Listed Building Consent - Finally In Place !

[masochists-r-us]

Don't know what others experience has been, but have to say getting this far was much harder than we ever expected and has taken us around two years. Our house is an early 17th Century farmhouse that was subject to some unfortunate 'modernisation' in the 1960's. Since we moved in we have uncovered two inglenook fireplaces ( one of which was chopped in half to create an alternative doorway !), an ovolo moulded spine beam and chamfered joists with end stops, two original doorways, the site of the original staircase (ripped out and replaced with a pine straight flight) and two windows that had been closed up.
On the basis that we are planning to replace and return the staircase to its original site, re-open the windows, repair the inglenook, re-open the original doorways ,add an dormer to the rear to allow access to the second floor and replace all front windows (60's also),we naively thought the local council would only be too pleased to have such conscientious restorers willing to put in the time, money and effort required to breathe life back into this neglected house. Well, they may have done, but we have certainly had to jump through many hoops to get there.
I keep telling myself it will all be worth it in the end, but sometimes I wonder what on earth we were thinking taking it on !

 

[Penners]

I keep telling myself it will all be worth it in the end

It will. I promise.

How about some photos of those interesting-sounding period details that you've found?

 

[Carol]

I have experienced very similar delays, procrastination and complete about-facedness (not sure that is a word but it sums up what we went through) before we achieved ours, and feel the new systems are making life very hard for those who would rather put their hard-earned cash into the building rather than the bureaucracy. Was left with feelings that they might have been more supportive of our well-researched efforts with this very old building and why do we bother!

However I would hate to think what would happen with no listing .......