We have approval!

After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between us and the council and Those Who Make The Rules**, I'm happy to say that our planning permit has been granted! We also have our owner builder and building permits ready to go too :)

Part of the issue with town planning was the way that we wanted to use recycled windows and clad the extension to match the era of the original house. This is not allowed to happen for reasons only known to TWMTR (my request to know exactly why remains unanswered). They do not want the new to match the old. Our windows needed to be MODERN CONTEMPORARY style, we were not allowed to use Victorian style window canopies, but they would not tell us what we were allowed to use except for they must be modern contemporary. After some discussion we are allowed to have them be a similar shape but we must ensure they are not dressed to look Victorian (so as plain as possible). The cladding for the extension is allowed to match BUT we need to provide a stop in the boards with a 3cm vertical break where the old part stops and the extension begins.
So we are pondering over the things we need to do so that we comply with the requirements of TWMTR. This is changing our vision somewhat but we are just happy that we have the green light and we can work out what we need to do.


** Because I'm kind of paranoid, the State body in charge of the decisions about our house will be known as Those Who Make The Rules (TWMTR). I'm sure if you think about it hard enough, you will work out to whom I refer to ;)