenches were dug...
.
.
.
.
....and that is up to where we are! We are off to visit the site tomorrow, to hopefully see concrete & the first step of 'doing' vs 'undoing'....but it still feels like a mountain to climb before July when we have move in date scheduled!
I hope you like it, Ill continue posting weekly updates until move in date in July!
Edited by Andeh1 on Tuesday 28th December 11:54
Edited by Andeh1 on Tuesday 28th December 11:55
Edited by Andeh1 on Tuesday 28th December 11:56
Edited by Andeh1 on Wednesday 29th December 09:49
The photos are all quite large, could be taking a long time to load? I am using dropbox & I *think* it should be working!?
The gamble was if they made us rebuild it.... the 'new' was 90% similar to the 'old' (just new & not 60+ year old timber frame)...so other then loosing Monopitch roof and slight length v width adjustments we made, it wouldn't be end of the world to rebuild 'as was'. We started building the extension first to ensure we wouldnt have to undo anything on original property if planning came undone.
We did have planning permission for the refurb/extension, so were able to build the extension 'under permission'. This set a good starting point on why we should be approved on the new build.
It was a gamble we had to take though, the only way we could afford a new build was if we met the builder's timings & received the 5-10% ish discount from him for doing so. Had to be done, even if it did make Oct/Nov/Dec nerve wrecking...even with a friendly Planning chap 'suggesting' we should be OK. I lost sleep over him leaving, winning lottery, changing departments & being replaced by a jobsworth who took Umbridge at us 'jumping the gun' (as the bat people & tree people did)
Gallons Per Mile said:
Wow, that's a project and a half 
I'll be following with interest! You must be pretty confident to proceed with demolishing the place without planning permission for the new build. What if the council refuse and make you put back the old house?!
I forgot to add...we received planning permission on Christmas Eve! So we are in the clear now.! I'll be following with interest! You must be pretty confident to proceed with demolishing the place without planning permission for the new build. What if the council refuse and make you put back the old house?!The gamble was if they made us rebuild it.... the 'new' was 90% similar to the 'old' (just new & not 60+ year old timber frame)...so other then loosing Monopitch roof and slight length v width adjustments we made, it wouldn't be end of the world to rebuild 'as was'. We started building the extension first to ensure we wouldnt have to undo anything on original property if planning came undone.
We did have planning permission for the refurb/extension, so were able to build the extension 'under permission'. This set a good starting point on why we should be approved on the new build.
It was a gamble we had to take though, the only way we could afford a new build was if we met the builder's timings & received the 5-10% ish discount from him for doing so. Had to be done, even if it did make Oct/Nov/Dec nerve wrecking...even with a friendly Planning chap 'suggesting' we should be OK. I lost sleep over him leaving, winning lottery, changing departments & being replaced by a jobsworth who took Umbridge at us 'jumping the gun' (as the bat people & tree people did)
Dan_1981 said:
Got the pics!
Exactly what does proceed at risk mean.... They don't grant planning exactly what does that mean? No new house? Have to restore old house?
This will be my phrase of 2021 Exactly what does proceed at risk mean.... They don't grant planning exactly what does that mean? No new house? Have to restore old house?
....it basically meant everyone was telling us 'you should be fine...but if it all goes wrong, you are liable for it. We had to (in writing) acknowledge we were proceeding without full process/approvals in place, so any come back or costs or penalties etc would be owned by us... even though everyone was 'confident' we should be OK (and they were right).In the case of permission rejection. We would instantly delete double garage to provide £30k odd to then allow us to continue renting & cover builders monthly costs (ie his portacabin, loo etc). We would then use this 'bought time' to contest it & look to make the adjustments to get us the permission to continue building. If all else failed, we would rebuild the 'old' bungalow...which is 75% the same as the 'new' sleeping wing of the new bungalow...just without monopitch roof & changes to outer dimensions length/widths. So in essence it wouldn't be total project killer, but a massive/expensive headache none the less.
Things like driveways, patios, the single garage refurbishment have already been taken out of the project for cost cutting measures.
All jokes aside, I had days just vibrating with stress over 'what if' over this, as budget wise we just don't/didn't have anything else to save/sell/put into the project. Fortunately, Planning Permission came through on Christmas Eve!
mikebradford said:
Looks good, and hope all goes well.
One query is that you have a lot of bedrooms and likely people living there, and not a lot of lounges etc.
I assume your like most families with some teenagers who don't ever leave their bedrooms lol
Yes - very common comment received to date & a fair one. Just personal choice/acceptance, it just came down to wanting bedrooms for all the children & a permanent guest room (a large part of this project is using inheritance from some difficult years on both sides of our family, having the dedicated guest room to host family (and friends) was very important for us both) ....but we cant afford to make the 'living' wing any bigger to accommodate 'more space'. We have the view that we will have a dedicated playroom, big lounge, big kitchen, study & can change a bedroom to a gym/library/morning room etc if required in future. There is also the garden & the double garage which has some radiators going in/could be insulated (cost cutting removed this for now) that can be adapted as well. One query is that you have a lot of bedrooms and likely people living there, and not a lot of lounges etc.
I assume your like most families with some teenagers who don't ever leave their bedrooms lol
Edited by Andeh1 on Tuesday 28th December 09:18
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