Extending the House

Trying to make some money in a low interest market

Don't start here; you really do need to read the earlier pages to understand why we are heading down this route.

Our pensions are NOT going to give us much income, at least not enough to live on - Even if we stay in our current home - This is a serious problem that we should all look at as we reach our 50's ? - Urszula has recently worked out that we can't actually afford to live in this house any more, particularly if I/we are made redundant (which in the present climate is most likely).

So, we now need, not only enough money to buy our "dream boat" but also enough to be able to live "comfortably" for the foreseeable future, however long that may be.

We have tried the stock market route and have various ISA's and Tessa's (which, for the benefit of non-UK readers, are tax-free savings plans, set up by the UK government and the insurance companies to entice us to invest large sums at high interest rates). So far (and we can't see this improving by the time WE want to retire) this has not proved to be as profitable as we thought - or indeed we were originally promised! What is the point of the Financial Services Agency when you actually need them?

So, how can we (legally!) lay our hands on £100,000 in 3 year's time? That is without, trying to sell our bodies on street corners? (Well it might be worth thinking about???)

Our home, is located in a very desirable part of the UK, nestled between the M4 and M40 motorways, with very quick access to London and the "Home Counties" close to the Slough Industrial estate and mid-way between London and Reading, this really ought to make it a very sought-after property, in terms of the local "Estate Agencies".We have recently had it valued Feb 2002 and were more than a little disappointed by the result. Despite being a detached house and having a fairly large mature garden it is only 3-bedroom. It seems that the requirement nowadays is for four bedrooms and en-suite bathrooms etc.

We have the land and the capability to extend the property. Throughout January we researched the concept (as we always do) of extending to four bedrooms. This, we are told, is going to add £100k to the property price, the question is how much will it cost us to extend?

During our 12-year ownership of this house, we have had quite a bit of work done and now have our own 'pet builder' available to assist. We met him originally, when he was the groundwork and "brickie" contractor for the Sun Lounge we had built by Portland Conservatories, to the rear of the property in the early 90's. For this new project, we invited him over in late January to discuss things. He initially agreed with our ideas, also suggesting that we shouldn't let any limitations hold us back?

So we revamped our designs and I spent a lot of time drawing these up properly. (I studied and was actually quite good at technical drawing, when at college). Here, we are greatly assisted by the UK planning rules. Each property that is extended, needs to comply with both building regulations and has to gain planning permission. This means that all plans have to be lodged with the local council offices.
Great! All you have to do is go down there and for £3 they will photocopy all of your neighbours planning applications. Once you have these, you have all the info you need to create your own planning applications - Easy? Well not quite - But it is a start:-

Armed with a stack of drawings, we had also spoken to everyone we knew, who had had any extension work done on their properties, we subsequently drew up our plans. Urszula then approached the council and asked if we could pre-submit these for approval. At this stage, we have no idea if our drawings are good enough, or even if our ideas will be approvable, so we have now submitted the plans, such as they are, and await the planning office decisions.

Tomorrow night we are dining with some friends, Alan and Dave who is a Civil Engineer, he is quite capable (we hope) of working out all the technical detail for the various structural work that will be needed to hold up the proposed second floor extension, which will be built over the existing garage on our house.

It's late, it's Sunday night and I'm starting work at 08:00 tomorrow. Come back next week for the latest instalment!



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