Planning, Bats and Wonky Walls!

I thought this time I would tell you about some of the structural challenges we are facing and also why being in a conservation area is costing us time and money!  Ah, the joys of renovation! 

When we bought the cottage we knew that it had some serious structural challenges, the main one being that the gable end wall has rotated out from the first floor upward and is almost touching the building next door.  To make it more problematical the gap between the two building is only 18 inches wide.

You can see here how the top back corner of the wall has moved outwards and the gutter is now touching the neighbouring building.  The upshot of this is the wall will need to be demolished and re-built.  The challenge is how and what with? 

Whilst the current construction dates from the early 1800's and is made of two parallel stone walls infilled with rubble, we decided after much discussion with our builder, to go for a slate hung stud wall, which matches the rear extension and is in-keeping with the local area and surrounding buildings.  This was deemed to be the only way we could re-build the wall with space available to us at a cost effective price.

In all honesty very little of the wall is visible from the road and this picture was cheekily taken over the gate of the people who live behind us, but hopefully demonstrates how the new wall will blend in with the rear of the cottage when completed.

 So what other challenges were there? 

Firstly, we have had to apply for planning consent purely because of the location and the fact the cottage is situated in a conservation area.   Whilst this has delayed us by a few weeks we are hopeful it will be granted by the end of February.

Secondly, because we have applied for planning we've also had to call out our very own 'Batman' to do a Bat and Barn Owl survey.  Thankfully we have received the all clear, if Bats had been in residence we could have been stopped from doing anything until September when the mating season finishes.

On the bright side:

When the wall comes down we will gain potentially 50cm in the lounge as the current wall is approx. 1 meter thick and the new one will be substantially smaller, this will make a considerable difference to the overall space downstairs.

Our next visit to Padstow is planned for a couple of weeks so I'll be able to take more photos and update you after then.

Until next time, have fun!