It's been over two years since Gavin and I embarked on this renovation journey together. People often ask me how it's going, when are we starting, when will it be done? I was quite naïve to the fact that it would be nearly two years before we even start the build. Here is everything to expect when starting a large scale home renovation.
For our project, we were changing so many structural elements of the house to achieve a more functional floor plan, we needed the expertise and know how of an architect. After speaking to a couple of firms, we decided to work with Baillie + Baillie in February 2021. They are a young architectural firm that have a clean eye for design, with a focus on sustainable materials and a form follows function aesthetic.
The design process goes through multiple stages, starting with a feasibility study and survey (RIBA Stages 0,1,2). This took around six weeks from start to finish. In this first phase they came up with two different directions we were able to choose from. One option was less invasive but not as transformative. We decided to go for the full transformation to really achieve our dream home. From there they designed the plans up to a planning permission standard (RIBA Stage 3). We didn't require planning permission as we weren't altering anything on the front of the house and also didn't require an extension. In our case, the planning permission stage was more to get the plans up to a certain level of detail. This added on another eight weeks or so to feedback our suggestions in after multiple calls to get the final design. Waiting for planning permission can take up to 12 weeks from the council, so we were pretty happy to skip submitting the planning permission application.
After planning comes the building warrant (RIBA Stage 4). Now if I've lost you here already, I don't blame you. This is when it really starts to test your patience - we started this phase in April 2021. You have a design in place that you're excited about, you want to get started, but there's not much point in investing time and money into temporary fixes as the whole house will be torn to bits in due course. Building warrant is similar to planning where it's further extending the level of detail within the plans. Because of all the structural work we were doing in the house, we needed to hire a structural engineer to input on what kind of beams and supports were structurally needed so that could be included with our building warrant application. Now it's great to have access to all of these industry professionals to get our build going, remember that a good architect and structural engineers are in high demand, so you're kind of at their mercy of when they can fit you into their workload. Luckily for us, Baillie Baillie and Design Engineering Workshop fit us in without too much of a wait, just something to keep in mind as it'll be the same case when it's time to start finding a builder to actually complete the project. Obtaining a building warrant takes around 12-16 weeks once submitted. There can be some back and forth between Building Control and your architect to run through any queries. We were granted our building warrant in February 2022.
In theory, the next phase would have been to Tender. This means putting together a document laying out what work is required along with the plans and going to get pricing back from various builders. Leading up to this point, we had many discussions with our architects about what to expect during this phase. It seems like the building industry is booming in a post covid world. People were in lockdown for months and months and spent so much time at home they realised how much work they wanted to get done in their house, which made the demand for builders extraordinarily high. We were warned that you can send documents off to up to 12 builders and only get one or two quotes back, and it could be another 9 months before work would even commence! We got talking with friends and family in the area and were put in contact with Paul from Ideal Builders. He had done work for Gavin's aunt and only really works off of recommendations. We decided to forgo the Tender process and waited for Paul and ourselves to prepare for the renovation. It was February 2022 that we started serious planning conversations with Paul.
We knew at the time there was still lots to work out with Paul on how we were going to tackle the project, and he had his own clients he needed to finish up with first. We decided to isolate some of the projects that could be done before the major work started. First the bridge needed to be replaced (more on that in another post), lead water pipe needed replaced, the front Crittall style windows replaced, and removing the monstrosity of a gas stove in the living room with a free standing wood burner. Doing each of these jobs bit by bit helped pass time while we waited for the main renovation to begin. Keep in mind things like new windows can have a lead time of up to 16 weeks in a post Covid, Brexit, Suez Canal world, so none of these jobs happened overnight.
It was the end of July 2022 that work on the major project finally commenced. At the time, the plan was to live in the house while the renovation was taking place, and they would start at one side of the house and we would live in the other. This worked for us for a little while but in October 2022 we decided it was time to move out. It was getting too dusty, and very cramped for the three of us and a dog. Not to mention another baby on the way. Figuring out the phasing of the down takings was also a lot more complex if we were living there.
It is now March 2023 and we're still living comfortably at Gavin's parents house. They have been gracious enough to host us all for four months already. We've been grateful to live in a clean, dust free house during tis time, but driving 40 minutes each way every time we need to check something at the house is taxing. Luckily there has been tons of progress made at the house and the end is near. There is nothing quite like an ever growing baby bump to keep the pressure on your builder :)
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