7th March 2003

Finally the plans have been submitted to the planning department at the council. This process takes at least eight weeks which will be roughly the first week of May at the earliest! Mmmm bit worrying as the builders start first week of June. Inbetween planning and the builders starting we have to submit plans to Building Control and they are very details - listing everything we intend to do and what materials will be used, what heating etc etc the list goes on. You are able to start the works 24 hours after the building control plans are submitted but even so we are running out of time. The architect has said he will probably start the second lot of plans before we have the planning consent agreed but then we run the risk of them needing to be altered if planning is agreed with conditions. Is this never ending?!!!

Also today we finally took a set of 'before' and 'after' plans to the builder to draw us up a quote. He had a brief look at them and said it shouldn't be a problem. He is quoting for labour and materials. We are buying the kitchen, bathroom and windows/doors that should save a bit of money. Just waiting for the quote now.

10th March 2003

Went to Jewson today and had a kitchen plan drawn up so we can get a quote. I'm really impressed with the computer drawings and at last I feel it might be getting somewhere. I have picked out the appliances I like and it appears they are actually going to cost more than the units! Oh well it will be worth it. Typically for me I managed to choose the most expensive (but very popular) kitchen that Jewson have! I didn't realise this as I chose it before I saw the prices! It seems £6000 will cover units and appliances (built-in pyrolytic oven, built-in microwave, fully integrated dishwasher, ceramic hob and funky cooker hood - all in stainless steel and all Neff). Hopefully we will have enough money left at the end!

27th March 2003

Finally our planning permission has gone in the newspaper (only two and a half months after we expected it to go in). I have telephoned the planning department and even though they are at the busiest time of the year they still say applications are taking approximately eight weeks which is roughly the end of May. Still no sign of the quote from the builder.

March - a conclusion

Yet again nothing much has happened this month (story of our lives) except for more frustration at living like this still! Hopefully April will bring some more news - quote from the builder would be nice! (or not so nice).