Extension. Ideas please.

[Johh]

Hi. I’m about to exchange on this house and am looking for advice on my initial thoughts for extension plans.  The property is in Kent and unlisted. It sits in its own land and is not overlooked as it is the last one down a lane. The rear two storey extension and garage were added in 1971 under permitted development. The front porch was added in 1984 under planning permission. My thoughts are that I would like to knock down the garage and extend all the way across the back including the open section to the left of the garage. I’d also like to extend on the first floor at the back from the left by the open section to half way across the width of the garage. I’m also thinking of knocking down the porch and maybe having a smaller porch just in front of the current utility room. The rear of the property faces south to south west. I’ve hopefully enclosed a floor plan and some pictures. I’d be really grateful for some feedback. Thanks. John 

[ToughButterCup]

Welcome.  Gorgeous house.

 

Time for leg-work. And Net-work: with the emphasis on work. 

Look at your local authority planning website. Look for planning applications which are close physically and close in character to your prospective house. There's a huge mine of information there: look especially within the sub-group mentioned above at those applications which were refused. Note why they were refused. And do the same for those houses in the same subgroup who were accepted - and why.

 

Talk to estate agents and listen between the lines.

 

Good luck,

Ian

[Thorfun]

Welcome. Property looks like a brilliant project. Personally I’d be looking to get a decent architect involved as soon as the contracts are exchanged! But not before. We got overly excited when buying a place and hired an architect who designed a lovely house etc only for someone to come in and gazumped us 2 weeks before we exchanged contracts! An expensive and emotionally draining learning experience. 
 

i’m a believer in knowing your limits and my design skills are very limited so I’d be leaving it to the professional designers. 
 

best of luck with it all.