Things go really slow and then all of a sudden......
We were sitting back, letting things take their course, the Survey was completed (and paid for), the kit supplier was chosen and a deposit paid, we now have house drawings and plans, the architect has completed the layout drawings and we have finally make our Planning approval submission last week.
We deicded that we would ideally like to be living a little nearer the site so we could be on hand to set things up and start clearing the site etc. We had finally managed to arrange to rent a house for 2-3 months when a few days before we were due to move they sold the house. We had a rethink and as we had already handed our notice in on our current rented home we decided to pull out the stops and try and get the caravan onto site and connected as quickly as possible.
We have now bought a digger (and paid for it). This gets delivered next week and then I will have to start getting the access road built so we can get to the site across the muddy field.
We have asked the water board for a supply, having already been through the technical bit for them to say they had capacity for us. But still waiting for them to give us a cost and an eta.
We have a quote for the electric connection and we have ordered that (all paid for in full up front of course). But we still don't have an ETA.
We have asked BT to fit a telepohne line to the caravan. They will charge for our new line of course and when we move that line from the caravan to the house it will be charged as another new line. We are waiting for them to survey now to decide how the cable is going to be run.
So a lot of money has passed through our hands this last week or so and I am sure that is only the start wth a lot more to come.
So the plan now, from 1st April to 1st May is:
Clean out and secure the barn
Construct the road
Buy the 2 caravans we need (one to live in and one to store our house contents until we need them again)
Site the caravans and connect them to water, electric and telephone (if they are available)
Probably hire a portaloo as we cannot install our septic tank until after we get building warrant approval.
Then we get to move in!
What could go wrong:)
Meanwhile we are also trying to get someone to quote for doingthe connection from our raod onto the public highway. There is quite an onerous specification issued with the planning permission that we need to meet. Unfortunately I think we will be unable to mee tthe maximum gradient specificed because we are building onna hillside and the ground naturally slopes more thna the specified maximum gradient. Not sure how we will get around that one (or I can hope I have misinterpreted it), but lets get a contractor sorted who can then suggest what can be done for us to suggest to the authorities.
So, next job is to arrange the site insurance (and pay for it!!)
