Month: August 2016

Now that we have finished our build one of the really big things I have found out and I am sure that my wife and mother would agree is the need to be able to get on with each other, it might sound a bit of a simple tip, but it is critical to the success of the project. There were so many different times […]

When we first started our annex build we lived in a different house to my mum, we were hoping to rent a place for 6 months while the new building was finished and then to move in but due to various reasons this did not happen! We were trying to sell our house to fund the completion of the build but the sale fell through […]

Keep a diary from the moment you get the first idea about the project, I kept one from early on and it is packed full of information, looking back mine recorded our thoughts and memories and the reasons why we did things. Not only is it interesting to look back, but helpful as it show lots of the things we did and reasons why, its got pictures […]

Just read about a poll by ComRes called Conversations About Care that found over 60% of people over 65 had never talked about what would happen if they could no longer live at home. Many were not going to have a conversation about where they would live either. In the United Kingdom this is a figure someone around 7 MILLION people, many of these people have […]

Quite a random subject for me for a post but as I sat down tonight to write my latest thoughts [on a different subject I do add] , it struck me that I am sitting in a room that for 35 years was a dining room and a very unused room at that. In fact looking back the only time I remembered it being used by us […]

Well, I got your attention and unfortunately no the movie has not been made yet [if there were enough requests however I might consider making it] But no on a serious note if you would like to see how an annex is created then I can show you in a variety of ways, either using one or a combination of words, sketches and photos. It might make it […]

Hey just read about the new lending trend of mortgages taken out by parents being passed onto their children. Seems like a great way to finance the building of a granny annex or living space extension where funds are required. The money is secured by the parents, but ultimately it passes onto the children who continue the payments. Obviously needs looking into further to read […]

Another way to make space available more simply is to use what you have got in the house already without the need to build new. This project used an integral double garage which was taken out of use and replaced by living space. Now it might seem unlikely that you can get what you need in such a small space but you can, and what was […]

The first thing that strikes you about this type of conversion is looking from outside the property [from the road] there are really no obvious changes to the house. This particular house is nothing out of the ordinary, a 3 bedroom detached house in an everyday, normal street in a suburban area. The front door is normal, the garden unchanged, the front path up to […]

This particular house was a 1930’s detached bungalow which had a small loft conversion. The family who bought it wanted to move to a particular area, a leafy suburb with good local facilities and schools, as they had 2 young daughters, but alone could not afford to live in this location. The answer for them was to combine money from the sale of their mothers […]