which would limit the height of the house and thus make it more discreet.
HIGH POINT
“Without a doubt the [building of the] house!”
Elizabeth Berryman
However there was a further twist in the tale. Alan and Elizabeth discovered that their assigned planning officer, having not been in agreement with the decision to allow permission for the houses next door to their plot, was not minded to grant further planning. This was complicated by objections from a neighbour to the house (seemingly sensibly) facing the driveway, claiming it would overlook their swimming pool, despite numerous tall trees in between. Confusingly, the planning officer said that “he would have granted permission, if we had any trees!”, comments Elizabeth.
The house had to be rotated 90 degrees so that it now faces the hedge dividing the plot from the road beyond it, but this meant the design had to be altered. “It was going to have a carport on the side with a balcony above it so you could see the South Downs,” explains Alan. It also had to reduced by a metre horizontally, in order to sit at least five metres away from another neighbour’s trees. “This made things like wall widths and positioning of things much more critical than they would have been,” says Alan. A bath was to go in one of the ensuites, but had to be replaced by a shower: “It’s only a metre, but that has made a lot of difference,” adds Elizabeth. They sought the help of a local councillor, who along with Scandia-Hus helped them fight their case with the planning department. They attended the planning meeting, and
july/august 2017
were finally granted permission – with a majority of 11 to one.
BUILDING (FINALLY) BEGINS
Once actual activity began on site, things went a little more smoothly. However there was a costly misunderstanding with the drainage system. A surface water drain was mistaken for a sewage drain, meaning a pumped system had to be connected to an alternative drain at the rear of their existing house – at a not- insubstantial cost of £15,000.
Things really began to motor in October 2016, but Alan and Elizabeth weren’t there to see it. Following what was a stressful few months, they flew to America for a well-earned break as the block and beam floor was being laid, but returned to find a very a different scene on their plot. “We went away for five weeks and when we got back we had a house!” says Elizabeth.
The relatively compact four-bedroom house began as a simple adaptation of a Scandia-Hus model but became more and more bespoke with the necessary changes required to achieve planning. It has been constructed using a combination of blockwork and timber frame with the ground floor rendered and the first floor covered in wood-effect cladding. The roof design reduces the height of the building to the extent that it isn’t visible from their existing house.
There are three bathrooms, including two ensuites, plus an additional downstairs WC. The bathrooms have all been finished to a
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