Our Place; The Ensuite

Our brief for the en suite, and in fact the entire master suite, was to make it rival the best designed hotels we have stayed in. Maximum convenience and relaxation but with our own injection of style.

Render from 3D Model

Black brass ware adds an edge to the blush and marble hexagon tiles. Wet room layout has been designer to keep this small space feeling light and open.

The vanity has a decent length of clear top and storage to allow for products. We decided against dual sinks to keep a usable vanity area.

The heated towel rail will have a boost function to allow the towels to dry without the central heating being on.

The skylight will provide natural ventilation and much needed daylight in a space without any other windows. Mechanical extract fan will take moisture out of the bathroom.

1) There are a couple of options for the shower
If you want a hand held shower attachment Lusso Mia Shower at £495 is a great option- they also do round fittings

2) Amazing marble look porcelain tile in a range of sizes and shapes for Techtile London- but we are going for 200mm x 200mm Hexagon

3) Mosaic hexagon tile in a really beautiful blush from the Concept Three: Nordic range, also at Techtile London

4) Mode Spencer Towel Rail from Victoria Plum £49.99- Various sizes available and matching toilet roll holder and robe hooks available 

5) Mode Spencer mixer tap from Victoria Plum £89.99

6) Dniester 120cm Vanity unit from Wayfair £629.99

7) Maxheat matte black heated towel rail from Heat and Plumb various sizes and configurations from £64.95

Our Place: Planning the dream

Its been a long time in coming, almost five years with a leaky roof, a window that doesn't shut in the bathroom and no real shower. But we have broken ground and we are finally remodelling!

It's actually quite tricky designing for your own home, especially when both of you have strong opinions/ passions and particularly when one of you thinks he is 'The Client' with the final say... eh em... not naming any names.

Usually, when I go to a clients home for the first time, I have the advantage of fresh eyes and impartial perspective. However when you've lived in a place for a while I find you adapt to it and become blinded to its inefficiencies. 

So its challenging but also the best fun, so much freedom to play with concepts you'd loved but never been able to see in reality. We are on a budget so I am working hard at sourcing reasonable finishes and furniture and will be looking at ways we can facelift items that we already own. All of which I plan to share as we go...

For today I'm sharing our proposed floor plans and some of the mood boards (above) we are using as a starting point for sourcing.

The ground floor wrap around extension:

New garage and workshop
New utility with external and garage access
Extended kitchen and dining area
New corridor from the entrance to the back garden
Small extension to the front living room

First floor extended area: 44.5 m2

First Floor Extension:

New open plan study area to the first floor landing
New box room
New master suite with walk in wardrobe and ensuite
New family bathroom

First floor extended area: 34.5m2

Our Place: The Planning Application Process

We have planning! 

It took a little while to achieve but we have it!

I’ve been through the planning process many times and thought I knew exactly how to get what we wanted. However every day is a school day, and there were some do’s and don’ts we learned along the way if you're planning a scheme that’s a bit more unusual:

Do give yourselves some room to negotiate

If you're pushing the limits of what you think is acceptable there is no harm in preparing yourself with some pre-assessed compromises. 

To get our scheme through we agreed to:

• Change the cladding from the somewhat risqué black zinc to timber cladding
• Remove our projecting balcony
• Reduce our overhangs

Do go and talk to your neighbours

Ours were pretty unhappy and it was uncomfortable, but I think the relationship is still intact and we’ve actually gotten to know one side better. The other side not so much!

Do talk to your planner or have your architect talk to your planner

Despite initial reservations, we were able to convince our planner that the modern approach we were taking, at the rear of the property, was a more honest representation of the sustainable timber frame construction method we wanted to use.

Don’t be afraid to chase your planner

I was very keen to keep a good relationship with our planner and resisted chasing her before she went on holiday and as a result, we ended up having two extensions of time on the planning decision. Mistake!

Offer to compromise before you get formal feedback- the jury is out

The last do/ don’t is a bit tricky as I can’t tell if our process was slowed down or if it’s ultimately what got us through so I’ll just tell the story.

After the comments from our neighbours (some of which were quite damning and not representative of the discussions we had), I called the planners and offered to compromise the scheme if they could give us some formal feedback. 

We waited a long time for the feedback due to holidays and difficulty seeing our neighbours and this resulted in our planning decision being delayed by about 6 weeks, but ultimately due to our being willing to compromise we achieved planning first time with just a few tweaks to the dwgs....

Approved planning scheme from the front

Approved planning scheme from the rear