Two self-builds in Michelmersh, Hants

[Hannah82w]

Hello! We are incredibly lucky to be building on the former site of my in-law's pig farm. The buildings had been redundant since the end of the 90's and because they are located in a conservation area outside of the village settlement boundary, our only option for planning was to apply for conversion. We gained this for three buildings to create two homes (one for my brother-in-law, BIL), including an ancillary building on our half of the site which will include a large garage, workshop and additional domestic room with en-suite (noted as a playroom on the plans!). We gained planning permission first time and made a start on site early in 2019, then ran into some problems and, long story short, had to reapply for planning to rebuild like for like. This didn't go down well and we were refused on the grounds of the location not being sustainable for new development, along with the recently discovered issue of nitrate causing issues in the Solent. Another long story, not helped by delays due to the pandemic, but we regained permission for our now new builds through a planning appeal and found our own solution to mitigate for our nitrate production created by two new homes.

 

My husband and I have been clearing and preparing the site for many years, with our two young children in tow (now 5 and 8, but the youngest was 10 days old when we first met the architect on site) and living in a static caravan on site for a year now. My BIL lives with their parents, 2 mins walk down the lane, and (shall we say) is less engaged with the project... After being let down, we decided to take on the groundworks ourselves with a good friend who has experienced his own build and hard landscaping projects for work, and is very skilful on the digger. We worked part time on it over about 6 months, and although still finishing off a few tiddly bits, the carpenters were able to make a start on the first frame at the end of February.

 

Because of the previous conversion history of the project, and the various professionals already involved, we decided to pursue a stick build timber frame (rather than bring in a specific TF company) which has worked really well for us, and there is nothing complicated about the shape and form of the buildings. I am project managing, estimating and ordering materials etc, as well as being very hands on alongside my husband.

 

We are currently working on the timber cladding, having had most of the brickwork plinth around the building completed, the zinc roof will be installed in May and doors and windows to follow, so nearly watertight. The second house has come on nicely but progress will slow down on this as we will focus our attention solely on our half of the site (lets see how BIL gets on when he has to do something for himself!), with the garage to also bring on.

 

Building control have insisted on sprinklers due to the width of our lane (and wouldn't accept that we can get delivery lorries up here and grain trucks when it was a working farm), and I'm sure there will be a few more curve balls, but given what we have already gone through I'm sure we'll find a way round any issues! When researching things, the threads from this forum have already been incredibly helpful, so thank you!

[LSB]

Welcome to the forum it's always good to hear other people's experiences and stories.

 

You sound remarkably similar to us, we are converting old pig buildings.

 

It sounds like you ended up doing a knock-down and rebuild which our LPA were adamant would be refused so we are reusing what we can, walls, floor and some of the roof, with underpinning, planning restrictions insisting we do so, although our building control think it's all a bit extreme.

 

We also have to have sprinklers, but also allow for fire appliance turning space, due to the distance from the road.  BC said it should be one or the other, but we seem to have different bodies all saying different things and sometimes it's easier to just do it all.

 

Good luck with the progress we are still at groundworks level, with my hubby doing it all himself having taken early retirement to do this.

 

When you started in 2019 was your planning for converting the existing buildings and is that what you started on.

 

 

[Susie]

Welcome 

You probably have already discovered how wonderful the site and people are.

good luck getting air tight soon.

We are doing a knock down and rebuild on the site of an old barn on our property. The site electric is in and tomorrow we have some hired plant arriving for a week so we can clear all the rubbish we have hid over the years behind the shed, and all the brambles and nettles we allowed to take hold and camouflage it. 
let’s hope May is a dryer month for us both. 
 

[Hannah82w]

13 hours ago, LSB said:

Welcome to the forum it's always good to hear other people's experiences and stories.

 

You sound remarkably similar to us, we are converting old pig buildings.

 

It sounds like you ended up doing a knock-down and rebuild which our LPA were adamant would be refused so we are reusing what we can, walls, floor and some of the roof, with underpinning, planning restrictions insisting we do so, although our building control think it's all a bit extreme.

 

We also have to have sprinklers, but also allow for fire appliance turning space, due to the distance from the road.  BC said it should be one or the other, but we seem to have different bodies all saying different things and sometimes it's easier to just do it all.

 

Good luck with the progress we are still at groundworks level, with my hubby doing it all himself having taken early retirement to do this.

 

When you started in 2019 was your planning for converting the existing buildings and is that what you started on.

 

 

Oh wow, your project does sound very similar! Yes, originally the only planning policy we could apply under was to convert the buildings so that's what we started with. The builders had to remove the asbestos roofs, after which we were going to agree on what would be required re dpc, potential additional foundations (no drawings to show what had gone in when the barns were built). But the corner ties of one building had completely gone, and the other two had cracks as well as being only 3 sided, plus not knowing what was underneath. Our intention was genuinely to convert, despite probably having some challenges to deal with, but there was a storm making the walls dangerous, a miscommunication with BC leading to some walls being knocked down for safety with the intention of rebuilding like for like, and then our planning officer happened to pass the site and called it in as a deviation from our permission.

 

So we have ended up with a rebuild, which will ultimately be good in terms of the structure, but it want what we had intended to do or originally had permission for.

 

Good luck with your build, look forward to hearing more about it!

[Hannah82w]

13 hours ago, Susie said:

Welcome 

You probably have already discovered how wonderful the site and people are.

good luck getting air tight soon.

We are doing a knock down and rebuild on the site of an old barn on our property. The site electric is in and tomorrow we have some hired plant arriving for a week so we can clear all the rubbish we have hid over the years behind the shed, and all the brambles and nettles we allowed to take hold and camouflage it. 
let’s hope May is a dryer month for us both. 
 

Thank you, and good luck with your build. Sounds similar, especially the bramble clearing! Luckily we already had water and electricity on site from the farm days, which has helped us live on site and get going with the build, but both supplies are having to be replaced as they're either too old or in the wrong place! Enjoy!