Reno Update

After 7 months at council, we are thoroughly sick of waiting to hear if our plans have been passed.  I think I have begun to believe that it will never actually happen - it will remain a pipe dream for the rest of our days.

In a nutshell our plans consist of extending out from the original 4 rooms and across in to the driveway.  We are going to build a second storey and the extension is designed to be sympathetic to the original building ie: weatherboard, peaked roof, etc.

original house

Apparently our plans fall well within the town planning guidelines and if it was not for heritage overlay we would be well on our way to having our new home.

BUT according to the heritage consultant for our area the extension needs to be 'modern' and is to have a flat or scillion (lean-to) roof and can not be weatherboard!!

Her other stipulation was that the extension look like a seperate building from the street which means cutting in to the house and subsequently losing half the kitchen the laundry, and the walk in pantry.  Needless to say I was not a happy camper.

Many of her 'suggestions' we took up, such as lowering the walls of the 2nd storey but we were determined not to build 'modern' and we wanted to keep the peak on the roof.  We also felt very strongly that the house not look like it has a rendered factory built next to it - therefore no cutting in.

Our argument was that the original house was remaining untouched and therefore we should be allowed to build in a stlye of our choosing as long as it stayed within town planning guidelines, especially considering we wanted to build in the same style as the original building.  Our neighbours have raised no objections either, bless their cotton socks.

So... as a result our plans have been kicking around council for the last 7 months with no end in sight....UNTIL TODAY!!!! Stay Tuned.