we need more space, any ideas??

[rog and gina]

HI everyone, its been ages since we've needed to ask advice, but here we are again!

We've just been refused LBC to extend the back of our cottage to accomodate a downstairs bedroom for our ever-growing teenage son, we are at our wits end.... how can we fit us all in???

The cottage is a two bed, with no possibility of extending upstairs due to the cat-slide roof and the problem of the attached neighbours roof. We've brought the cottage back from the very real possibility of colapse, so we are very sympathetic to the character etc, and if we could possibly stop the children(one boy 13 and a girl 9) from growing up and needing their own rooms we would have done it!
The extension would have been approximately 2.9m by 4.5m(4.5m is the width of the cottage) so its not huge, but enough to permit us to live here till the children fly the nest. the CO has said it'll affect the character of the cottage too much. We've been trying to come to a compromise and create a smaller extension but she is having none of it, and has basically said that anything more than 0.4m out is unacceptable.
so our problem is, can anyone come up with any ideas to extend enough to give us space for another room? we have just suggested a conservatory/orangery, but doubt she'll be happy with that either. Is there a maximum floor area the the footprint can occupy?

Thanks for your help,
R and G

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Garden room?

 

[JoceAndChris]

What a shame for you - it sounds as if you've put a lot of work into this property and don't want to face that it's just not big enough for you and it's time to think about moving - I know the feeling all too well!

It doesn't sound like your CO is prepared to accept any kind of extension, and to be fair to her she has to think of the building's needs before yours. There are lots of people out there who'd like a nice 2 bedroom cottage, and lots of 3 bed houses too...

There are space saving solutions (give your bedroom up to the kids and have drop down bed in the living room, or day-bed, convert outbuilding into heated den, loft conversion, cellar conversion, partition somewhere) - I guess none of those are possible?

 

[Flyfisher]

Difficult, but I think Joce has summed it up well. I wonder how the CO arrived at the 0.4m limitation?

In a similar vein to Jocelyn's suggestion, how about something like this?

 

[Penners]

Hello Rog & Gina - it's been a hell of long time! Welcome back.

I presume that your proposed extension was going to form part of the original building. Have you discussed with the CO the possibility of creating a small, separate building, attached to the main house simply with a walkway link?

Mind you, this sounds like an ideal way for you to get a large teenage boy out of your house and into a shack at the bottom of the garden! :wink:

Something like this should suit him (note the bars on the window and the outside bolt on the door):

 

[rog and gina]

Thanks for the replies, we've tried all the routes mentioned, the problem with giving up our room is that the neighbours evening activities tend to be VERY loud,(they are tenants and environmental health are dealing with it at the mo, but they may be there for a while yet...) so not really appropriate for children's ears!!! the loft isn't big enough as there is barely 5foot clearance at the front of the house and no loft space at the back.
We were wondering if a conservatory would still be classed as an extension? we could use that as the kitchen somehow and convert the kitchen to a downstairs bedroom.
The idea of a building in the garden appeals to our son but I'm afraid he has afew years before we could trust him out there on his own!
she's contacted us again today advising us to try an appeal, as her view may be different to another conservation professional, is this normally the case or do you think she's trying to passify us, and pass the buck to someon else.
We are aware that as a cottage the space is limited, but since it was listed in 1973 there have been no extensions, only repairs.
Any advice is greatfully received,
Thank you

 

[rog and gina]

Love that pic, he is quite prepared to have something like that!!

Way back in 2002 we applied for permission to "square off" the hideous 1972 hotch potch extension, that was agreed with no problems as it is barely 2ft by 8ft and makes more sense of the previous extension, it doesn't go into the back garden any further than the 1970's design. This year we asked to extend out towards the back garden by 2.9m, this has been flatly refused because it is a modest cottage. we've suggested 2m as a compromise and she has refused that point blank too and has bascially said that anything further than agreed in 2002 would be too much.
I'm going to add a couple of pics, just need to shrink them first

 

[rog and gina]

Hopefully this might make it a bit clearer....
apologies for the horrendous craftsmanship, its nothing to do with us!!

 

[Carol]

Hello again!

I wonder if you might be able to get more Brownie points with the CO if you could make a case for the improved appearance of the whole, by demolishing all or parts of the old untidy bits? Or would this be prohibitively expensive? Our CO allowed us to do what we had initially been refused when he was shown the overall improvements in a similar untidy hotch potch of extensions.

You have my sympathy on the growing children issue, our biggest bugbear was bathroom space when we moved here. Our 11 year old soon became the bathroom hogger and caused major issues each morning until we bit the bullet and managed to re-jig the internal walls to provide a separate loo and shower for us. We had plans drawn up and passed for a green oak 'garden room' structure at the same time, but have never been able to afford to have it built. The money spent on a conservation architect who did the design and verbally wrangled our cause with the CO was well worth it. I wonder if you could have a t/f garden room and then wattle and daub it to make solid walls?