Planning to plan… a journey around our house

Well the architect did make it over to see us, but it wasn’t the most productive meeting.  In my mind’s eye we were going to bounce ideas around, present our dream, listen to great architectural wisdom.  Perhaps I should have said dreams plural as we definitely have different ideas to bash against each other like conkers and see which one splinters leaving the other victorious… to do battle with the architect’s own ideas.

Anyway, none of that happened.  He forgot to come.  He was mortified.  He came the next day instead, but was clearly so distracted by whether the snow was going to leave him stranded in this chilly curiosity for Christmas that little was bounced.

However, he said the right things.  He likes the project.  He concurred that the kitchen would be better rebuilt in stone.  He could see why we’d like another floor above the kitchen.  He agreed that the external doors need careful consideration and the upper windows are out of proportion.  And, all of the rest.  But perhaps most importantly, he didn’t think it would be a problem to get possible changes through the planning process: the integrity of the house has, he says, already been compromised.  Too right.

So, he’s sent us off to a surveyor to get drawings done of the house: a ground floor plan, a first floor plan, roof plan, external elevations and a cross section of the main space.  The surveyor sounds nice.  He’s going to come at the end of the month.  Meanwhile I’ve taken him on a full photographic tour of the house so he can make up a quotation for us.  And here's the tour, complete with fading camera and grey January skies.