Author: David

If you have a house with a garage especially a double one you could create a good functioning annex in a few months Looking from the outside often this type of conversion leaves the house unchanged, which can be good. The house could be nothing out of the ordinary, a 3 bedroom semi in an everyday, suburban street. The front door is normal, the gardens […]

One thing I would really like to do if I could get enough people on board would be to get a question asked in Parliament about getting the VAT on work associated with housing a relative ie a granny annex taxed at 5% only not the 20% today! To do this I need to start a petition on the government website which is easy but […]

As my mother is getting older and more frail I am very aware of the risk of her falling, tripping or burning herself with severe consequences if this happens.. So below have shown the things we have in and around the home to help minimise these type of accidents….. 1 Make sure at the front door there are no steps to fall up or down […]

There are lots of unwritten rules as you get used to living with each other, but a good few are as follows: No 1 respect each others private space. Living in close proximity after a long time can be quite a challenge. Having separate front doors, if logistically possible can be symbolic in maintaining a sense of personnel space. No2 Discuss finances. If an adult […]

We have recently been away camping for a few days and left my mum alone in her annex with her dog – what could go wrong! A few days into our holiday and just about to settle into a good pizza and beer when her friend phoned my wife – I do not posses a phone! We could not hear her as the burglar alarm […]

Sitting in the garden towards the end of lock down the 27th may in front of a roaring fire, I am a very lucky person, but today has been a particularly magical day and want to put it into print both so I remember and for the future if my kids ever read this blog! I have for weeks been trying to get my daughter […]

Again this is not particularly granny annex related [well indirectly it is] but does anyone out there or is it just me seem to think that time at the moment is going much faster than usual!! I get up early around 6am do some work, have breakfast with the kids, read some of the paper and start schooling around 9am. With a break in-between, we […]

Had a very strange experience the other afternoon, we are in lockdown and as my old mum cannot go anywhere spends her time going from the back garden, through the house to the front garden… As it has been so hot lately she was sat in the front garden just watching time go by and must have fallen asleep on the bench she normally sits […]

I am writing this really for my kids if they ever read this in the future just to say how things were in March, April and May 2020 during the covid 19 outbreak!! we have spent the last 7 weeks locked together in our house, garden and venturing into the surrounding roads and forest when we can… we are very lucky, we have a lovely […]

Sitting on a Saturday afternoon with the sun out and the corona virus lockdown in place I am struck by how quiet our house is… my mum is isolated in her annex, just cooked her tea and given it to her…having a giggle on the phone with someone but us… it seems like yesterday that my wife and I were constantly busy with our young […]