Time to 'fess up...

[CatherineB]

I am very excited, as today we got planning permission for a kitchen/dining extension to our newold house! This came through a mere six weeks from submission (five if you count the delay I caused by forgetting to send the cheque in :roll: ), which must be some kind of miracle, and certainly a speed record

So it's probably time to confess that our plans for our newold house are not all about retaining the old.
We are, in fact, building an exciting, contemporary and (we think, and the planners seem to agree) harmonious extension to the back of the house, to provide a kitchen/dining room worthy of the 21st century successors to its original Edwardian inhabitants.

In the process, we will be demolishing a small but extremely ugly box-like extension to the current dining room, and a UPVC conservatory at the rear, which hogs all the lovely west light and makes the kitchen into a dingy corridor.

I know that PPUK is mostly about preserving and restoring period properties, and I have already had some really useful advice on that front. I hope that I won't now be ostracised for choosing to upgrade the "servants' quarters" of an otherwise lovely period house!

This is our big project for 2011, and we plan to be in by Christmas - yes, really IN, yes really THIS Christmas! Wish me luck!

Catherine
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[Moo]

Pictures please (artist's impressions would do...)

 

[Penners]

We are, in fact, building an exciting, contemporary and (we think, and the planners seem to agree) harmonious extension to the back of the house, to provide a kitchen/dining room worthy of the 21st century successors to its original Edwardian inhabitants.

I don't know whether you're in The Kite*, Catherine, but so far as I can see there's hardly a terrace house in that area that hasn't had a back addition built. So I imagine the planners feel that this is an acceptable compromise between retaining the character of the area/building and adapting it to 21st century living.


*Although I suspect that most of the terraces there are actually Victorian, so maybe you're not.

 

[CatherineB]

I'd be happy to oblige with a picture if someone can tell me how to convert a PDF to a JPEG - or attach a PDF?

Penners, we're further out than the Kite, near to Homerton, but your comment still applies!

 

[JoceAndChris]

Sounds fab Catherine! I'm all for buildings sensitively adapting to 21st C living - especially when it's round the back. If I had the cash I'd also change bits of the house and have a lovely new bathroom...

Please do keep us posted with all your pictures and progress. Good luck!

 

[Penners]

I'd be happy to oblige with a picture if someone can tell me how to convert a PDF to a JPEG

I haven't tried this free software myself, but I've used CNet for plenty of other downloads. It's a reliable source in my opinion.

http://download.cnet.com/Office-Convert-PDF-to-JPG-JPEG-TIFF-Free/3000-10743_4-10900900.html

 

[Flyfisher]

How much to reveal is, of course, entirely your decision Catherine, but such alterations usually involve compromises. If you're prepared to justify your decisions (which you have already successfully been able to do for your planning application) then I'd hope you'll receive a fair hearing here. There will always be the rabid conservationists who will decry the loss of any historic fabric but, being realistic, historic properties have to evolve because they depend for their very existence on private owners spending their own money to create a practical home within.

From your posts on PPUK so far, my bet is that your plans will be quite sensitive to the property. But, even if they're not, I'm sure you'll be able to justify them, and, ultimately, it's your house anyway. Don't expect an easy time if your plans include wholesale demolition and a completely new build though. :wink:

 

[CatherineB]

These are the bits that are being knocked down. Neither is original, and neither is in keeping, or has its own architectural merit.


View attachment 1

Next comes the tricky bit...

 

[CatherineB]

This is the proposed addition. Not actually a lot bigger than what is being removed, but it will be much better space to live in, and hopefully will stand the test of time as being an appropriate addition to the house.

 

[Nigel Watts]

I often used to walk past Homerton from the station to Addenbroke's where one of our main labs was based. Very handsome houses in that area.

What you are doing sounds entirely sensible. We adopted a similar approach - mixing new and old - with our house (grade II listed, 1840, North London).

Front:

Back:

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Catherine - can't really see the detail or construction materials.

But from that drawing it looks OK in my book - and so much better than what is there.

Please don't keep saying things like "finished" and "in by this Christmas" on a forum my wife also reads! She can get funny ideas you know....

 

[CatherineB]

Robin, the walls will be Cambridge brick, to match the existing house (as best possible), and the roof will be lead.

 

[Nigel Watts]

Please don't keep saying things like "finished" and "in by this Christmas" on a forum my wife also reads! She can get funny ideas you know....

As someone who is eleven years in to a three year project, with a wife still waiting for her promised bathroom, I'll second that.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Robin, the walls will be Cambridge brick, to match the existing house (as best possible), and the roof will be lead.

Then I fully approve and authorise you to proceed! 8)

I do hope you are going to save that lovely aluminium window from the earlier extension and put it in the side-wall of your new extension :evil:

 

[yamin]

You have to live in your house and make it work for you. Sounds like you've really thought about an honest and modern extension that won't jar with the existing period structure. Be nice to see pics!

 

[CatherineB]

I do hope you are going to save that lovely aluminium window from the earlier extension and put it in the side-wall of your new extension :evil:

Robin, if you have any affection for it at all, I will make a gift of it to you

The conservatory, on the other hand, we may attempt to sell to the highest bidder on eBay! :mrgreen:

 

[JoceAndChris]

I think the plan looks very nice indeed Catherine, a vast improvement on the eyesore that's there now.

How lovely to have this to look forward to!

 

[Penners]

I often used to walk past Homerton from the station to Addenbroke's where one of our main labs was based.

I don't know how long ago that was, Nigel, but I bet you wouldn't recognise Addenbrooke's now. It's a modestly-sized city in its own right!

 

[Penners]

I think the plan looks very nice indeed Catherine, a vast improvement on the eyesore that's there now.

I quite agree.

 

[Nigel Watts]

I often used to walk past Homerton from the station to Addenbroke's where one of our main labs was based.

I don't know how long ago that was, Nigel, but I bet you wouldn't recognise Addenbrooke's now. It's a modestly-sized city in its own right!

When I was at Cambridge as an undergraduate I was far too terrified of the blue stockings to go anywhere near the ladies' colleges.

My visits were in fact quite recent and I'm afraid the expansion is not least due to the rebuilding of our lab in what used to be a sugar beet field between the hospital and the railway line. For a while I chaired the project board for the construction of this vast edifice and endured endless battles with Whitehall over its equally impressive budget. We could afford it and had the funds but we had to prove "value for money" for the investment - jolly tricky for a lab doing pure research. Mind you if you measure the cost in terms of £ per Nobel prizes won (14 for that one lab alone I think, including one in 2009) it doesn't look so bad. From a weather satellite its plan looks like a human chromosome. Amazing what modern architects think of.